9 month old - loves to stand

My 9 month old was sleep trained (or so we thought) using some gentle sleep training methods (pu/pd, drowsy but awake, shush pat) and consistent schedule implementation at 4.5 months. We had an amazing 4-5 weeks of him sleeping 11-12 hours overnight (7:30 pm - 7 am) then he learned to crawl and pull to stand in the same week and his sleep has never been the same. He wakes up every hour or two over night and immediately cries and stands up until we come in to pick him up and soothe him. Naps have been inconsistent too, lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.5 hrs. It has only gotten worse with teething the last two months and now he either refuses to nap or can only fall asleep being held, which makes transferring to the crib impossible sometimes. The last two weeks he wakes up at 5 am on the dot and refuses to go back down.

Is extinction the only way?

We are desperate so any feedback / suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Additional info:

  1. Sleeps in his crib with brown noise, blackout curtains, sleep sack, fan, and consistent temperature between 69-70 degrees. All naps are in his room in his crib (unless he protests / refuses to transfer then we hold him) and we start his nighttime sleep in his crib but if he wakes up frequently, we bring him into bed so that we can all get some sleep. In bed he is out like a light and sleeps without issue until the sun rises / 5 am.

  2. Schedule: we aim for 3/3/4 wake windows but it changes sometimes based on how long he naps/when he wakes up. Our days usually look like this..
    5/5:30 am: wake up
    6 am: bottle
    7 am: breakfast
    8:30/9am: Nap 1 (30 min - 1 hr.)
    10:30/11 am: bottle
    12 pm: lunch
    1:30/2 pm: Nap 2 (1 hr 30 min)
    4 pm: bottle
    5 pm: dinner
    7 pm: final bottle & bedtime (usually asleep by 7:30p)

  3. Bedtime routine: since he was a month old, we have always changed him into a fresh diaper and pjs, give him his final bottle in the bedroom with dim lights, brush teeth, read a book, put his sleep sack on, then shut lights off, put sound machine on (brown noise), close curtains and lay him down to sleep typically through rocking him to sleep/sleepy then transferring to the crib.

  4. When he wakes up overnight, we always wait a few minutes before going in but have never let him cry more than 5-8 minutes before intervening. When we go back in, we try to lay him back down and gently rub or tap his back until he falls asleep then slowly escape the room. I know this isn’t ideal but not sure what else to do since he just immediately stands up in his crib. And yes, we’ve worked on sitting back down on his own so he’s capable of doing that but doesn’t.

Please help 💕

Posted Jun 11, 2026, 10:33 PM UTC

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