6 month old. don't know what else to do

[lovelylou]

My dd is 6 months old. She doesn't feed through the night any more but she wakes up and sings or cries for up to two hours in the night. We live in a two bedroom house and i have a three year old so i cannot put her in there yet. So tired and it would be easier if she needed a bottle but she doesn't. Don't know what else to do, HELP xx

[lovelylou]

Forgot to mention she sleeps for about three hours all together during the day.

[anotheryearanothername]

Could you try cutting down her nap during the day and see what happens? Or I have heard that waking her slightly about half an hour before her usual waking time will change her sleep patterns and she may then go through. Worth a try?

[anotheryearanothername]

PS you have my sympathy, I know how awful sleep deprivation is and it must be terrible if you have an older DC too. Keep telling yourself, it will pass.

[lovelylou]

Thanks. If i cut her daytime sleep she seems to be worse and is unbearable during the day.I keep tellin myself this but its startin to get to me now and i want my bedroom back.

[lovelymama]

Hiya. I was posting the same message on MN about a month ago...just as DS turned 6 months. He did the same thing - woke up, screamed for about 3 hours and wouldn't go back to sleep regardless of whether we fed him or not. Everyone told me to cut back on his naps (he also slept for a total of 3 hours a day) and the sleep expert at my clinic told me i had to do controlled crying. After 2 weeks of no sleep, i was perfectly happy to do CC. We did it for 2 weeks and on night 3, DS slept thru the night (7-7) but then got progressively worse until we were back to 3 hours of screaming from 2am. After about a month he just stopped doing it. Definitely didn't sleep thru but at least we could placate him with a bottle and he stopped waking up as much. Now we're on to a new stage of waking up at 4am ish and refusing to go back to sleep unless we lie him on his tummy next to me. As they say, you just get over one hurdle and then you hit another one. Hopefully your DD will also grow out of this,.

In the meantime, a couple of strong coffees helped me to at least stay sane. Good luck my friend.

[lovelylou]

Thanx lovely mama. Yeah, coffee seems to be working at the minute lol