6 month old doesn't sleep!

[cbeebiesatemybrain]

My 6mo is currently wide awake rolling around on the floor with her toys. She is a terrible sleeper and I'm really struggling to cope. I have tried feeding her, rocking her, cuddles and dummy to no avail. She normally starts out in her cot then comes into the bed when she wakes up and will help herself to the breast. Tonight she just wants to play, I put her in her cot and she screams, I tried cosleeping and she keeps pinching me and pulling my hair. She keeps fighting my breast and biting me and she alternates between screaming and slapping me when I rock her. I am exhausted and I have a 3yo who will be waking up in 3 hours and dh will be out from 7.30am until 10 tomorrow night. I am dreading tomorrow and have no idea how to deal with both of them with no sleep

[HowlingOScara]

Would white noise help? I say this as I'm currently running the hairdryer (on cold setting) to put 4 month old DD back to sleep. Works a treat. Or put her in the car and go for a drive. That's my last resort and I haven't had to use it yet but it's in reserve for when I get desperate.

[fluffacloud]

Snap! I too have a 6mo DD who thinks that sleep is for wimps and a demanding 3yo who frankly doesn't care how tired mummy is!

It's bloody hard work and I don't have advice, except to say that It's probably a phase/growth spurt/developmental leap- I hope....

I hope your little insomniac goes to sleep soon

[bonbonpixie]

Sounds very similar... I'm lying here with DD (5 months) rolling over and getting stuck, crying, being rolled back and just doing the whole damn thing again and again and again. Thankfully DH is working overseas just now, I have the bed to myself and can go to bed with DD at 7 to try and piece together enough sleep throughout our many, many wakings.
Like you I haven't a clue how to tackle this.
Recording some sort of sleep journal is keeping me sane in the disparate hope I can work out a kind of pattern. Swaddling used to work but I'm too worried to do this now she is mobile. One thing I have noticed is that she seems to keep herself awake because she is wriggling about and I think sometimes she is wriggly because she has gas. So recently I've been trying to pick her up after feeding (even if she nods off) and making sure I get a burp out. Another thing I've noticed is that sometimes feeding to sleep doesn't work unless she had a little cry first. I mean that if she is being playful I have to wait until she is frustrated enough to cry before she will sleep.
God I really hope this is a phase as I'm so tired these days I worry about driving etc as my reaction times are rubbish.

I've been reading about sleep training and don't realistically want to try that until she is ready developmentally so maybe a year, or when she knows that when I leave I will come back.
Hope someone will come along with the answer

[cbeebiesatemybrain]

Thanks everyone, I feel better for my self indulgent moany thread

She eventually gave up at 5.30 after a little drive round in the car and she's still asleep now. I am going to wake her soon revenge so that she is tired enough to nap later.

Howling I think white noise is the one thing I didn't think of, I will give that a go tonight. Thank you.

Coffee is the order of the day I think, hoping we all get a good night's sleep tonight!

[fluffacloud]

Well my two are asleep, for now....

If I could just watch Monroe from 9-10 pm, without interuptions I would be happy.

Failing that, 8 hours solid sleep would be nice! I have a 'keep in touch' meeting at work tomorrow and it'll be the first time I've been in since DD2 was born - I'd love to be able to look and feel vaguely human

[mawbroon]

DS1 was the worst sleeper around. He would only sleep if he was in with me, latched on all night and he fought naps during the day.

I tried every bloody method known to get him to sleep and none of it worked, none of it. I was on my knees with exhaustion, but I had the luxury of him being my first so was able to try to catch up sometimes.

Years later I found out that he was tongue tied, which can apparently compromise breathing during sleep, so as a safety mechanism, the child wakes often. This is exactly what was happening with ds1, along with
multiple other things which I have also since found out are linked with tongue tie.

list of symptoms further down page

[cbeebiesatemybrain]

Thanks for the link mawbroon, I had a good read through but I really don't think its tongue tie. We have had no problems at all with feeding and she has steadily gained weight and followed the same line.

We had another bad night last night, she doesn't seem distressed at all just wide awake! She has a good routine of dinner, bath, milk and bed at 7 after falling asleep on me but it often turns out to be a 20 minute nap that helps her keep going into the small hours! Tonight I am going to try keeping her awake until at least 9 so she's properly tired when I put her down. I am actually shattered so praying this will work!

[waterrat]

my 6 month old doesn't sleep either. Im sitting watching him bounce in his jumperoo like a dervish wondering how on earth he has the energy - he was awake at 4am and nothing could get him back to sleep - in the end at baout 5.30 I latched him on and just slept with him literally jammed onto my my boob - it's been like this for two months now ....I am broken..!

everyone I know is telling me to put him in his own room and shut the door..!

I think there will have to be some kind of controlled crying - even if we hold him the whole time he cries - but the feeding to sleep will have to end.

[cbeebiesatemybrain]

waterrat, sleep deprivation is a form of torture! Dc1 had a few nights like that and it did pass but its so hard feeling tired all the time. I think the nhs should use us in their safe sex campaigns, a few pictures of the bags under my eyes and the teenage pregnancy rate would be cut in half!

[MillionPramMiles]

Cbeebies - my heart goes out to you, my nearly 6 month old dd is the same, frequent night wakings, fights day time naps. She won't co sleep or breast feed to sleep either. I feel like one of the undead.
The only thing that has helped my dd sleep a little more is switching to formula (wasn't planning to but my dd weaned me...) and introducing solids (again earlier than I planned to but the way she grabbed my cereal bowl and snatched my sandwich suggested I should try). I've also put lots of cuddly toys in her cot, sometimes even though she's awake in the night she plays with them instead of crying.
It's a daily battle though....

[Mitsouko]

Cbeebies you have my sympathy. My DD is 7 months and her sleep record is about 3 hours. We often have night wakings every hour or so, sometimes less. Fortunately my DH is very helpful in the night and is very good at settling her between feeds. I was breast feeding about 6x nightly, but recently that's gone down to 2-3 as she's going a bit longer between feeds now. Unfortunately neither formula nor solids has made any difference whatsoever to her sleep - we've tried both without luck. But between my DH's help and co-sleeping I usually manage a (broken) 4-6 hours a night. Do you have a partner that can lend a hand at night, or family that can relieve you a bit in the day?