DS is 6.5 months old, BF and co-sleeps with us for most of the night (because he refuses to sleep in his cot after about 11pm...). He used to sleep not too badly, but since he turned 5 months his sleeping is getting worse and worse. He hasn't slept for more than 3 hrs in a row for weeks now.
He has a bedtime routine and after he's been fed I rock him to sleep (he's stopped himself being fed to sleep in the last couple of weeks). I then put him in his cot around 7pm and then take him into bed with me at around 11pm (he often wakes up a few times between 7 and 11, but I can get him back to sleep in the cot with rocking sometimes). I've tried putting him to bed while he's still a bit awake, but he cries and eventually becomes hysterical.
During the night he will sometimes settle back to sleep if I carry him and shush him, but often he screams his head off until I give him the boob. He then usually settles quite quickly after being fed.
He's currently waking up 5, 6, 7 plus times a night and last night was a corker . He was up over 15 times (I lost count after 3am) and wouldn't settle without the boob. He spent most of the night feeding and whinging. He often falls asleep on his front and then wakes up when he rolls over. He then cries until I sort him out. His bottom teeth are nearly through, so it is possible that he's teething. He sometimes has 2 short naps in the day, but it's getting more and more difficult to get him to have a nap unless I take him out in the pram.
He's on 2-3 solid meals a day with milk inbetween, so does he actually need all this night milk too?
I'm totally and completely exhausted and have to go back to work in January, so need him to be sleeping better by then. The nurse (and my Mum!) say I should let him cry it out in his cot and stop the night feeds, but we live abroad in a small flat and don't know our neigbours at all, but they all seem VERY quiet people...I'm also very reluctant to try CC on a 6 month old and his crying shreds my nerves to bits. Maybe I'm just making excuses and being too soft???? (but I really feel VERY reluctant about letting him cry). I'm getting desperate now though.
DH has tried helping by picking him up instead of me, but DS gets completely hysterical and then takes a long time for me to settle back to sleep.
Any words of wisdom, advice or help would be really appreciated! I'm a shell of my former self at the moment and it's making life very hard to be so tired constantly.
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PLEASE HELP! 6 month old DS woke up 15 times last night and spent most of the night on the boob! I'm exhausted.
10 replies
Kalikaroo · 06/11/2009 10:16
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