Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

6 months old wont sleep through

84 replies

Mistiek · 21/09/2007 22:07

Hello,

I am not sure if this is normal or not but my Litte girl is now 6 months old and wont sleep through. I did not mind the 1 feed a night as it was all done in semi darkness with no talking or changing nappies etc. Its was just a feed and straight back to sleep. This is still the case however its now happening twice a night and as I am the one who gets up for night feeds (daddy has to be up at 4:30 for work) I am finding it really frustrating. My son was 3 months when he started to sleep through but she is so different.

I was very strict with Josh as I wanted no habits and it all worked out brilliantly. However with Paige its been so difficult as she was a difficult pregnancy, 2 weeks early C-sec and very colicy baby who would only settle in my arms. I have rocked her to sleep (something whcih we are now breaking the habit of with good results). I dont know if this has anything to do with the night feeds as she is still learning to put herself to sleep.

Last night (or at 4am this morning) I tried the water method and only gave her water to drink. She drank a bit and then started to settle so I would put her down and walk out. 5 min later she was crying again. After 40min I gave in as I am not feeling too well myself and could not struggle any longer....

Please help as I dont know what is the best method and the best way to get her to sleep though. My friend tells me to leave it but her 3 year old still gets up sometimes and her 1 year old is still waking up at night for a feed. I beleive habits start early and so I want to get her into a good routine like I did with my son.

Some advice now would be great as I really don't know what to do...
Thanks

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

barefeete · 23/09/2007 01:02

Mistiek, I have been having the same problem. DD still wwaking at night at least once and a few weeks ago sometimes twice. She is being weaned and loving her food but not taking as much as she probably needs to stop the night feeds as she hasn't the skills yet (BLW). I have come to conclusion that i am just going to have to put up with it for a while until her food intake matches her hunger iyswim.

My DS slept through at 5 weeks but each baby is different. One thing that i thought of when reading your post was that your DD may not be needing food at breakfast because she has had the night feed so you are caught in a vicious circle.

I have no solution just thought that you might like to hear from someone who is in the same situation.

Nice mud wrestling girls btw - classy!

Aitch · 23/09/2007 01:03

you are crackers... saying 'i don't disagree' is not a ringing endorsement, truly it isn't.

but you seem determined to ignore my point that you should try not to give dogmatic advice, imo, because babies are different.

and yes, they do manipulate. of course they do, they're all about the needs and wants. crying is all they've got to express themselves and ignoring those cries teaches them that no-one's coming, which is, imo, cruel and shit. if you don't want a baby behaving like a baby, don't have one.

barefeete · 23/09/2007 01:08

My DD has been waking gradually later and later, occasionally she wakes earlier again but will then suddenly start waking at 5am. I am forever hoping that this will evenually creep to 7am!!!!

Also i have found that if she wakes and i put her into bed with me she will often just turn over and fall back to sleep again next to me and not have a feed. Yes a bad habit to some But imo it is just something she needs at the moment and it won't last forever and it certainly dosn't keep me awake i am too frigging knackered for that!

VeniVidiVickiQV · 23/09/2007 01:12

Mistiek, its often a personality/characteristic thing. Dont fight it, embrace it.

Tori, you are fucking frightening

tori32 · 23/09/2007 01:13

If you had actually read my first post I said quote ' IMHO the only way to get her out of the habit is to give comfort only, if she wakes' which is giving her attention is it not. I also said 'lastly use cc' if the other method doesn't work.

tori32 · 23/09/2007 01:15

So I am failing to see how that is dogmatic or frightening

VeniVidiVickiQV · 23/09/2007 01:17

I said you were frightening

Although I note that you have just the one child of your own atm......

hunkermunker · 23/09/2007 01:17

I read this when I had a tiny DS. I wonder what you think of it, Tori. I found it very powerful. It's from the Continuum Concept.

"He awakes in a mindless terror of the silence, the motionlessness. He screams. He is afire from head to foot with want, with desire, with intolerable impatience. He gasps for breath and screams until his head is filled with throbbing with the sound. He screams until his chest aches, until his throat is sore. He can bear the pain no more and his sobs weaken and subside. He listens. He opens and closes his fist. He rolls his head from side to side. Nothing helps. It is unbearable. He begins to cry again, but it is too much for his strained throat; he soon stops. He waves his hands and kicks his feet. He stops, able to suffer, unable to think, unable to hope. He listens. Then he falls asleep again."

Playing the system, eh? That's worse than all the swearing on this thread. That one phrase.

Mistiek, all babies are different. Respond to your DD's needs, don't ignore her. My DSs haven't been great sleepers, but are pretty fab now. DS2 still had night feeds occasionally till he was 17mo - and that was despite putting away STACKS of food - more than I eat most days. It's not about hunger, it's about comfort, often - Tori would have you believe that's not important, but I think she's very, very wrong.

hunkermunker · 23/09/2007 01:18

Haha - what's comforting about being ignored or having a mum who thinks a 6wo is capable of playing the system?!

VeniVidiVickiQV · 23/09/2007 01:20

I am actually LOL at the thought that a baby can be 'whimsical'....

Aitch · 23/09/2007 01:21

fucking petrifying.

By tori32 on Sat 22-Sep-07 23:41:41
Oh moondog. I can vouch that babies as young as 6 weeks play the system, having watched dd squawking but not in the least distressed. i.e. no tears, no fist clenching, no writhing around in the cot, just pure I want you to give me attention now. Unfortunately, if you don't teach babies about day and night routines they don't just 'do it' as some people have you believe. 6mths is not tiny. They need to learn that night is for sleep not play or feeding. At 6 mths if they eat the correct type and quantity of solids (rarely enough in baby led weaning as Jojay said) they should be capable of sleeping through, unless they were premature, which changes things.

barefeete · 23/09/2007 01:22

does she have a feed at 10pm ish - i wasn't sure from your post? if not then i think you are doing really well as my DD is still waking for a feed at about 11pm and will down 6fl oz.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 23/09/2007 01:24

Aitch · 23/09/2007 01:25

oh yes, barefeete, back to business. i think dd started having a dreamfeed when she was maybe 8-ish months old. i think she was just re-calibrating things with the introduction of solids. plus, at about 10 months she stopped sleeping and it turned out it was just that she was filling up with solids too close to bedtime so we moved dinner back to 4pm ish and it was all fine again.

barefeete · 23/09/2007 01:26

hunker - that is hideous. OMG that should have an 18 certificate and a warning attatched!

bossybritches · 23/09/2007 01:27

Well all this bitching has REALLY helped the OP hasn't it?

Mistiek, if she is eating but not much maybe try feeding her BEFORE her bottles, during the day, so she doesn't fill up on milk which only sustains her for a few hours? Even if it's just a few mouthfuls of fruit/baby rice at first then milk should fill her up. Then build up to 3 meals a day with decreasing amounts of milk after (sorry if you're already trying this!!)

My HV gave me a useful tip when my DD's were that age; try giving a last "supper" of weetabix/porridge with milk as late as you can in the evening, followed by the bedtime bottle/boob. Sometimes the heavier complex carbs help to settle & keep them asleep longer.It worked for us!

barefeete · 23/09/2007 01:28

Aitch when did your LO start to sleep through regularly?

Aitch · 23/09/2007 01:29

are you psychic as well as bossy?

barefeete · 23/09/2007 01:31

bossyB - my friend did the tanking up thing with weetabix before bed and her DS has an early supper at about 4/4:30 and that worked well for her. Although he wouldn't take milk at all so she had to get milk into him in other ways.

hunkermunker · 23/09/2007 01:32

I used to dreamfeed DS2 - till he was about 14mo. Meant he only woke once in the night for another feed. And honestly, he was eating a lot by then. It was only when he started walking that he slept anything like a long stretch. He walked at least a mile today, round Kew Gardens, and couldn't keep his eyes open at bedtime - he only made a half-hearted attempt to get me to read 68 stories to him...!

hunkermunker · 23/09/2007 01:33

VeniVidiVickiQV · 23/09/2007 01:33

I think it has.

Milk is the most important sustenance in the first 12 months - over and above solid foods.

It is also the most calorific. If she is waking with hunger, then milk is the man for the job.

If she is waking because she wants a cuddle - well, so be it. She's a baby. (Would hate to wake in the night suddenly and need a cuddle from DP for WHATEVER reason and him say - nah, its not the right time for cuddles).

Aitch · 23/09/2007 01:35

she was always what you'd call a 'good sleeper', tbh. she just went wonky a few times, like for a couple of weeks, so we didn't really bother about it. she's done 8 til 8 or 9 for ages now.

that's why i'm so suspicious of what babies 'should' do. we could have done a method with her and we'd have been convinced it was the method that swung it, but the truth, i suspect, is that some babies need sleep more than others. and no doubt if we have another then we will suffer horribly for our good fortune first time round.

bossybritches · 23/09/2007 01:37

Sorry hunker of course "weetabix generic name bit like "hoover" or "biro" not endorsing any brand really!!

Aitch- psychic ??? nah Psychotic more like!!!

hunkermunker · 23/09/2007 01:37

Aitch, I think you're right - DS1 would've been a better sleeper had it not been for teething - he woke me up at 10am today singing nursery rhymes to himself, but I'm sure he'd not been awake that long. DS2 on the other hand...wakes up about 6.30am, every morning. The boy just doesn't need as much sleep.

Flip

1 2 3 4