SLEEP - how do you get your little ones back to sleep in the night?

[fairimum]

DD is now 6 months and goes to bed (and naps) wihtout too much problem, put her down and leave her if she cried go in after a few minutes and shhh/pat a couple of times and she usually goes straight to sleep

but what do you do in the night? She isn't hungry (as if feed her after midnight she either wont take any or if does take about 4oz wont drink/eat anything until lunchtime!) sometimes will take a few mouthfuls and go back to sleep - ideally want to avoid feeding her in the night as don't think she needs it....

so what do you do to get your little ones back to sleep - teach them not to wake in the first place?

have tried shhh and pat (have to keep going back to resettle every 10 mins for the rest of the night!), tried controlled crying (as we did for day time naps) - go to her every 3, 5, 7 mins etc - this lead to her crying from 3am - 6am - not screaming but general complaining crying (again not hungry, in pain etc) - what on earth can i try next?

we were giving water when she woke but just spits it out, currently trying water with small amount of milk in it....

any advice/ideas greatly appreciated!

We have one of those music unit thingies (sorry, very vague) that start playing music and light up if DS3 cries. It works brilliantly and soothes him back to sleep. I think BIL got it in the US but sure they must have them in Europe too. If I find a link I will post it.

Here is an example www.mothercare.com/VTech-Baby-Bear-Sweet-Dreams/dp/B000JF9MFK/sr=1-3/qid=1227557162/ref=sr_1_3/276-4 798937-7306942?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A2LBKNDJ2KZUGQ&n=44573031&mcb=core Perhaps one for Father Christmas??? Best of luck

hi fairimum, this might sound like a silly question but how many nights did you try shhh / pat and how many nights did you try controlled crying???

I'd say either of these methods works brilliantly but they usually take maybe 4 or 5 nights of being completely consistent in your approach in order to work.

So if you did controlled crying and she cried from 3 am to 6am the first night you just go right ahead and do it the next night, and hopefully it might be crying from 3am to 5am and then next night, hopefully shorter crying still and usually after about 4 nights you will be amazed by the improvement.

Or if you decide to do shh / pat the same goes. But don't alternate the methods or give up until you have given it at least a very consistent (and utterly exhausting!) week.

Sorry if you have already done this and I have misunderstood your original post.