Regular night waking-6 month old-any ideas please?

[Sophie1106]

Hi I'm searching for some experience and wisdom please.. My 6 month old DD stopped having nightime feeds about 3 weeks ago and is having 2 meals stage 1 weaning(lunch and tea) plus approx 4/5 ff feeds day. After she stopped her nightfeeding(we used a dummy)and we were in hope of sleeping through- oh I couldn't have been more wrong! She wakes approx. 3 times per night and finds it difficult to settle herself back to sleep-(was very good at this when she was younger!She's not hungry and occasionally she does a lot of farting which I think wakes her up sometimes but I am conscious of her needing my help to get back to sleep. I have tried putting her on her tummy(works sometimes) her side(works sometimes,sometimes I can get away with a quick pat of reassurance other times she needs more. She doesnt nap generally for more than 3 hours a day.Any suggestions as to how to ease the wind wean her off needing my help would be appreciated!

is she doing a big burp before bed? I used to always wait for a big one. a maternity nurse explained to me that you needed to straighten the spinal column so pressing gently into the lower spine to make her sit up straight might work. Also I used to slowly change shoulders ie put her on my other shoulder and that sometimes worked.

Finally, I also used to hold her under her arms in front of me and then gently swing her from side to side a couple of times and then rub her back again and this seemed to help wind to work its way out.

Does she wake with a sharp cry of pain?

she may have been sleepier when she was younger to be honest... it's a mystery. My dd is 15mo and still not sleeping thru. She doesn't wake for long, but I have no idea why she wakes. I am just used to it now.

The wind problem seems to be down below-sorry |should have clarified. I'm concerned now that maybe I'm feeding her too much/giving too much milk although her last feed is around 7pm. I thought once we'd dropped the last feed that this may help the issue but not- thanks for your advice on windong tho I have never heard of doing it that way and she does struggle to bring up the burps occasionally.

could be various things

she might be hungry. food is not as calorific as milk, so filling up on that isn't necessarily making her less hungry- also, might be a growth spurt in which case she'll want more milk

she may be doing something developmentally, this often causes sleep disruptions

she may be unsettled after starting solids, mine have all gone through a period of being a bit unsettled when they were first weaned, but it soon sorted itself out

hi i used to top up my little boy with a few ounces of milk at about 10pm when i went to bed i didnt wake him he just used to feed in his sleep and because he was so relaxed he didnt need burping either i would put him down when he had finished and he would sleep right through he started taking less and less and eventually i cut it out altogether

also she may be having trouble getting herself back off to sleep this is a skill which needs to be learned sometimes the controlled crying technique works to teach your baby how to get herself back to sleep rather than relying on you

I can also say that rather than controlled crying, the baby whisperer's pick up put down helped my dd learn to fall asleep by herself. I only did it twice but I definitely think it made a difference. It's basically going in and cuddling briefly before putting back down and saying the same thing eg It's time to go to sleep, quick kiss and then out again. Repeat ad infinitum - you're giving htem reassurance but they still get tired. eventually they will just lie quietly and drop off - I must have gone in and out at least 20 times but it wasn't upsetting to do.

keep nighttime very boring, don't talk, minimal light and try to do the same thing when she wakes so she knows that it's night time.

If she needs a 1030 feed - try it - then carry on. Before 1 year it's so important that they get enough milk. I think I was still on 2 feeds at night when she was 7 mo.
Good luck.