now he's 6 months i have to be more sensible - help me do this!!

[PipIsOutNow]

hello!!

my ds is 6 months and for the past 6 months i have basically fed him when he wants feeding, let him sleep when he wants to etc etc. there isnt really much of a routine apart from the fact that he goes to bed around 7-7:30 every night (he has got into this 'routine' himself) i can remember when he was newborn everybody told me i was spoiling him by cuddling him etc but he's my first and i gave him all the attention and love he needed. (by the way, we are co sleeping as dp is nights all week so just me and ds in bed)

what i can remember is someone on here telling me that what i was doing was ok up until 6 months when id have to think more sensibly. but what does this mean? i dont want to end up with a battle on my hands with him but have no clue at all how to parent now he is more aware etc etc.

can someone help me with this? or share any experiences they have of changing tecniques at 6 months vs keeping things the same??

many thanks xx

I've never done the co-sleeping thing so can't really advise on that. But it sounds as if you have a good bed-time routine with him anyway if he's going down about 7ish. Does he wake in the night, and what time does he wake in the morning? Have you begun weaning yet as you don't want to try and change too many things at once as he'll become unsettled.

If he's a happy, contented baby and you're a happy Mum then I'd be tempted not to change anything! Kind of - if it's not broken then don't try to fix it?!

Oh and fwiw, I don't think you can "spoil" a small baby with cuddles, love and attention!

i dont either jaffacake

um he's a really poor sleeper tbh, has never slept thru the night :(
he wakes at 8ish every morning. and yes we're already weaning him, he's on porridge in the morning, and a meal of veg puree followed by desert at lunchtime. xx

I agree if its not broken don't try to fix it.

I have a dd a couple of weeks younger who is the same - she's settled on a fixed bed time but apart from that she eats and sleeps on demand. I don;t co sleep though.

Being flexible is easier on going out and about too.

routine would make any difference to the sleeping as you already have a bedtime routine.

Dd still wakes usually at least twice a night. MY ds didn't sleep through completely until he was about4 yo which isnt that unusual.

It's difficult when you hear of all the others that have slept through 12 hours straight from 6 weeks.

would not

i know armadillo everyone always loves to tell me how well their babies sleep!!

mine never have

but agree - if it aint broke...

You seem very happy with the way things are - ignore the rest of 'em!

Don't worry too much about what others say about their babies sleeping habits - friends of mine were saying their babies were sleeping through (making me feel like my DD was the only 5 month old in the world who wasn't) but on further questioning, it turns out they were sleeping through "apart from the 5 or 6 times I have to get up and put her/his dummy back in" - so, that's not sleeping through then eh? Made my 1 wake-up a night seem like paradise.

My experience with this (my DD is also 6 months old) is to go with your gut feeling. I read a bit about weaning etc, but DD's routine seemed to evolve naturally and now she's happy in that routine - there's no right or wrong answer in my opinion

Definitely don't worry about what anyone else is doing or saying, unless they're a healthcare professional

I'm one of those annoying people that had her baby sleeping from 10-6 at 6 weeks old, but I'm sure that was more luck than judgement!

It could be that it's time for him to be in his own room, and maybe that's why he's not sleeping through, but I'd only try that if both you and he are ready for that. Is he waking because he's hungry?

i dont really know why he's waking...he's a very restless sleeper...iv tried not giving him bottles every time he wakes and last night went from 11-6 without one so it cant be hunger can it? i have tried him in his cot in his own room and he still wakes (i thought i might be disturbing him)

i think some babies sleep some dont and unfortunately i have one who doesnt like sleeping!! he never naps very long in the day either so i think its all relative. things is past few weeks he's been really grumpy in the day obviously because he is so tired. do u think i should just bite the bullet and leave him in his cot?

You could give it a go, it wouldn't hurt him would it?

If he's going from 11-6 then I'd class that as sleeping through! Perhaps it might be time to give him a little meal at dinner time as well, if he's not having one yet? Just something plain like baby cereal etc.

All babies are different, they've not read the books! Don't worry about it too much if you're both happy :)

I did pretty much the same us you with DD but at 6mths I suddenly changed a lot. Within a fortnight I:

• moved cot into separate room
• stopped bfing and moved to solely ff
• weaned onto solids with regular meals 3 times a day with milk in-between.

DD went from waking 2-3 times a night between 7pm and 7am to sleeping through. I have always self-settled her though so even if she waked I'd give her some milk till she calmed then put her down quickly and walk away even if she was still awake.

you'll find once he's on 3 proper meals a day the routine will follow by default. DD2 was BF completely on demand, slept when she wanted, no set bedtime. Now she is 7 months and on 3 meals a day, our days are a bit more structured. She usually naps twice a day (never past 4pm or she won't sleep at night) and she has cut right down on BF - she has a big morning feed, big evening feed and then just a few little nips during the day whenever she feels like it!

I coslept at the beginning then gradually moved her to her cot at around 5 months. She's just (and I mean just - 2 days ago!) started sleeping through the night. I think it's the amount of solids she's on and the fact she's more active during the day now that has made the difference.

You may find he wakes up less if you don't co-sleep? Perhaps you could try a gradual approach of starting off the night with him in his cot then bringing him in with you the first time he wakes, I did that for quite a while and found she gradually slept for longer and longer periods in the cot before waking.

DD is 17mo and still wakes once in the night but sometimes sleeps through. She really stuggles to self-settle so we've been really gentle with her and have slowly weaned her off being fed to sleep. It's taken a while (and me not BFing has helped as that's removed a bit of the comfort). However, we're getting there.

At 6mo DD was waking every 3-4hrs during the night and I was BFing her back to sleep. TBH when you've got winter illnesses and teething to contend with, I just got on with getting her back to sleep during the night with as little noise/fuss/disturbance as possible.

I would add that DD didn't nap much during the day until she got to about 13mo and now she has a 1.5-2hr single nap from 1pm-ish. I think I should have pursued the napping 'routine' a bit more as everyone is happier now she's getting more sleep during the day and she's not overtired at bedtime.

I guess what I'm trying to say is not to worry unless you're unhappy about what's happening.

I realised that providing DD was happy and me/DH were happy then it didn't matter if DD was sleeping through or not (or indeed what anyone said about it). Obviously we wanted some steady improvement but I just tried to do what I was comfortable doing based on her age. 6mo is still pretty small but the focus on sleep and the pressure to have them sleeping through can be immense. As a parent, I've just muddled through as best I can