Waking hourly at 6 months

[joosiewoosie]

Hi all. My dd is almost 6m old and after recent teething ( now has 2 sprouting through the bottom gum), is continuing to wake hourly almost at night. As soon as she's picked up she relaxes and cuddles in, but as soon as we put her down again, she wakes again and refuses to sleep in her cot. She's been sleeping on us for much of the night for a couple of weeks now. I'm shattered and just need sleep!

I'm exclusively bf, but dd is now on 2 puréed 'meals' a day, plus all usual bfs, with the last solid no later than 5.30pm. I haven't a clue what's going in but feel like I need to tie a knot at the end of my tether and hang on!

DH is excellent in the day and does try hard to help at night but is so sleepy it's hard for him. I just snapped his head off for snoring as I've had 30 mins sleep since we cane to bed and just as I return from the 'go to sleep in your own cot' challenge number 1 of the night, he's snoring his head off, which is making me jealous and cross, and now I can't sleep! Grrrrrr!
Any ideas? If not, any words of wisdom to see me through? Thanks in advance x

Custard is it the 18 month sleep regression or an ongoing thing?

My HV thinks I'm not allowing DD to learn to self settle as I'm intervening too quickly, which is a little true perhaps, so has come reliant going to sleep on me. I'm trying to avoid any crying and maybe noise for my DP and she slept great when she was younger so wasn't an issue.

So last night I thought I'd see what happens if I didn't pick up at every waking or bring into our bed.

Surprisingly I only had to pick up for 2 feeds (obviously!) plus one other. The other times I popped dummy in, Ewan the Sheep on, rhythmically said shhh whilst having hand on chest and she settled reasonably quickly so some progress.

Still woke every 1-1.5 hours after the 1.30 feed though. At 6 she started babbling and i was too tired so left her - she went to sleep for another hour!

Think tonight I'll try the same but leave it an extra minute or two before intervening and gradually make the gaps longer.

NB, she is not actually crying (pls don't think i'm doing CC on 5 mo old) - its a shouty whine.

Will let you know how I go, assuming I have the stamina for it!

I may suggest that one to DH belinda... It might work.
Jilted, I bf at 4.15 til 4.35 today and then she had 4 cubed of puréed veg at 5.30 and nighttime bf after bath and lullabies now, at 7.20. I really have no idea what's what here. She surely can't be hungry on all that lot!

Sounds tough Lois. I let DD self settle on the car as that's all I can do, but find it really hard at night, even though its mostly only whinging rather than crying. Good luck Lois. Maybe I need to try it a bit too. Oh, I don't know...(sigh)

I found that sometimes my dd would self-settle if she was whingeing rather than crying, and it did help her wake up a little less. Sometimes with a sleep regression there's no rhyme or reason to anything - but hopefully that is what it is and will be over soon. Perhaps it is a growth spurt with her eating so much? Anyhow good luck for tonight.

My 19 week old DD is the same.

We're changing her from her crib to her cot tonight - crib is too small and she hits her hands on the bars and wakens herself. I am praying that the cot will be the cure we need.

Am loathe to let her cry to self-settle as 3 year old DS is a light sleeper and I'm scared of her waking him up... once he's awake then we're all awake as he's a nightmare to settle.

"This too shall pass, this too shall pass...."

I hope!

Needles, we moved DD from crib in our room to cot bed in her own room at 4 months for the same reason. It I'd help briefly. Good luck!
Thanks all for good wishes! Perhaps it'll pass by itself soon...who knows?

Yet another awful night :-( .....all things shall pass, all things shall pass!

That sucks joosie :( Just be careful when you're really tired as I hurt myself yesterday in a comatosed state and also spilled my treat half glass of red wine everywhere

We had a slightly better night. I gave some teething powder before bed so not sure if it was that or not. Is your LO teething as well?

Here's to some zzzzz's!

Good news for you Lois. Don't waste that wine though! My LO has got her two first teeth through now, so I don't think she's teething. She's being v fussy at solid times now though too. She shovelled it down when we starts weaning in the week before Xmas. I have no clue what's occurring with her. She's my little mystery. Fingers x for zzzzzzz for all tonight! X

Needles, how did your LO do in the cot?

Hi, Joosie, thanks for asking.

She got on ok in the cot.... well, the first night she spent only 20 mins there, the rest of the time she was attached to my boob in my bed

Last night she spent about 5 hours of the night in the cot. Defo an improvement!

She's actually just woke up now (9:20am) so she's had a nice lie-in, give me some time to get stuck into housework.

Great news Needles! Onwards and upwards! (Although I think you are mad about the housework....in sleep deprived times, a lie in would be my first priority!) x

Seriously, I think DDs non-sleeping patterns are making me nocturnal! Too whit too whoo! (....and delerious!)

Joosie don't you worry, I'm not totally mad...

I was up early yesterday morning with 3 yr old DS, getting him ready for playgroup, so the housework was just a part of my normal routine.

A lie-in was possible when I only had one child >wistful sigh about lie-in's<

I really think your DD will improve a lot once those teeth are through, I think the first 2 are the hardest.

Teething is the work of the devil :(

Another restless night here, only fed twice so I know its not hunger and just wants cuddles for soothing as she's in pain. In some ways makes me feel better as hopefully once the first one comes through she might settle a bit and perhaps its not just a major sleep regression (hopes!).

Hope you got some rest last night ladies, although by the time of your post joosie I'm thinking not

I've had a lie in thanks to DH this morning but I needed it....:
*11.45 feed til 12.10 ; (i went to sleep at 10.45= 1 hours sleep for me)
*1.40 woke and held until finally went down without waking at 2.00 (=1.5 hours sleep for me from 12.15-1.40)
*2.40 wake and feed (30 mins sleep for me) til fell asleep on me at 2.55
*Woke fidgeting and moaning at 4.00. (1 hours sleep for me). Given to Dad . Continued to moan until booby and doze again 4.40, given back to Dad.(1 hours sleep)
*Woke up and cried for 10 mins at 5.50 wanting to sit up and play. Daddy took downstairs. (1.5 hours sleep)
*Fed booby at 7.30 and Daddy took shopping at 7.50. Came back at 9.00.

Apologies if this is muddled as it is compiled as we go during the night. Thank goodness for weekends when DH can have her for a bit so I can catch up. Otherwise, I would be such a zombie, and dangerous, I think!

Her teeth are well through now. I hope she hurries and settles soon!

I hope you are all having better sleep than us! My DD is SO worth the sleep deprivation but wonder if I'm making it harder for myself for some way, or whether just to resign myself to the fact that this is how it is? Happy weekend all.

Hey joosie I know what you mean - resignation of 'she's going to wake up anyway' has helped me but sometimes I do wonder if I'm making it more difficult for myself.

When I see friends from NCT/others, all of them who formula feed are getting good nights and those who BF generally aren't. A few also started to wean early and I'm thinking why am I not doing that!! I know lots of anecdotes does not equal data but sure seems the case with people I know.

You're passed the weaning/teething stage so don't know what I'll pin my hopes to when that's us.

Good job they're cute as you say :) Have a nice day

I don't think it's as simple as that with regards to feeding, loislane. I formula feed and my ds is waking every hour still at 7 months. I have friends who bf their similar aged babies who are getting more sleep! I think it depends far more on the baby than what they're being fed.

Ps sorry if that sounded a bit abrupt. Sleep deprivation at its finest!

Co-sleep. I don't think you have many other options tbh.

I know that's probably not true claudie, and agree it depends on the baby; can just seem like what every else is doing seems to work out better sometimes!

Don't wish sleep deprivation on anyone; at least I know I'm not alone on MN :)

True, Lois, it is nice to know its not just me! I read some stuff today about putting her down awake. Apparently, she's associating being nursed/cuddled with her only way to get to sleep, so is needing that if she wakes in the night. I can understand that as usually, 9 times out of 10, she's asleep when I put her down for the night first of all. She must wonder where she is and feel she needs me more than she really does.

So tonight, I tried putting her down half awake, while giving her 1 boob rather than both. It didn't go down too well! She fussed and moaned and escalated to crying. Me and DH went in every 5 mins to touch her, kiss her (while really checking she's ok), say goodnight and leave again. It took her about 15 mins to go off. We've agreed that I will feed her if she wakes up when we go up at 10ish ( as she sometimes does), and at 1ish and 4ish, but then we will do the 5 minute returning and checking all other times. Our gorgeous girl is 6 months old today, so has come of age now!
I'm hoping she doesn't do heart wrenching cries and just settles well between feeds, but lets see....

It was not bad at all....a shaft of light in the darkness! She woke at 10, 12.30 and 3, almost as predicted. She went down without a fuss after feeding too. She also woke at 5 wanting to be awake for the day, so DH brought her in to snuggle with him for an hour before he gets up for work. The going to bed awake was the hardest bit for her last night but we are going to persevere for the week to see if last nights more settled behaviour was a fluke or not! I hope that this is the turning point!
Hope everyone else is getting some zzzzzzzz!