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

Same same same ! 5.5 month old here and since the 07 December it all went wrong ! Up many times at night. I must say half the time I fall asleep and forget and wake up and she is still there. I too tell at my DP for snoring ! And the annoying thing is she can sleep for up to 3 hours but I can't sleep I'm laying there waiting for her to wake up :(

If she's teething, would you not give her some calpol before she goes to bed? Our dd def felt the teeth way more at night and it helped her get a good stretch of sleep (and us too!)

Lonely, I know what you mean when you fall asleep (sitting up usually) while feeding and then forget she's still there! So many times I've woken in that position because I've been dreaming!

We had another breakthrough night last night I think. Woke at 11.30, so fed. Then went back with no problems. Fed again at 2 ish (although not very much or strongly, so I might try and drop that feed tonight). Then she had a whinging wake up and I did the 'go in, kiss her, say goodnight and leave' technique, and she went back to sleep within 5 mins :-) then a feed at 5, one whinge session just after, but she went back down a treat after the technique til 6, when she heard Daddy's alarm go off. Yay!

Just posting today because I said I would, to say thanks for all your support and to share a shaft of light at the end of the tunnel for those in the tunnel still. Hang on in there! X fingers crossed it keeps getting better for us all! X

When you go in at 10 (why do you go in at 10?) try a dream feed - it might put off one of the later wakings?

I would also suggest co-sleeping if your plan doesn't work. My DS continued to wake up regularly whatever we did and after I started to fall asleep when feeding him I realised it was safer if I did it planned in a safe environment.

I do do a dream feed if she wakes up when we go up to bed around 10, but ahe doesn't always wake up then. Sometimes it's a bit later, and I'm not going to wake her to feed when she is finally sleeping.

I will try and drop the middle feed if the 3 tonight though. Her suckling was so weak last night it was hardly worth it and I think it was a comfort snuggle really.

She went down partially awake with the smallest of peeps tonight, so I'm keeping all crossed that we may have cracked it (for the moment anyway!)

A dream feed is where you feed them without waking, you rub your nipple against their mouth and they latch on in their sleep (sounds bonkers but it does work!) and hopefully this fills them up enough to avoid waking later on. This might get rid of the middle feed?

Oh ok. She's having trouble skipping the middle feed tonight. May try that another night.
She woke at 1 and has been whinging since. We've been on every 5 mins and I think she dropped off for 10 at 1.30 but just woke again. This is not easy, but we are persevering as she sounds like she's making sleepy noises.
Update to follow tomorrow. Thanks all for ideas.

The dream feed did not help :-( She's now been whinging for an hour and the method is not working. I've heard that they can relapse after 5 days, but am finding it hard to stay strong!

I also have a wakeful 6 month old! Sounds like we are doing similar joosie trying to get her to self settle in the evening. I feed her though until she is just dropping off asleep, then take her off and put her in her cot - she usually protests, so I pick her up and let her suck for a few seconds & try again (and again and again some nights!).

It started working for us, she did a couple of nights where she was staying asleep 6 hours before waking, and then a few weeks ago she got a cold, and was coughing herself awake. She's taken ages to get rid of it, but now the coughing is finally going - but she's still waking up every 1-2 hours!! I am going to try again, hopefully with the same success. Hope you have had a better night.

Same here last night, i've got a terrible cold and DD started with a little cough as well as teething pain so she came in took over our bed, and slept like a proverbial baby with 5 hrs between 1 feed. Not that i slept much between her and DP.

We were doing well for a couple of nights on the # of wake ups and a bit of self settling. Ah well :) Hoping to get out for 30 mins this morning before the snow arrives!!!