6m old sleep regression?

[anonuser63732]

Hi all!

In March my 6m old started on solid food, traveled internationally, and moved to his own crib through the night so there were lots of changes. I would usually spread them out a bit but that's just how everything fell, unfortunately. We've never had sleep issues or a regression with him before, but he's gone from sleeping through the night 99% of the time to being up every 1.5-2 hours since the day after the first travel day.

It's been almost a month and we're exhausted. Are there any tips and tricks to help him through this or is it just a "wait it out" game?

Sleep regression is a bit of an unhelpful term. Their sleep doesn’t change because they’re going backwards, it’s due to a ramp up in development and/or growth. They’re always moving forwards.
6 months is often a period of more change as they’re learning a lot, and yes you do just need to wait it out.

My advice is protect your own sleep by having them sleep with you, instead of having to get up and down all night settling them in a cot or another room. Sod moving around more than you have to at night.

This article might be helpful
https://sarahockwell-smith.com/2017/07/24/the-rollercoaster-of-real-baby-sleep/

This was me a year ago! It lasted two months for us.

Are you feeding on wakeups? What helped us was night weaning (after 6 months milk isn't necessary). So instead of feeding him to sleep, I would do anything else to soothe. Pat gently, or pick him up and rock if necessary. Feeding was an absolute last resort.

After a week or two he was sleeping better again

@DragonbornMum its not the case that overnight feeds aren’t necessary after 6 months. I’m glad it worked for you, but many babies need feeding at night for a long time after 6 months, some even over a year. Plus it’s usually the quickest way to get them back to sleep, especially if breastfed, due to breastmilk containing sleep inducing hormones at night. There’s no evidence that going to sleep without feeding makes any difference to sleep overall

Thanks all! Co-sleeping doesn't work for us just because we have 2 dogs and my husband is a heavy sleeper/rolls around. He was sleeping in a cot next to my side of the bed, but our alarms go off earlier than he wakes up and the dogs kept disturbing him so his own room is better overall.

We try to comfort him back to sleep first and only feed if it's been 3-4 hours and nothing else is helping

I literally could have written this original post right now! Do you have any updates @anonuser63732 18 months on? Did it get better? What helped? Thank you 😀x