Cant settle my 6MO at night

[PalmaViolet1]

We’re really struggling to settle 6MO when he wakes in the night and it’s not time for a bottle. He wakes a lot (me and DH are shattered), every three hours (on the dot!) for his bottle, plus several wakes in between.

It’s not too bad if he has his bottle. But the other times I have no idea how to re-settle him. He had a dummy up to when he was 4MO but although it settled him, he was unable to keep it in his mouth so we ditched it. We tried loads of different brands and he couldn’t keep any in. I try shushing and patting, rocking gently, but the only thing that sometimes helps is vigorously bobbing I and down with him which I can’t do anymore as I’ve hurt my knee. We co-sleep with him as he just wakes up too much and it’s easier having him in the bed.

How do you settle your 6MO babies without a dummy? Any tips for me? I’m getting angry at my baby and I hate it 🙁

What does his feeding schedule look like?
How are his naps during the day?
Is he weaning yet?

Also in the long run co sleeping will make things harder for you, in my opinion.

Does he have a crib/cot to sleep in?

I'd look at doing some gentle sleep training.

What's he doing when he wakes in between feeds? Is he screaming and upset? Or just awake and grizzly?

Cot in own room and if he wakes only go in when he cries. My DS is 2 and still wakes during the night sometimes for a chat, a roll about then back to sleep. From 6 months we have only went in for crying.

I would have liked him to stay in the crib in our room a bit longer but he was able to sit up himself so it wasn't safe. He slept a lot better in his own room without DH snoring, alarm clocks and other distractions.

My DC3 is 14 months old and was like this except breastfed. Never took a dummy despite is trying so so many different ones so many times. I have absolutely no advice for you either, I'm so sorry. His sleep isnt that much better now really although he does have a more consistent bed time and usually go down for bed ok at least. He's gone back to split nights now too so we have a 2hr block every night where he's now awake and he cries on and off during that time for no obvious reason, well I assume cos he's tired. Was/is hell. I just figure eventually he will grow out of it or I can 'sleep train' when he's more like 2 and can understand if it's still not better by then.

Are you waking him up? What if he went in his own room?

Thank you for the replies. We’ve all since come down with this flu virus (which is why I’m late responding!)

@NuffSaidSam when he wakes he just all of a sudden starts crying, but appears to still be asleep with eyes closed. He’ll cry for a while but not open his eyes or wake really before finally going back to sleep when I stand and rock him.

@Yellowpink1 feeding schedule is every three hours (bottle), naps are both in his cot in his room and with someone holding him. Just started weaning very slowly as his gag reflex is strong and he’s sick a lot.

@BabyLikesMsRachel I hope things get better soon ❤️

Weirdly it didn’t occur to me that we might be waking him. I am putting him in his cot for naps as much as possible (well, before he got ill), so I will try his cot for bedtime once he’s better and see if he sleeps for longer periods.