6mo not sleeping through - I'm exhausted!

[MissCalamity]

Hi

My 6.5 mo ds, isn't sleeping for longer than 2/3 hours at night, leaving me and my partner exhausted!

It's almost like he's back being a newborn again

He's got a bit of a cold, and the warm weather probably isn't helping coupled with teething issues as well. The only way I can settle him is to feed him in our bed - which I wanted to completely stop once he was 6mo. I've tried shushing him, and occasionally that will work once in the night. If we leave him crying, he will eventually get so worked up and ends up being sick.

He eating 3 meals a day, has plenty of water during the day to avoid dehydration and is on follow on milk apart from the morning & evening feed which I am still breastfeeding.

He only has 2 naps during the day and will normally fight them, I'm lucky if he gets an hour each time. I do have a loose routine and feeding and bathing are roughly at the same time each day.

I'm worried this will continue when I go back to work in September and need some tips / advice on how to get him sleeping through again - 6 hours full sleep would be bliss!!

Any ideas??! Thanks

With DD this was a phase. She went back to newborn waking at night and I think it's a developmental thing. DD also only naps twice for about 30-45mins, so no chance for me to sleep during the day. It was tough going, but I just went with the flow. I was on maternity leave so just didn't do much the following day. DD sleeps better 7pm-midnight, so I'd often catch-up on sleep then, getting a few hours in early.

I went back to work and DD was still waking 2-3 times a night. I work alternate days so it's not so bad if I'm a little tired. However, on her own, she's now only waking once or twice (at 10 months old) and sometimes sleeps through from midnight if I pop in and dreamfeed her.

Have you considered giving him a dreamfeed? It does work well for DD - I'd feed her in my PJs just before going to bed and she'd then sleep through a little longer.

Keep going any way you can, grab sleep or chance to simply sit and relax whenever you can and don't be afraid to go to bed at 7pm if you need to

NO solutions, but you have my sympathy. DD is doing more or less the same and she is 6.5 months. I've been back in work 2 days a week for a month, and when I first went back I was confident we were 'getting there' with sleep, as she had started going from her dreamfeed at 10-11ish, until 4-6ish in the morning. But since she has gone right back to waking at 2-3ish for a feed, plus usually a couple of other wakenings before and after when we just give her a dummy, and then up and raring to go between 5.30 and 6.30.

it is really tiring when I am going to work - so much so that my parents insisted on having her for the night last night as I seemed exhausted, which was bliss! is there someone who could give you a night off? Also, DH and I alternate 'night duty' on nights when both of us are going to work the next day, or both of us aren't (although I always wakes when she does anyway - too tuned in to it from when I did every night I think), and then whoever didn;t do the night does the early morning.

SO, no help, but you are not the only one!

I am sympathetic. DS slept through from 3-5 months and then started waking again in the night. We didn't get him sleeping through again until he was 20 months, and even now at almost 2 years old he still wakes occasionally. It is bloody hard work.

Hang in there, it will get better.

i sympathise also, our ds2 just didn't sleep well and for us we succumbed to CC!

thing is babies learn routine and its our job to make sure its the right kind of routine, for us the more we went to him in the night the more he expected it, most babies learn to self settle if we don't interfere!

good luck!

p.s it took us a few painful weeks but worth it! both our boys have been sick also its awful but don't let it put you off... try the shh pat (baby whisperer)... better for everyone to have a good sleep...

Thanks for the replies and glad to hear it's not just us!

It's my birthday in 3 weeks and my parents are having him for the night, so me & the oh can go out. Saying that we'll probably go out for the meal and go home straight after to get the sleep in! No wild nights out for me any more!!

DS always seems to sleep better in our bed which I really don't want to get into the habit of doing, especially as we don't have a spare room and it can get a bit cramped!

I'm going to have to invest in some good eye cream as I've aged 10 years in 6 months! It is worth it though...

Welcome to the wonderful world of parenthood [haaaa]
I'd like to have a strong word with the 'experts' who lied- promised that babies will sleep through from three months. Hhaaaaaaaaaa.....
Three years perhaps, if ye're lucky.

You have my sympathy - about four months my dd started waking every hour, by 12 months it had improved to the stage where the first sleep was 2ish hours, then every hour. It just gradually (very) improved from there.

We co-slept to survive basically (I couldn't face cc).

Being woken every 2 hours last night was an improvement on the 2 previous nights ... I think in our case it's a combination of heat, teething and being about to learn to crawl (7mo tomorrow).

Hopefully once he cracks the crawling he will tire himself out more in the day and sleep better.

Hopefully.

Think we should have a 'knackered' emoticon with bags under its eyes. Bring on the coffee.

Sympathy from me - yes, learning new skills like crawling does mess with sleep, as do teething & temperature.

My 6 m.o. DS wakes more or less every 1.5 - 2 hours at night (more frequently in the evening before I go to bed). Co-sleeping helps us, but it's difficult with a lack of space. If we didn't have a spare room, DH would be on a lilo on the floor.