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6mo - please help

11 replies

reastie · 22/08/2011 09:02



DD is nearly 6mo. She started off a pretty good sleeper - from birth would sleep in her moses basket and went 3 - 4 hrs between feeds and then would have just one night feed until about 4mo she dropped it and went all night. She also never seemed to want some comfort boob - it was just for food iykwim. Evenings have always been tricky btw and she rarely settles before 10pm

In the past few weeks things have suddenly changed and I'm at a loss as to what to do. I'm now at the stage where she will only get to sleep while feeding, in car/pushed in pram, lying next to a (preferably exposed) boob on my bed, or sometimes if I'm lucky just lying on me while I sit. Initially this wasn't so bad as when she nodded off I would move her to her cot but now she screams when she smells the cot Confused . So, I'm stuck with her. In the night she does sleep in her cot if i put her in when she's in a deep sleep and even then it can take a couple of attempts. DH and I have tried leaving her to cry in her cot but it has never worked, but then, we have only let her cry for 10 mins as I have no real clue how to do this properly. We have tried patting/singing/putting her in awake, putting her in nearly asleep, sitting quietly with her first. We have an all singing all dancing mobile, a light show and often play relaxing classical music to her. One thing we have trouble with (and this does coincide with when our trouble started) is that she rolls onto her tummy all the time, gets stuck and then screams ad can[t get to sleep until we roll her back, so if we leave her to cry we do peek through the door to make sure she isn't stuck on her tum. We've also put stuff in the cot so she shouldn't be able to roll over but she stil blinking manages it!

Since this has only come about in the past couple of months I'm sure it's something we are doing to get her in bad habits and I don't want it to get worse or become an established behaviour. Please please any advice on how to remedy this? Btw while typing this I have had to pi k up dd, feed her and she is now sleeping on my lap opening her eyed everynow and again to check I'm stil here and then goes back to sleep Hmm
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Justguessing · 24/08/2011 16:26

Hi Reastie

Sorry to hear that you're having a hard time with things. I too have a 6 mo dd who, until 2 nights ago, would cry every time we put her down in her cot (even if she had been fed to sleep). After spending hours each night trying to settle her in her cot, we eventually gave up and started co-sleeping about a month ago. It was like a revelation! But despite dd finally settling and us following all the co-sleeping safety advice, we never felt completely happy with it and worried that we'd squish her. So for the past week or so we started preparing to move her into her own room. I stopped feeding her to sleep and instead would just rub her back or belly and sing to her. When we finally put her down in her room on Monday night, I was prepared for lots of tears but there wasn't! I rubbed her belly and sang to her, just like I had been doing when she was in our bed, for about 30 minutes and then she fell asleep! She cried for about a minute during that time, but I didn't pick her up, just continued rubbing her belly and singing. Last night, I lay on the floor next to her cot for 30 minutes, after which she looked up at me, rolled over onto her belly and started sleeping!

As a first time mum, I don't really have many answers but I do wonder if the co-sleeping helped to make her to feel more secure at night times until she's been ready to self settle. Or it could just be a coincidence! Either way, hopefully our experience will at least give you some hope that things can improve!

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cocoachannel · 24/08/2011 11:53

Just wanted to add my sympathy as I am going through exactly the same thing with my DD who is 6 months exactly. She had been sleeping through for a few weeks, but has started waking up every 3-4 hours screaming. She already has two teeth which didn't seem, to cause many problems, but I think her top ones must be coming through and causing this sleep problem. May also be the development leaps at this age, I guess?

She goes back to sleep quite quickly if I give her a minute feed. I am also worried that this will develop habit waking. I may try the powder tonight, itypefast, thanks for that suggestion!

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ILovePonyo · 23/08/2011 21:42

Ah ok - dd has only started settling and sleeping on her front recently. She is also a side sleeper but only stays asleep on her side if she is really tired when we put her down. Hope tonight is better for you xx

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reastie · 23/08/2011 21:31

ponyo she will not sleep on her front Confused - I've tried leaving her for quite some time on her tummy when she's rolled over and got stuck in her cot and she will not sleep or settle on her front. She like it on her side (prime positioning for a bit of boob if I'm lying next to her Hmm Shock Wink )

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ILovePonyo · 23/08/2011 20:10

reastie just a thought (and sorry if already been mentioned) does she sleep on her front? I know its not recommended but dd sleeps much better on her front now, she can flip herself back over onto her back (which usually wakes her up Hmm) but we settle her for her naps and at night on her front now.

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reastie · 23/08/2011 07:37

thanks guys.things getting even worse Confused last night she wouldn't just only get to sleep while feeding, she would wake up screaming every time i tried to take her off, no matter how gently I did it Confused . I am shattered today from the build up.

ity thatnks for those ideas - we do the dark room thing (well, as dark as our blinds let the room be dark), I must get some of that powder stuff though - that's been on my list for a while. I don't really want to reintroduce a ff though having weaned her off formula in the past and back onto bf. She really does seem to have grown up so much in the past week or so - every day there's something new.

kentish we've been saying that re: rolling back for a while now - I thought she would learn quickly but it's been 3/4 weeks now she's been getting stuck!

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itypefast · 23/08/2011 00:03

Hi Reastie. I'm in a similar position with my DD. She changed at six months - may be teeth, may be all the new things she's learning - who knows?? You're not doing anything wrong. I think they're just growing and developing so fast :)

I've been trying different things for 2 months now.
A few things that have made a difference:
Putting her in Grobag for every nap and bedtime.
Putting her in her cot in a dark room (unless you're out and about).
I BF but do give 7oz formula at 8pm.
And, this week, because she is teething I've been dabbing Ashton & Parsons powders on her tongue at night. (she normally wakes at 11pm) They're herbal and I got them in Boots. They seem to calm her down and instead of feeding to sleep, she just sits on my lap and nods back off.

Every night is different. It's so tiring, eh? DD surprised me today by napping for 2.5 hours this morning Confused

Good luck and let us know how you're getting on.

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NeedToSleepZZZ · 22/08/2011 15:13

Oh reastie I didn't know things had got so bad, you poor thing. Firstly, I really hope you can stop blaming yourself as you are doing a great job and are a wonderful mum. As to the sleeping I'm not sure what the answer is but b went through a bad week with teething and all babies are different so it might be that. Would you want to do cc? It does work for some babies but I think it can be quite stressful so it's more a case of what would suit you and DH more iyswim. The calpol is great (or in my case the tesco cheap version!) if you think she might be in pain but other than that have you tried placing a muslin on you during feeding then using it as a sheet underneath her in her cot? She might find comfort in your smell. Oh, and the dummy has worked well with b through teething. Everything is worse when you're tired so make sure you have some time for you to sleep or relax each day.

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KentishMaid1977 · 22/08/2011 15:05

Hi reastie,

Sorry, I don't have any answers I'm afraid. I've got a 6.5 month old who'll also only go to sleep if being bf, rocked, walked in pram.

It might be the case that your daughter might settle herself more easily once she has learned how to roll back again.

No idea if this idea will work, but I'm sure I've heard of people putting an item of clothing or something that you've worn against your skin in the cot so it smells of you and might be more comforting.

I'll be watching this thread with interest to see what people with older babies have done.

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jenrendo · 22/08/2011 14:59

Not much help but I remember my DS changed his sleep routine at 6 months and always wanted reassurance. We were thinking, "Oh no, we don't want to get into bad habits". It was his teeth and soon settled down. Has your DD signs of teething yet? From all that I've read the advice seems to be that the best thing for teething babies is cuddles and it seemed to work with our DS, plus a bit of Calpol! Hopefully someone will be along with better advice...

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reastie · 22/08/2011 14:53

just bumping as I'm feeling lonely Sad

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