Six months old and still no sleep...

[Poppydoodaa]

Hi ladies

I'm hoping you may have some advice or tips for me to try with my non-sleeping six month old DD2.

She slept OK as a newborn but it seems like she is getting worse and worse. Day time naps are practically non existent unless she's in the car, pushchair or on me.

We have a bedtime routine of bath, feed and bed but is then usually up every one or two hours. I usually end up bringing her into bed with me as I'm too tired to keep getting up to her. I don't sleep that well with her in bed with me as she fidgets so badly and only seems happy when she's on the boob.

DH tries to comfort and settle her too but she won't have anyone but me at night.

During the day is the happiest, most contented baby - full of smiles and giggles. But during the night she is a different child!

DD1 wasn't a great sleeper as a baby but really can't remember it being this bad.

Thanks

No Cry Sleep Solution? That broke my 6mo's 2hrly-wakings fairly quickly.

Stick with it, though, or you'll have it all over again in a couple of months if you're like us!

She's a baby. Isn't this normal?! 7month dd is exactly the same. It will pass

I could have written your post, almost word for word. No idea what the solution is but wanted to let you know you're not alone!

Both of mine were like this. It could be a combination of being overtired from poor day naps, developmental leaps (a few from 4-6 months), growth spurts... Any sign of food intolerances or reflux? What time is bedtime?
I'd try early bedtime of 6.30pm, two naps a day around 8.30/9 and 12.30/1. Try putting her down for naps but don't worry of it doesn't work at first (I mean putting her down asleep in her cot). Make sure room is dark and try putting her on her tummy.

Have a look at her diet - any solids yet? What does she eat?

How is she fed? FF or BF or mix? Is she quite windy? If so this will keep her from sleeping well at night, she'll be quite wriggly.

My dd is the worst sleeper of my two but at 10 months we don't cosleep as much and she's going a bit longer at night. This was probably due to me putting her down earlier, making sure she got good naps (hard with a toddler too), watching both our diets (she's BF and reacts to dairy/soya via BM and directly) and putting her back in her cot making sure age was fully winded after each feed (a killer for me but it means she sleeps much better as the smallest burp would mean shed wake after 45 mins).

Hopefully that gives you some pointers!

she not age.

Sorry to hijack the thread but Iggly interested in what you say about set nap times of 9 and 1 as I'm struggling with DD (7.5 mo) naps. She's not a long mapper - an hour usually. Does it work for those babies? Even with a 6.30 bedtime, it would give us a v long stretch before bed. Do babies take a few days to get used to it and then naturally start falling asleep more easily at those times? At the moment, we're oscillating between 2 and 3 naps and its driving me mad!

DS was just like this, probably until about 7mo when he started to improve. He's now nearly 9mo and is a lot better although we still have regular night wakings. I drove myself round the bend thinking about naps, weaning, teething, developmental leaps ... and ended up deciding it was probably a combination of them all!

In the end these things all seemed to help incrementally - moving him into his own room, stretching out his waking time, white noise, weaning (esp when he started having 3 decent meals a day), allowing him lots of exercise (now he's crawling he seems to need to expend a lot of energy). I have also noticed when he wakes at night he does sometimes need to have a little grumble but will then go back to sleep (this isn't ignoring his cries, it's just checking to see if they escalate or not, and sometimes they don't).

It's really hard, especially when you have friends telling you their babies are sleeping really well, but it will get better by itself, and I firmly believe that most of the other things you can try might speed things along but generally, they'll get there when they're ready.

With short naps they'd need an afternoon catnap or you can try resettling her after she wakes if you catch her quickly. With my ds, who was a catnapper, that's what I did (go in about 5 mins before he woke and rocked back to sleep again. If failed, he'd have a third nap). He then got used to napping and started going for longer stretches.

I found set times worked well for dd (I had to go for set times because of her older brother) as does putting her on her tummy (she's now 10 months and I started tummy sleeping at 4/5 months due to reflux. She is very strong though).

Thanks for all the responses and advice.

AndMiffyWenttoSleep (love the name) I'll have a read and give it a try - thanks.

Iggly she's BF and is doing well with her weaning. She has a good breakfast, so-so lunch and good dinner. She's really enjoying her food and hasn't dropped any BFs yet, although going much longer between feeds. No signs of any food intolerances or reflux and has never been particularly windy. But she is incredibly wiggly and fidgety at night. Will definitely try the winding. Last night she woke up an hour after going down and she wiggling around and thrashing her legs about. She seems to wave her arms around lots and rub her face which I think is waking her up but no idea what's causing it. If we catch her when she wakes and hold her still she'll often go back to sleep for another hour.

She goes to bed after bath around 7pm, which is when DD1 goes to bed. I'm not sure how I'd manage an earlier bedtime as DD2 has BF once DD1 is in bed. Trying to get her to bed before DD1 would be a nightmare as DD1 keeps running in and out of her bedroom wanting to "help"!

I'll try more with the daytime naps and see if I can settle her back. She sometimes sleeps for 10-15 minutes and is then awake and ready to play. Will also give the tummy sleeping a go too. Thank you for the tips.

kdiddy nice to know I'm not the only one and I'm convinced people lie when they say their 6 week old is sleeping through.

melliebobs it probably is normal but 6 and a half months of no sleep with a toddler is no fun for anyone.

DD1 didn't sleep through until she was 18 months, so I'm not expecting a full night's sleep but waking every 1 or 2 hours is killing me. I know she'll change and will get better but I need her to sleep better sooner.

I feel so sorry for DD1 as she has to put up with an impatient and irritable mother.

Poppy - are you me on a namechange? Did i write this in my sleep deprived state and not remember?

Hope it improves for us both soon.

fairplay it's entirely possible. I have huge black holes in my memory too!

Saw a friend last week and her baby is exactly the same. Sounds like there lots of sleep deprived mums out there.

Hope your dc sleeps better very soon