6 month old - nightmare sleeping!

[melonribena]

Hi everyone, I'm sorry if this is long!

Just 6 month old ds was born tongue tied. I bf pretty much constantly for the first 2 months and sort of fell into feeding to sleep and co sleeping.

He would never self settle and woke up instantly when put down. Feeding to sleep worked for the first 4 months then came regression hell!

At one point he was waking every 45 mins and needed feeding back to sleep every time. I think he was hungry a lot of the time -stupid tongue tie - but not always. I have a hang up about him being hungry due to the tongue tie thing so would always offer food and he would never refuse!

Fast forward to 6 months and things have got worse. Here are the main issues

1. He's stopped feeding to sleep in the day, won't settle in cot and will only sleep in moving buggy or car seat.

1. Feeds to sleep at night but refuses to go in cot - instantly wakes - and now also wakes if I leave the bedroom, meaning I have to stay with him and miss my evenings

1. Wakes every 1/2/3/4 hours in the night. This I could cope with if he didn't need feeding back to sleep or could sleep in his cot.

He will take a dummy when in the buggy or car seat but refuses point blank in the middle of the night.

Any help about how I can teach him to self settle In his cot would be gratefully received. Thanks

Sounds identical to my 6 month old ds. I tried the sOftly softly hand holding there there shush pat, didn't work and had to get tough with him. And yes it did involve crying. And yes it did work, Is that an option for you?

My daughter is very similar to this. This is how I am getting her to go into her cot.

First of all I tried to set her in the cot and as soon as she would cry, pick her up, settle her and then put her back in the cot. This was horrible. I couldn't stand to see her so upset. So what I have been able to do is this.

Feed her last meal of the day (for me it's a bottle of formula) and then go into the bedroom with her, lie on the bed with her right next to me(literally nose to nose) and talk, sing, shush, her to sleep. The cot is next to the bed with the bars up at this point. The first night it took almost 30 minutes of picking her up, bouncing, shushing, etc. until she finally went to sleep on the bed just lying next to me. The next night it only took 15 minutes and then 5 the next night. After about 1 week of her getting use to this I took down the cot bars and the cot is pushed right up to the bed, but she still slept in bed with me for 1 week. Then I put her in the cot and laid right next to her (my head and half my body in the cot with her), then gently moved away (I stayed in the room with her so if she woke up I was there to reassure her quickly). She could easily roll over to me in the middle of the night and she did the first couple of days. We've been doing that for a bit over a week. Tonight for the first time I tried putting her in the cot and leaving the room and she's only woken up once. I picked her up and shushed her back to sleep and I was able to leave again and she's staying asleep. I can't believe it!

I have also moved her bedtime. She normally use to sleep at 9:30, but tonight I put her to bed at about 7:30. Hopefully this will make a difference as well. I think gradual changes are important and have made a difference. I would rather take extra time and not go through tears, but you should do what works for you. I hope this helps.

I should also add she still wakes up 4-6 times a night, she just goes back to sleep in her cot rather than in bed with me. I felt I wanted to tackle getting her into the cot before I got to the night waking. I'm hoping the earlier bedtime will help with the night wakings.

Thank you both so much for replying. Last night I tried shush pat but the crying was horrendous.

I'm really tempted by your method samra. Do you do the same thing for naps?

No advice sorry but watching with interest as apart from the tongue tie you could be describing my Ds!

For naps I just put her in the sling, which works well for me. I have laid her down during nap time the same way though, but when I've done this I've normally had a nap with her.