HELP! My 6 Month old wakes every hour or less in the night

[shellayas]

Hi,

I am new to this and would like to say hello first of all. Right, last night my little boy (6 Months old) work up every hour from 7.30pm to 01.30am then every half an hour from then! This is becoming a common occurrence now. It used to be every 2 hours and I could deal with that.

I spoke to my hv and she said I should start feeding him more which I have, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in between. This did not make a difference if anything it has become worse since then. He has a milk feed round about 1, 3, 5 and then at 7am. Which is less then it used to be as I give him water instead if he wants a drink.

I have tried all different types of this "controlled crying" and he just gets in a state as in his whole body shakes and choking from crying so hard, the same thing happens when I am in the room with him doing the whole shushing, stroking him, hand on chest etc. So now I have him on my lap, I don't rock him just lay him down with lullaby's on, he cries for a bit then goes off to sleep then I place him in the cot. He is in the same room as me as I am spending my maternity leave at my parents house as my partner at the time of 5 years left me when I was pregnant so I am a single parent. I will be going back home in Cardiff when I am due to go back to work in May so I am really hoping he will sleep by then!

Tonight I will try sleeping in the spare room to see if that works but I am becoming so down about this as I feel I must be doing something wrong! I am even considering maybe hiring a sleep expert?

He does have a routine before bed so he knows it is bedtime. In the day he has naps, probably a total of 2 and half hours.

Apologies for a long read but I wanted to give as much information as I could. I would appreciate any advice. Thank you.

Shella xx

I would try to feed him less, maybe no more than twice a night and try not to pick him up. We just lightly pat our baby's bottom and he drops off again. My boy wakes every hour when he is teething, could this be a possibility? It won't last, honestly, mine was doing this at 6 months and now at 10 months can do a 4 hour stretch. We didn't change anything other than stopping the feeding at night, but we never pick him up at night and haven't since he was about 4/5 months so doesn't expect us to.

Hi , thank you for responding, I'm still breastfeeding him, but I do give him formula before bed. I did reduce the feeds to 2 a night, but he seems very hungry in the night and drinks quite a bit. What I might do then is give him formula in the night so I don't need to pick him up and maybe 2 feeds if formula will be enough. Thank you.

I sympathise OP, my son was the same. In the end we used the pick up, put down technique when he was 8 months old and it really helped him learn to settle himself. He's still not the perfect sleeper, but if he does wake in the night now, a pat on the back quickly sends him off. (He's 16 months now). Hope you get some rest soon.

My LO was exactly the same. She is nearly 7 months old and used to wake up every hour or less. I'm also breastfeeding and she used to need to soothe on me to get back to sleep which inevitably led to her feeding.

We tried everything to get her to sleep for longer periods of time in her cot, shush/pat, PUPD, dummy (I notice a lot of advocates of dummies on this board but sometimes, babies do not want a dummy) then once she hit 6 months we decided to do gradual retreat and talking to her. She can now sleep through. I don't feed her if she wakes as her associations with sleep were all wrong and I was stopping her learning to self soothe. If she does wake up in the night, she can now get herself back to sleep. This tells me that she never used to need to feed in the night and it was more needing me to fall asleep on.

I also believe that babies need to want to be sleeping independently and have to want to self soothe before it can be cracked. The previous times we'd tried her in the cot she would fight and fight it, but from the very beginning of this attempt, she's been much more accepting.

I do think it's also helped that she is now in her own room and so isn't being disturbed by myself or my OH. It also means that when she wakes she has time to settle herself before we get to her. This might not be something you can do until you move home though.

I sympathise with you. It will get better and this won't last forever but it is difficult to believe this when you're in the midst of it.

Hi offside thank you. Yes I use a dummy but he always pulls it out himself! I did reduce his feeds to 2 a night but then gradually crept up again as he kept waking up so I fed him so he will go back to sleep. I do not let him fall asleep at the breast anymore though. I will sleep in the spare room tonight to see if that helps as I think he wakes more because of me fidgeting about and I will try to reduce his feeds again. Thank you.

OP , reduce the amount of the night feeds as well as the number of them. Start to reduce by x number of minutes and then increase that number each night. So, for example, if he wakes up to bf at 1am, and you usually do 20 mins (or whatever) reduce that to 15 mins, then 12 the next night, then 10 etc. Or if you decide to change to formula at night reduce the number of ounces gradually. With this method you are working towards eventually settling him with a cuddle at that waking.

Then once he is being settled with a cuddle try not picking him up at all at that time but just shushing and patting.

Then over time apply this to the the other night feeds too.

Make sure you increase his milk or solids intake in the daytime to cover what you've cut out at night.

It is tough on your own, I've been there with my DD. Just know that this stage will pass too and you will get through it.

Thank you NoMontagues this is very helpful advice!

I'm still breastfeeding my 10 month old. The way I did it was to delay a feed until after 1am, after a week of that I delayed until after 2am, a week later 3am etc. When he got to 5am I just stopped altogether. He still wakes 3 - 5 times but I just tuck him in or pat him a few times and he goes back to sleep. Think it's separation anxiety at the minute. So he goes from last breastfeed at 6.30pm until 6.30/7am when I give morning breastfeed. He doesn't have formula. I would like to add that it wasn't until he was 8 - 9 months that I nightweaned. I'm quite lucky in that he has never fallen asleep feeding so never associated it with sleep. Doesn't have a dummy either

Hi Shellayas I know this is an old thread but was just wondering how you were getting on and what techniques worked as my Lb sounds exactly the same as yours did in first thread - he is five and a half months been like this sinice about two mnths.old -tia x

Would be interested too! DD 6 months and her sleep is worse than ever. Do hope it worked out for you.

Hi Mums!
Having a rough time with my 6month old night waker! Second baby (son is 5yr) so although I know I will get through this, currently so exhausted.
My son was a pretty bad sleeper but this is every hour and am really struggling!!
Fully breast fed and is every 3-4hours in the day. Doesn't like dummy consistently and shares a room with with us.
I've read a thread about this but it was really old so thought I'd start a new one...
Thanks in advance! X

Hi how are you getting on? My wee one is 6.5 and feel I'm getting it all wrong, she woke every 30-60 mins last night. She has never been a good sleeper...three hours in a row if lucky, normally it every 2 hrs like clockwork. She feeds at 11, 1, 4 and 6ish. I've tried crying it out but she just gets so upset....other night it went on for 1hr 20 before I caved hand fed her again. I put her down awake so she can fall asleep ok but it's like she needs the boob first, I'm utterly exhausted, 7 months of sleeping in 60 minute chunks 😟

Hi

Same here, just wondering if things got better naturally? My little one 6 months, is waking hourly. She can self settle going to bed and through the night too sometimes but she doesn’t seem to want to and shouts for us (I say us, she can only say dada) or cries.

My oldest was a horrendous sleeper and was two before we got chunks of sleep. Didn’t think it possible but my daughter is worse. Hourly wake ups or less.

She is on 3 meals a day with snacks and formula every 3-4 hours.

I’m thinking it’s “normal” but some people have said hourly wakes are a red flag!!

Help x