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Sleep

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Original poster

6 month old waking frequently

28 replies

FunOnTheBeach20 · 29/09/2019 19:46

My 6 (and a half for what it counts) month old is having really broken sleep. He slept for 7-8hr stretches until he was 3.5 months old and then it all went to pot.

He’s been in his own room for around 10 days. Initially this seemed to help but he’s reverted back to waking 4-5x a night. Ive stopped feeding him each time (he’s breastfed) and now feed him twice, my DH takes turns to settle him so he’s not constantly feeding.

He naps well during the day and has 3 set naps which are pretty consistent.

He’s started solids and again, this seemed to help initially.

He’s jut waking and wanting to be resettled. If he sleeps in the bed with me he still wakes often and spends all night head butting my boobs like a woodpecker.

Any advise?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Jesse70 · 29/09/2019 20:00

Hopefully it's just a regression and it will pass

U could try a dummy to help resettle themselves
Ewan the sheep so it plays music when they start to cry

I'm sure lots of people will have ideas nothing worked for mine but she has got steadily better with age

Keep a good routine for bedtime tho and keep it kinda short like half an hour or so nice and consistent

It will get better tho but don't expect it any time soon

kenandbarbie · 29/09/2019 20:02

That's normal really. If it was me, I'd co sleep till he sleeps a bit more. Otherwise no one will be getting any sleep. I'd have him in my room at least. He could be waking because he feels scared and lonely without you. Hi

kenandbarbie · 29/09/2019 20:04

Is he able to get at your boobs easily when you co sleep?

Original poster

FunOnTheBeach20 · 29/09/2019 20:14

Hi @kenandbarbie

I usually sleep with a feeding top so no, he doesn’t have free access. If I do sleep with free access he suckles all night. He doesn’t sleep any better in the bed with me. We both settle quicker, but he still wakes quite frequently and the constant head butting drives me mad - this is worse when I don’t wear a top. He’s just always trying to climb to the boob.

Thanks @Jesse70 we have a Ewan, haven’t used it since he was a newborn but worth another go.

OP posts:

Jesse70 · 29/09/2019 20:18

Anything is worth a go ! You never know

kenandbarbie · 29/09/2019 20:33

Are you able to sleep while he suckles?

Original poster

FunOnTheBeach20 · 29/09/2019 20:52

@kenandbarbie
Most the time I just get backache. I can nap like that but I really struggle to sleep in the same position all night with him.

OP posts:

kenandbarbie · 29/09/2019 20:56

Yeah, I had to support my back with a pillow behind me. Eventually the muscles to stronger and now I can sleep comfortably and breast feed at the same time. It's tricky to find a position that suits.

peachgreen · 29/09/2019 20:56

How does he get to sleep at night?

Original poster

FunOnTheBeach20 · 29/09/2019 21:19

@peachgreen

Mostly he’s fed to sleep. But my husband can rock him to sleep aswell.

OP posts:

peachgreen · 29/09/2019 22:00

Okay so the first thing to crack is self-settling at night. However he settles at night, he'll need when he wakes up in the night (sleep cycles go from around 44 minutes to 2 hours). So there's no point trying to fix things during the night until you've got that cracked. Keep him awake while he's feeding, then get your husband to take over. Rock him until he's almost asleep and then put him down in his cot. Say night night and walk out. There WILL be false starts but the idea is that you stop rocking him a bit sooner each night until eventually you can put him in his cot awake and he'll go over. Ideally give him some kind of night time comforter - a teddy, a muslin etc. Then his night time wakings should naturally stop as he learns to self-settle.

Jesse70 · 30/09/2019 07:18

The self settling is bullshit they do not need to be taught to self settle it comes naturally or it is thrust upon them
And whilst the previous posters way might work without them crying there next regression will probably put u back to square one
I slept in bed with mine for a long time and I know that sometimes she would just wake up see I was there then that was enough for her to go back to sleep

If their behaviour has changed I really do think its a phase and will soon be back to normal i know it's hard but it will fall into place

burritofan · 30/09/2019 09:20

Say night night and walk out.
Aside from unicorns has this ever worked – without hysterical screaming? – in the whole history of babies? A 6-month-old has no concept of what "night night" means or what they're meant to do.

Interestingly, DD can (sometimes) self-settle in the middle of the night if I'm beside her. She still wakes up an hour or two later clamouring for boob; how the baby gets to sleep, feeding or rocking or self-settling, is only a part of the picture.

Original poster

FunOnTheBeach20 · 30/09/2019 09:51

Thanks everyone. Last night he slept until 1.30, got him back down with a feed until about 3 and then was up, asleep, up. Repeat x4. DH got up and took him on the spare room. He then slept until 6am in bed with DH. Who bought him into me for another hour.

It feels really cruel as I know he just wants to be near us and that makes complete sense when you think even me and DH as fully grown adults like to sleep beside one another. But I just hate Co-sleeping! I’ll have to go with the flow a bit more I think and let him come into the bed when he’s not settling. Neither me nor DH are a fan of CIO.

OP posts:

Original poster

FunOnTheBeach20 · 30/09/2019 09:52

Naps in the day he mostly goes straight down. I’ve just fed him, given him a dummy and he was drowsy, he just went straight down and to sleep
.

OP posts:

peachgreen · 30/09/2019 10:27

The self settling is bullshit they do not need to be taught to self settle it comes naturally or it is thrust upon them

It's extremely rude to call another parent's advice "bullshit". Fair enough if you disagree with it but I can assure you it worked for me.

Aside from unicorns has this ever worked – without hysterical screaming? – in the whole history of babies? A 6-month-old has no concept of what "night night" means or what they're meant to do.

Of course it doesn't work first time. It's about associating the phrase with the sleepy, cosy feeling so your baby - over a period of months - starts to learn the "night night" signals "time to close your eyes and go to sleep". If they start crying, you immediately pick them up, comfort them, and try again.

Over a period of weeks I taught my DD how to self settle using this method. I never, EVER left her to cry. She was younger than 6 months and once she'd picked it up she started only waking once in the night (to be fed) and then, when she dropped that feed around 5 months, she slept through. Now I put her in her cot wide awake, kiss her goodnight, say "night night DD" and walk out. She chats away happily to her teddy for a bit and then closes her eyes and goes to sleep. She has slept through every night since (barring half a dozen nights when she's been ill). It has never been interrupted by sleep regressions (the only sleep regressions we've had have resulted in early rising for a few days). She is now almost 2.

Of course a lot of it is down to individual babies and I would never assume that my suggestion would work for every family. Far from it. But it worked for me and given OP would prefer not to co-sleep any more (I didn't either!) I thought it was worth passing on. Far worse to push co-sleeping as the only solution on to a mother who doesn't want to do it.

OP, I hope you figure out something that works for you.

Ohnoherewego62 · 30/09/2019 10:32

Sounds like a regression. Mines done this at 6 months and just over 8 months. It does pass.

Baby is teething at the minute so back up through the night again but it will pass too.

Hope you're ok!

CookPassBabtridge · 30/09/2019 10:54

This sounds totally normal! They want a feed, teething, wind etc.. mine woke up every hr until he was about 18 months.

peachgreen · 30/09/2019 12:20

mine woke up every hr until he was about 18 months

That isn't normal. I've every admiration for you for getting through that but most babies will be sleeping through the night long before that. It's as important for their development as it is for parental wellbeing and mental health. I get so frustrated when people state that crap sleep is inevitable, unavoidable and to be expected when in the vast majority of cases (obviously not all) that's just not true. If someone had told me I'd be waking every hour for 18mo I don't know what I would have done, but it wouldn't have been pretty!

CookPassBabtridge · 30/09/2019 12:49

Sorry I shouldn't have said "totally normal", my first son slept 12 hrs from early on but it was then that I felt like the odd one out as all my friends babies were waking all the time, I felt like I'd struck gold haha. So when I had my bad sleeper, I could relate with other mums.. so it felt like that was the more usual experience. Yeah I don't know how I survived it, I think I aged 10 years Hope you find a solution OP.

peachgreen · 30/09/2019 12:52

I think some people overegg the amount their children wake up at night because it's not very supportive to say "oh mine sleeps right through" etc etc! It's mostly dumb luck but there are things you can try to see if they work!

Original poster

FunOnTheBeach20 · 30/09/2019 13:06

@peachgreen

Thanks for the advice, I didn’t take it to mean put him down and run off (however tempting) we have totally got the whole drowsy to sleep in the day. Just need to nail nighttimes. His day time naps are so consistent it’s great.

OP posts:

peachgreen · 30/09/2019 17:15

I didn’t take it to mean put him down and run off (however tempting)

we've all imagined it!

babylullabyyoutube · 07/10/2019 03:20

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Olive2019 · 16/12/2019 22:14

Hi @FunOnTheBeach20 I just wondered how your DS is sleeping now? I just came on to look for advice and I could have written your post word for word!

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