6.5month old waking frequently in the evening and hard to settle. Bit of an essay...

[Tangle]

Says it all really. Upto 4 months I could put her down about 7 and she'd sleep till 10 or 11, sometimes a bit longer. Then she hit the dreaded 4 month growth spurt and woke up every couple of hours through the night for a couple of weeks. Things settled down again, but early in September (5 months) she started waking frequently in the evening - I put her down, she sleeps for an hour, I get her back to sleep (anything from 5 to >30 minutes) she sleeps for 1/2 hour... which she keeps up until I go to bed. She's then up at least once in the night and more often twice (depending on how early I want to get up - today it was about 2:15, 5:45, 8)and wants a feed.

The last week it's got even better as it's been taking up to 2 hours to get her back down again. It's incredibly frustrating - pick her up and she falls asleep, as soon as you try and put her down she starts crying, pick her up and she falls asleep... We wondered if she was cold (as a newborn she would NOT sleep by herself unless the room was >22 degrees), as it's been getting down to about 18. Had the room about 20.5 last night and no change.

This is really starting to take it's toll on us as a family. DH has to leave at 5:30 for work and doesn't get home till 6pm. We tried keeping her up late last night (testing the "is she not tired" theory), and didn't put her down till she looked tired at about 9. Slept till 10, took till gone 11 to get her back down in her cot. We NEED to get more sleep.

She's BF and we've started weaning. I've always fed her to sleep. Since she was about 7 weeks I've let her nap on me (you can tell she's DC1, can't you ), as otherwise she didn't nap at all. She's in a bedside cot, and usually spends all night there, although if I'm completely shattered and/or she just won't let me put her down I'll bring her into bed. She will sleep in the car, push chair or sling if she's really tired.

Any ideas on what we can try? (other than CC - when DH and I are rational we neither of us want to go there).

I'm trying to get a copy of the No Cry Sleep Solution out of the library but it's taking a while to come through.

Help!

Bear in mind that any parenting book with the word "Solution" in the title is lying

Is she napping too much during the day?

To be honest with this sort of dilemma I have always taken the path of least resistance - even if that meant spending the evening watching TV with a sleeping baby in my arms. She might be teething, or a bit under the weather. Maybe you could spend part of the evening lying in your bed with her, while you read or something?

Thanks for the quick reply . Know what you mean re. the books - as someone else said, if the books worked there'd only be one of them. Figured it couldn't hurt, though

She normally has 2, 1 hour naps during the day - 1 mid morning and one early afternoon.

We were wondering if teething and/or colds wer the culprits. She came down with a really grotty cold just after the problems started in September, and it's only just really cleared (still got a bit of a cough). Plus she's drooled for England since about 3 months. On Monday I noticed two little teeth trying to wink at me, and she actually slept really well (but only for one night - just to lull us into a sense of security ). She doesn't seem overly bothered by the teeth, though - if she's got something in her hand she'll chew it, but if she drops it she's just as likely to roll away and find something with a label to talk to.

Lots of me would go for the path of least resistance route, except for the impact it would have with DH - I'd be disapearing off to spend the evening trying to get DD to sleep just as he got home. I'm also afraid it would make things worse in the long run - part of me says if I'd been more rigorous in persuading her to nap by herself I wouldn't have the problems now, but then how long do you put up with a tired, whingey baby for before you go back to what works - however inconvenient it may be?

should have said re. the naps - that tends to be an hour from when I sit down to feed her till when she wakes up. She feeds in anger for the first 10 to 15 minutes, but often keeps sucking intermitently for the rest of the time.

If she will sleep in front of the tv in your arms, then I would try that - keep the telly on quite low. You can sit with DH on the sofa and take it in turns to hold her. I always quite liked that TBH - it was nice for DH too. It's only been a week, so she might settle within a few days and be back to her normal self.

Tangle, no real advice to offer except try the warmer room as a one off to see what happens.

I will say that all books seem to recommend that you work on naps first but with DS (4 months) I've realised that naps are completely different to night-time sleep and have just worked on night sleep. You may find the same thing for your DD. Recognising the difference has helped me accept that DS will either sleep on me or in the pram during the day. (Here's hoping he doesn't change his mind about night sleep now .) I occassionally try and get him to nap in his cot, but no joy so far.

My DS is also 6.5 months and I've had similar probles. I think I've found that he wakes more in the night and early evening when I feed him to sleep for his naps. Once I read some of the baby whisperer (in a desparate attempt not to have to let him cry AT ALL!!!) I focused on his day time routine, getting him to go to sleep from awake without feeding. I've found he sleeps better at night now- I guess he wakes but gets back to sleep without help. Hope this is of some help- it's tough isn't it? It's hard to know what to do for the best and even harder when it feels like you're taking backward steps. Good luck tonight

My DD is just 6 months too and we've been having the same problems since her 4 month growth spurt, she wakes every 1 - 1 1/2 hours through the night and early evening too. She will sleep through as long as she's on me and able to suck intermittently when she wants to, but wakes right up and starts screaming the moment I try and put her down. Don't have any solutions (we're trying to find one!), just wanted to say you're not the only one!

We are having similar problems - baby waking up every 30 minutes or hour or so during naps and evenings. Don't know what to do.

But nevertheless I would reccommend the La Leche League approach of SAFE bedsharing, breastfeeding in the side lying position and breastfeeding baby to sleep. It's working well for me at night with 7 month DC1. (See the LLL's Sweet Sleep book for more details on how to do safe bedsharing.)

Zombie thread