6 month sleep is awful

[Fawn68]

Hi I have posted on this before regards sleep. My son is now 6 months old and his sleep has been horrendous for 12 full weeks now. Every single night.

He is breastfed, now on solids, he settles himself to sleep at bedtime with no crying. Will not take a dummy no matter what type or how much I try. He is on medication for reflux.

He sleeps a max 4hr stretch (which is rare) and then wakes 2hrly. I don't feed him as he isn't hungry, but he wakes crying and will not stop.

Last night he slept 4hrs then woke every single hour from 1:40-7am. I fed him at 2:30am.

Please has anyone got any advice I am at breaking point at this stage 😞

Sympathy to you. Sleep was at its absolute worst for us at about 6-7 months. Solids definitely made it worse for a while, not better.

How do you get him back to sleep the other times he wakes, if he’s only feeding at 2:30?

@AliceW89 I honestly don't know how I can continue with this i am exhausted. So I have tried patting shush etc which doesn't work, I have to sway him back to sleep 😩

We have tried pupd and he cried solid for 1.5 hours so had to give in!

How do you know he's not hungry when he wakes?

@Garman he is on solids and fed 7 times a day and wakes 1-2 hours after sleeping.

Sounds like my baby! We had a nice patch of the 4 hour stretch around 6 months, then for some reason that disappeared about a month later and we're on 2 hour stretches followed by hourly wake ups now at 8 months. There's not a chance in hell I'd be messing around swaying him back to sleep, no wonder you're knackered. Boob him back to sleep and start co-sleeping if you aren't already, you will sleep longer, and you will get used to the wakings. You'll still be tired but you will manage, your body will adjust as long as you're getting at least 6+ hours. It doesn't need to be consecutive. Also, he could well be hungry! You shouldn't be trying to restrict any feeds (including night feeds) until he's at least 1, who has told you he isn't hungry? It could also be teething pain and he may be needing extra comfort from you. Breastfeeding at night is a great tool that gets them back off to sleep very quickly with minimal effort on your part. Is there a good reason why you aren't utilising it?

My DD is also 6 months. She is fed to sleep at about 8pm but sometimes that takes an hour or so. Then she'll wake about 10/11 for a quick nipple suck. Then every hour from 1am - 5/6am when I get up with my other kids. This morning she skipped over 3am though so that was good.

I bring her into the bed and just feed her lying down all that time. If I can, I'll put her back into the next to me but she spends 70% of the night in our bed.

It's not great but to be honest I'm not that tired as I'm basically dozing the whole night.

I do think 6-12 months is the worst for sleep deprivation. You are trying to get them into a 'proper' sleep routine in their own room, starting solids, possibly weaning off breastfeeding etc. The newborn euphoria has well and truly worn off and all the extra help from family etc with a newborn has tailed off. It's tough!

@DonnyBurrito it would be almost impossible for him to be hungry, no way is he hungry every 1-2 hours. He's not even as hungry as that during the day! Our feeds are 2.5-3hrs in the day.

I would like to add that I am feeding him during the night, I'm not just swaying him and not feeding him. He was fed 3 times last night but still continued to wake every hour. So that's how I know it's not hunger.

It's a no brainer IMO. Quickly breastfeeding him back to sleep again isn't going to hurt him, but spending time out of bed swaying him is going to hurt YOU! Your poor back for starters! You're essentially getting out of bed a few times a night to gently exercise.

You said you're at your wits end, it doesn't sound like you've got the time or energy to be figuring out why he's waking up so much (and something you may never get to the bottom of) to then find a solution, to then spend time implementing it... You need as much sleep as possible, right now. Sleep training isn't recommended at 6 months (or at all). The only thing you can do is try to maximise your sleep/rest by not getting out of bed so much at night. He might just have a quick suck on your nipple and be soothed back to sleep, he might get a small amount of milk. He may well be hungry, it's not impossible a 6 month old wants to feed every 2 hours round the clock at all. I was in your exact situation a few months ago, and I chose my short term sanity rather than worrying about any long term sleep associations. There's a book called Sweet Sleep by La Lache League that might help you further. Good luck (and try to sleep as much as you can through the day!)

How are his naps during the day?

My DDs sleep was absolute cack between 4 and 6 months.

I think it was because I always fed her to sleep so she had no idea how to fall asleep by herself. We started doing pram naps instead of contact/feeding naps to wean her off that need to be suckling to get to sleep.

Once she cracked falling asleep on her own during the day the night sleep followed and now at 8 months she sleeps 8pm - 7am.

I sympathise massively, I honestly thought I was going to drop dead when DD was waking hourly, it seemed like it would never end. for you x

@DonnyBurrito thanks! Unfortunately I don't get sleeping during the day as I have a toddler also.

@WestminsterCrabby his naps are fantastic we have absolutely no issue with those at all. He never contact naps on me, and he does fall asleep independently and also at night time also. Just not when he wakes throughout the night.

Mine is 6 months, turning 7 now, and exactly the same. Sleeps 6 or7 -11 then wakes 2 or 3 hourly til 6 or 7am.

No way in hell would I be rocking him to sleep. He takes a dummy for day time naps but screams bloody murder if it's so much as put near him at night.

When he wakes he gets flung on the boob, he has a quick drink or sometimes just likes to hold the boob in his mouth for a bit of comfort. Max ten minutes and he's back in the next-to-me.

Would it not be easier for you both just to feed him? Much less stressful and as PP mentioned, he might be needing comfort with teething.

Op is he swaddled or sleeping bag I would try totally changing the bed time routine I switched DD from swaddle to a sleeping bag and it was a game changer I also don't immediately let her see me if she wakes in the night I give it a few minutes and she goes off to sleep! You are doing amazing functioning on so little sleep

[quote Fawn68]@DonnyBurrito thanks! Unfortunately I don't get sleeping during the day as I have a toddler also.[/quote]
Oh God then yeah you really must be so shattered. If there's no family that can take them both for an hour or two so you can get a quick nap through the day, then if at all possible, try to get a very early night at least once a week. Like 8pm or whenever it is that both the baby/toddler are definitely down by. I've had to do that quite a few times, as much as I was yearning for a tiny bit of 'me time' once the baby was asleep. I found catching up on a bit of extra sleep while he was doing that longer stretch was actually better for my mental health than trying to claw some time for myself. Those 4 hour stretches didn't last for me, I hope they do for you! I would make the most of them while you're figuring out how to cope with the wakings, whether that's using your God given pacifiers, or something else.

I think a huge part for me was accepting that it is normal. Hard, so hard, but normal... and that I was capable of surviving it. Mothers are bloody tough! You got this 👍

My 6 month old ds has just the same sleep patterns as yours, except I never get more than 3 hours in a oner. So a typical night for him is sleep about 8pm, wake at 10, 1, 3, 5, get up about 7. I go to bed about 10, so I'm up three times a night. I feed him every time he wakes, and that puts him straight back to sleep. He feeds for 5-10 mins each time so he must be a bit hungry anyway! He feeds less often during the day, usually every 3 hours or even longer.

I haven't slept more than about 3 hours in one go for six months now, but I'm not tired at all. I feed him regularly through the night, but it's quick, peaceful, and I'm back to sleep ten minutes later. I've tried not feeding him every time he wakes, but he didn't appreciate that much! Maybe he is just comforting, but if so I'm sure he'll grow out of it and the way we're doing things at the mo works fine for us.

Worth a try, OP?

Is he cold by any chance?