Baby not sleeping

[Misfitmum1]

Can anyone help… I’m getting desperate now 😭. Third baby… stupid me I thought I knew how to get babies in to routines but this baby has clearly proven I know nothing! He’s 6 months old now and has never slept more than 2 hour in a row at night… the depravation is killing me.

He’s on three meals a day now… and bottle fed but still needs milk to get back to sleep at night. I’m aware he doesn’t need the milk at night for food anymore, but he needs it to sleep… and the constant waking is killing me off. I tried to replace with a dummy but he just moans on and off for absolutely hours until he eventually cries and I can’t leave him like that because he will wake the other children up. I’m not against leaving a baby to cry or out (within reason)- please don’t be nasty about that- but it doesn’t seem to work… he will moan and cry for hours.

I’ve read that his sleep cycles aren’t connected and then he’s unable to self sooth (hence needing milk)… but how do I break this cycle? I forked out for a sleep coach and she said I should stop giving him his last feed before bed… to feed him milk or solids at 6 pm… then give him a bath, then rock him to sleep… that didn’t sit right with me tbh. he’s not totally asleep when I put him down, he’s usually drowsy and manages to get himself off just fine the first time around… but then he’s awake every two hours after. It’s not sleep regression either because he’s always been the same.

I had to go back to work when he was three months and I can’t take any time off now because I’m self employed but I’m so tired and just need some advice over breaking this cycle. Thank you in advance 💛💛

What is his daytime sleep like? Is he getting too much? Not enough?

Does he have any signs of discomfort - reflux, wind, etc?

If you've explored the above two questions you might find you just have a bad sleeper (sorry, I gave one too). My DS woke up every 2 hours from 3mo, and has only started giving us longer stretches - not consistently, mind you -at 9mo.

Wait till half term and then sleep train for the night.

Dispose of sleep props like the dummy. It'll be hard but it's necessary. And sleep train for day naps.

I don’t have time off work myself in half term and all the children have to go to grandparents then… but at least they will be able to rest if baby’s kept them awake at night I suppose.
he has 3 naps a day.. half an hour ish at around 9am, about an hour after lunch around 12-1 ish, then about 30 mins at about 4pm. I don’t think he has reflux, or silent as he’s generally very happy.. my eldest daughter had silent reflux and she was visibly in pain all the time. Thank you for your help. Xx

still struggling here… 😢

Have you tried extending his awake time? I would try avoiding the 4pm nap, make it earlier if he still has three or try and push him to two a day. It’s awful (especially the last hour in the day) but I make sure my little one is absolutely exhausted by the time she goes to bed.

It’s hard to hear when you just want to fix the problem but you could try everything people suggest and he just might want his mum when he wakes up. I spent 6 months wondering why my daughter was such a bad napper/sleeper. She never napped for longer than 30 minutes and I constantly compared her to my friends’ babies. What worked for them never worked for me. She turned a corner with sleep after Christmas (7 months), sleeping a few hours at night without intervention, and now at 10 months it’s improving again. It’s not linear, you can drive yourself mad looking for patterns and solutions and sometimes they just need time. Have you got family around who can help you? X