6.5 month old waking twice nightly - advice needed pleeeeeease!

[justme27]

Hi all,

Been looking at the other threads and there are threads dealing with similar things ut didnt want to hijack another thread and also hoped you guys could give me some pointers...

Quick routine summary...

8am - wakes up
9am - brekkie
mid-morning - nap for about 30-40 mins
1pm - lunch
3pm ish - nap for about 1 hour
5pm - dinner
7pm - bottle
8pm - bedtime

I have mix fed since dd was born. She slept through from 9pm until 6am from 6 weeks old until about 6 weeks ago (possible coinciding with weaning?)

At night - she has started waking at 2am and 5am for feed and sometimes every 1-1.5 hours in between. I usually breast feed her to sleep and then end up keeping her in bed with me even though she is put to bed in her cot in a different room.

Thought it may be a comfort thing and that she was getting up for boob for comfort so tried getting DH to go in with a bottle but she was having 4oz at both 2am feed and 5am feed.

Put her to sleep by massage in darkened room, bottle then putting her in cot while she's practically dozed off.

Sorry for the long post but thought I'd give all the details. Anyone in same position? Is this usual and nothing to worry about or is it possible to get rid of two night feeds again?

When I asked my (wise) Health Visitor when I could 'expect' DS to sleep through she said, "About 6 months.... but of course that's when they start teething...". Think the book 'experts' forget to mention the second piece of this vital info!

I am sure this is not what you want to hear, but my ds has just gone back to feeding like this - at 10m!!!

Teeth and more, longer night wakes in our house too (6.5months). Good to hear we're not alone. Any opinions when bad sleep habits do start to form - worried we're contributing to them already. When's it teeth and when's it habit? How long is a piece of string ...? Breast feeding back to sleep is the only reliable way at present. If this doesn't make much sense it's because I'm back at work and have a cold on top of lack of sleep - sorry!

I'm afraid I mght be the sole voice that says, "don't put up with it".

DD has just started going through the night at 6.5 months. I suggest your LO mght need MORE sleep during the day - i.e 2 hours or so. At this age, when they start to stir they find it harder to go back to sleep because there may be food, or toys to think about - so by having a longer sleep in the day, where they may come into light sleep and then get BACK to sleep, it is good training for the night time. Could she have her breakfast earlier and then lunch before a good sleep? DD has a nap in the afternoon before 5 of about 20 minutes, and that helps get her through.

I also think that you might benefit from biting the bullet and teaching her to go to sleep alone, even if you find a cheat way, I give DD something warm and smelly (ie smells of me) if she wakes at night, and she doesn't realise she's not with us. If her cot is cold it wakes her up again.

Given half the chance, DD will have mikl in the night, for a while it was her best feed, but now, finally she wakes in the morning and has a drink from BOTH breasts (unheard of in this house). If she woke and had milk, she too would be awake a couple of hours later- -not sure why, but it seems to be a thing they do.

I'm sure I'll be shouted at, but waking in the nght is NOT somethign you just have to put up with. Neither of mine have had really awflu ngihts, and though DD took a bit longer to go through the night I don't believe it is something you have to accept just because they are babies. At 6 months old they are learning to manipulate their surroundings - and don't anyone take me out of context and say I said babies were manipulative!! but they are also becomming more aware of their surroundings and more curious, so when they do wake, they want to look around etc....if she is in with you, the temptation is to look at you, and touch you etc, rather than go back to sleep.

Anywya, I'm going to cut and run now before sharp things get thrown at me.

Hiya S puss

Found your post really interesting actually. I do think dd is capacble of going through the night....

Have been putting her in her own cot and then bringing her into bed with me after her first wake up (around 12-1am) she seems to then wake more regularly once she is in bed with me?

Thing is her being in bed with me means DH is in the back room and that is not good for our relsp but disturbed nights are a killer for him at work....

Am trying new tack at the moment - give her bottle before nap at around 10am and then another bottle before her afternoon nap around 3pm. She also sometimes has a mini nap around 5pm.

Thing is how do you implement all napes etc without never leaving the house!

I would love to get her through the night and have taken all advice on board. Am happy to try 'hardline' approach (to an extent!)

How did you get your lo to sleep through then? What do I do when she wakes at 1am and 4am? Breast or bottle??

hav just seen post, will reply later, have DD on lap trying to kill digital camera!!!!

Thought I'd killed the thread!!