6 month sleep getting worse!

[MrsB902]

My DD was a decent sleeper as a newborn but then she hit the 4 month sleep regression and I feel like she has never recovered!

We have recently moved her to her own room and she has been poorly too which I’m aware will impact her sleep but for the last week or so she’s been waking hourly from being put down at bedtime until around 3am when she will then be really difficult to settle back to sleep. The last couple of nights I’ve resorted to popping her in my bed but feel anxious about doing this!

She is usually able to self soothe to sleep initially at bedtime (lies with her dummy in with me sat next to the cot shushing), is formula fed and no longer feeds over night. Can anyone offer any advice or did anyone go through similar and it settled down itself? She’s my second baby but I don’t remember it being this bad the first time around!

Does she have white noise on?

Why not offer milk after 10pm . can’t hurt

Good shout from PP about a white noise machine. Your baby spent 9 months listening to your heartbeat, blood flow, digestive system, gasses moving around, your voice etc They're not used to silence. They know your scent, too, so something that smells of you will really help as well.

Yes sorry I should have said we have continuous white noise on and have used this since she was born. @Whatsinaname67 it’s funny you’ve mentioned that, I actually asked Chat GBT earlier out of desperation and it suggested offering a small feed for the first wake after midnight - I guess I just thought if she was hungry she wouldn’t settle back to sleep and if I’m completely honestly I’m reluctant to get back into the habit of night feeds when she hasn’t had them for so long but suppose she might just need the extra calories at the minute.

She's not settling back to sleep though, is she? If she's up hourly then not going back off after 3am. I'd definitely still be giving milk in this scenario at that age.

I mean I wouldn’t have thought she would go back to sleep at all, albeit she’s only going off for an hour or so. I suppose it won’t hurt to give the milk a try though seeing as we are up anyway, fingers crossed it might make her go a bit longer between wakes.

Just an update for anyone who is in the same boat - I offered a 5oz bottle just after midnight and she slept from then until 5:50am. I’m now feeling absolutely terrible that maybe she’s been hungry the whole time! Definitely taking it as a win though and hopefully she will start being more settled with the re-introduction of a night feed.

Night feeds are completly normal up to 12 months and beyond! Glad it's helped. She is probably having a growth spurt so is more hungry.

Just wanted to pop on and update - our five hour stretch after reintroducing a night feed was a complete fluke! Since then DD has been waking every 15-20minutes from bedtime until I give up and take her into my bed. I’m not sure whether it’s a touch of separation anxiety as she will sleep next to me or whether it’s to do with her learning to sit up and commando crawl. Did anyone else’s baby lose the plot at 6 months and did they eventually get back on track without any sleep training?

Yeah, I find baby sleep goes nuts every so often for a bit. My youngest slept through for months and now gets up every night. There was no rhyme no reason for the changes. If you keep your routine consistent, it does sort of smooth itself back out to normal eventually. If co-sleeping helps and you're happy to do it, then it might be your answer. Personally, I never co-slept with mine because I couldn't imagine anything worse than being kicked by my kids all night, but then mine were never quite as bad as waking up every 15/20 mins. My eldest was a horrible sleeper though, and we never sleep trained him. He's almost 4 now and started sleeping through at 18 months of his own accord.