Another 6month old waking at night!

[Redwood]

Hi,

I've just joined the site and am keen to get any advice on my 6month old's latest sleeping pattern...

From about 2 1/2 months until 4 months she slept through form 7.30 until 6am - which was perfect as far as we were concerned. BUT since I weaned her at 4 months she has woken at night and would only settle after 4oz milk. I was concerned she was not getting enough food but have been very careful to follow GF weaning guide and timings. She has always gone to sleep OK and when she does wake as long as she gets her milk she will go straight back to sleep. I decided that as it only took 10 minutes i would let her have her one night feed and hope you would grow out of it.

But now it has increased to up to 5 wakings at various times during the night. The strange thing is she doesn't have her eyes open just starts crying in her sleep, so I know she is not missng me - if I leave her she will wake up completely.

Any suggestions?

I know everyone seems to have used controlled crying but as my daughter is so happy and very rarely cries it seems the hardest thing in the world to do to her at night - sorry if I seem spineless, I always palnned to be tough mum!

How do you get her back to sleep? You don't feed her five times a night, surely! I am a pretty spineless mum - but still did controlled crying at 8months (now 20months). It wasn't very nice to let ds cry but it truly didn't last long and within two nights he was sleeping through. IMO your dd is getting a waking habit that will make your life a misery unless you do something. Think of it as doing something for her - helping her have a good night's sleep. If you are worried about pain/teething give her a spoonful of calpol or baby nurofen before bed. My advice is when she wakes fully (don't go in until then because she might settle back) then pop in, pat her, check for nappy, say 'night-night' and vamoose. Then either go back at intervals or not, depending on how strong you are. I found going back at intervals made ds cry longer to get me back, so I didn't. It sounds harsh I know, but he's SO loving and happy and clearly doesn't bear a grudge! He said 'Lovely Mummy' this evening! Good luck.

Just to say I agree with Aloha and now is the perfect time to sort it out. I speak from experience, one dd who I pandered to and a ds who has just been left. DD now 3 still a pain and ds has his moments but is generally fine at night.

Thanks for the advice,
Last night I woke her at 11pm for a feed which we used to do to try to get some rutine back - she took 3 oz and went back to sleep then cryed 4/5 times in the night aswell!
I've tried loads of things and nothing has worked so tonights the night for the controlled crying. My husband is away so it's just her will aginst mine - I just have to keep remembering i'm the adult.....!

Wish me luck

Good luck. I really don't don't think she needs feeding in the night if she used to sleep through. Just make sure she eats and drinks normally in the day.

Just to let you know, tonight I'll be going through exactly the same thing with my 6 month old. You are not alone!!!!!

Hi everyone,

After reading lost of books /websites etc I decided to cut out the night feeds first then tackle the waking if it still happens. So I decided to gradually dilute the milk over the next week.
The amzing news is she slept until 3.40am.I let her cry for a few minutes then gave her 4oz diluted milk and she went straight back to sleep until 6am - which is the best nights sleep i've had in ages!

And she did exactly the same last night but with more dilute milk.

I'm hoping she will eventualy go back to her old ways and sleep through again.

BeckyR - how did you do ?

BeckyR,

How did it go with your 6month old?

I have made a break through....I have been diluting the milk feed at night and last night she only took 2oz and then went back to sleep. This was at 4.40pm and the only time she woke up. Yesterday I gave her protein at lunch and tea instaed of just for lunch, and a snack of Readybrek at 6.45 just before her bath. She still took 6oz milk at 7.15 and fell asleep before I even got her into her cot which is very unusual.

I think she may have just been hungry before ...we'll see how it goes.