6 month old wakes frequently at night and doesn't sleep in day!

[princessp]

Hi everyone. My little boy who is 6 months this week is such a bad sleeper. He has never been a good sleeper but has had nights wheb he has slept for 6 hours straight. I am now lucky if he sleeps for two hours strsight in the night. One night thus week he woke 3 times from 8.30 and 11pm. He seems like he is starving when he wakes and wants to feed. I am exclusively breastfeeding him. Although he has started having a couple of spoonfuls of solids this week and he is 6 months now. He cannot self settle. I have tried puttin him down awake but he gets so worked up. Cries and cries until I feed him. The frustrating this is that he used to go for long stretches at night but the last two months has been gradually getting worse. No he wakes every two hours on average.

He doesn't sleep much in the day either, only really when I'm nursing him, in the car or in the pram.

Some people have said that he doesn t need feeds at night anymore. But he won't settle unless I feed him and also if I cut out his night feeds he will be cutting his daily calories but half I'm sure.

 

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I feel for you Hun it's very tiring! Sounds like he is having a growth spurt maybe? I ebf DD who is now 14 months and still feeding at bedtime.

We tried a few things to get her sleep patterns sorted, trying not to feed to sleep is really important even in the day, it feels like it will be impossible but it really worked for us! Also as he's now that bit older do you find he gets distracted when feeding in the day, DD did but at nighttime when it's quiet she'd feed for hours lol! Think about where you feed to make sure he's focussed...I used to have to send husband away and turn the TV or radio off!

During the day try getting him to nap, then feed him when he wakes up so you establish a little routine and he knows what to expect. Now others may disagree but at this stage I got DD to sleep by whatever means possible...bouncing, rocking, singing etc! When she had a pattern I worked on getting her to go down awake and self settle.

I think getting daytime naps sorted was a big part of getting her night sleep sorted, if she is overtired she always wakes after a couple of hours even now.

Self settling is tricky, they have to learn it like a new skill, initially.I would rock her until she was drowsy then put her down and leave the room, if she stayed awake but quiet I'd leave her and cross my fingers! If she was upset I'd go in and rub/pat her back in the cot but not lift her out. (Sort of a variation on the shush pat method-Google for better idea) I'd just repeat this until she settled for naps and bedtime.

It was a long slog but she's pretty good now and only gets upset if she's poorly or teething.

These are just a few ideas that worked for us, if anything doesn't make sense just ask and. I'm sure other mums will have ideas too. Xx

 

[princessp]

That's really useful thank you. Yes I have noticed that he is distracted in the day. Probably why he feeds more in night. His day feeds are shorted than they used to be. How long should one feed be do you think. Does times he has a couple of minutes only. Wheb I put him down awake, he cries hysterically and even if I go in and pat and shush him he stil steams and I mean scream. I will try to feed him when he wakes that's a good idea. I will try and get him to sleep without feeding him in the day.

 

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It's really hard to say how long a feed would be as they get more efficient when they get older... If he's only having a couple of feeds maybe offer more often in the day for a while and see if it makes any difference. I seem to remember my HV saying DD was probably getting her calories at night rather than in the day and to try and feed her up a bit!

We had the hysterical crying too, I can understand why because they're being stopped from getting what they want...you! Be really gradual it won't work overnight, but try to be consistent, maybe set aside a week where you don't go out much and try and get the naps cracked...even if you just do a morning one and work on an afternoon one in future. Shush pat might not be the way to go for you, if it doesn't work after a week try a different technique.

If baby is upset and you are getting upset try to rope in hubby or family in to help, it's very hard when you're ebf and it feels like only you can sort it but trying to separate the sleep and feeding issues helped me.xxx

 

[tinselcat]

I am in a similar position to you - last night I decided that baby couldn't be hungry when he woke up for the 4th or 5th time at 1.30am wanting to feed again (he'd settled into a 2-hour night feeding cycle) so we had an hour of very upset and loud crying while I cuddled/shhed/sang to him instead of feeding. Eventually after about 1 & 1/4 hours he nodded off again. Am waiting to see what effect (if any!) it has tonight, as my theory was that he was waking up purely out of habit... it wasn't all that long ago that he managed to go through the night on one occasion!

 

[princessp]

Tinsel cat please do let me know how it goes. My little one is doing the exact same thing. Wakes so often at night he can't be hungry all those times.

Tonight he fell asleep at 7pm, woke 30min later. Back down at 9. Woke at 11.30 and has been feeding for 4 mins and won't let me put him down. So annoying as he has slept for 6 hours or more before.

 

[tinselcat]

Hi princess, I think it worked as for the evening/early night section of the night he slept pretty well compared to yesterday. He woke up at 9ish, 1.30, 3.30 and then 5 for feeds. Which is an improvement as the day before it was pretty much every 1.5 hours in the evening.

I knew the 5am feed was completely gratuitous today but I didn't have the energy to object... but I think tomorrow I may try to reset his tummy on that! (especially as he was sick on me afterwards, and then on the floor).

I'm pretty sure some of these are just bad habit, with his body clock thinking "well this is when I fed yesterday morning, so I'll wake again now"!

Good luck! xx

 

[Mummybexee]

At nearly 6 months - sounds to me like you should consider starting some weaning! Obviously needing abit more than Breast feeds.

 

[russellmuscle]

As some of the others have said, I would suggest increasing bubs solidary intake. Alot of babies comfort eat, alot of babies sleep like a wee log before weaning and dont really need it. Although I do know that Jackson did and still does sleep better after a good dinner.

He is of age now, there is tonnes on BLW if thats a route you want to go down..

C xxxx

 

[princessp]

Thanks all. He has started having porridge at about lunch time but his sleeping hasn't improved. I will be introducing other solids other next few weeks. Also tried to get him to nap in day by rocking. So not feeding to sleep. He also self settled last night but his sleeping pattern was worse. Wouldn't settle back in own cot after his night feeds.

 

[Sprout]

Honestly, the night wakings and not being able to self settle sound pretty normal to me. I'd relax, expect it and ride it out

 

[princessp]

I totoally expect night waking however he doesn't seem to be able to.settle at all at the moment. He wakes every 30min in the night. He finally went to sleep at 9pm this evening, only to wake at 9.30!

 

[tinselcat]

The HVs advised me that sleep patterns would alter during the weaning period so hang in there

Yesterday I managed to give my boy a third solid food meal (up from 2 for the previous several days), I also put him in his new grobag and gave him a final breastfeed which lasted for ages (I fell asleep) but put him to bed around 8.30pm

He woke up at about 3.30 and 6am - woohoo! Sanity sort of restored here. Hope it keeps up.

So things I tried were:

1) moving onto more solid food so I could be sure he was getting enough
2) try to wear out baby during day so he doesn't sleep too much then
3) "controlled crying"? (lots of hugs) for an hour when I was sure he didn't need any food and got him to go to sleep via other means

Good luck hun xx

 

[CARNAT22]

I have no pearls of wisdom, but I can completely sympathise.

Bee has gone back to waking up several times a night and comfort feeding for hours. Co-sleeping is the only way I get any kind of rest but it's not actual sleep. She also rarely sleeps for longer than 30 minute periods in the day, she is too nosy.

I am so not used to this, James slept through from about 10 weeks and has done ever since..... Bee is killing me!!!

I am hanging onto the fact it won't be forever but I bet she is one of those babies that doesn't sleep!!! I was actually an awful sleeper as a baby and looks like history is repeating itself.

X

 

[princessp]

Thank you all for your comments. I actually think he is teething as he seems to cry in pain and often has his hands in his mouth. Have tried given him calpol and he slept for longer bit I can't gI've that to him too often. If he doesn't have it he tends to wake every hour. It's slowly killing me.

 

[russellmuscle]

If bubs is teething you could always top him up with some gel.

maybe even a wee cool yoghurt a wee bit before bed? soothing the gums and filling the tummy..

xxxx

 

[princessp]

Hi all. Thanks for all your advice. Update.
Last night my baby wen to sleep at about 8.30. He woke then ag 11.30 for a feed. I fed him and at 12.15am I put him back in his cot as he was sleeping. He didn't settle at all. Usually at this point I would feed him some more to get him to sleep again
However last night I wanted to try and settle him down without feeding him as I knew he had had enough milk following a 45min feed. I cuddled him putting him down now.and again in his cot but mostly cuddled him for 30min. He steamed the house down for that 30min bit eventually fell asleep by himself in his cot.

He then woke at 5.30 (which is a really long sleep for him) . I fed him and put him straight back in cot. He cried fot about a minute but I continued to pat him and he settled himself to sleep.

I am pleased that he settled himself to sleep twice. However he still had two feeds in night. My health visitor has tolde that there is no need for him to have any feeds I'm night if he is having enough in day and therefore to go cd turkey with the feeds.

I don't know whether to drop one of the feeds, is so which one or to just not feed him and cuddle him to sleep for all wake ups until he gets the ideas and he won't be getting milk when he wakes up.

 

[tinselcat]

That sounds like a great improvement! My unscientific approach would be to drop the feed that occurs when you want sleep the most

I've also been reading about the importance of establishing a bedtime routine to help babies self settle, with one person saying do the feed at the start of it and put them to bed while still awake, however my boy always falls asleep during his evening feeds and I am somewhat reluctant to wake him! :-D