Advice for a 6Mth Old

C.,

When my son was starting on foods my doctor told me not to feed him late because he would wake up hungry and want more. You may want to adjust the 5pm and 7pm feeding. If you try switching it and give him the food at 5 and then follow up with the bottle feedings you may find that his body adjusts and he might sleep better? Anyways just a suggestion. Hope this helps.

L.

Hi C.! A lot of sleeping issues are mainly due to just that, sleeping issues :) Doesn't make sense? babies who wake up a lot are either too tired to stay asleep (are wired), or don't know how to put themselves back to sleep. it's often a combination of both. at 6 months old, he doesn't need to eat at night- he's asking for that 3am bottle out of habit. Cut that out first- he is used to getting the bottle, but he doesn't need it (unless your ped specifies otherwise) Try and structure his mealtimes during the day so that it mirrors a more adult schedule- bottle when he wakes up, then cereal, then lunch, another bottle, snack, dinner, bottle, bed. Sounds like you're doing that part well. :)
Next... you have to teach the vast majority of children how to sleep. they learn what we teach them. if you go in and feed him, go and comfort him every time he cries, then he learns that crying will get that response, and you're training him to do it. Now, of course you should comfort your son when he cries, but you have to teach him the appropriate times for calling for mommy. middle of the night is not one of them, unless there's a serious issue. At 6 months, he really should not be awake more than 2 hours at a time. Every two hours (or when he shows the slightest bit of tiredness) put him down for a nap. Keep in mind excessive fussy and fidgety-ness are signs of tiredness. Whether he fights it or not, give him the opportunity to sleep. SOme kids sleep 2 hours, some only need 30 min at a time. Regardless, they need to sleep to recharge. Start with every two hours, naptime. He'll probably fuss, but you're the parent and you are in charge.
Create a stable, easy bedtime routine and stick to it- start with dinner around 5, bathrime, bottle, quiet playtime, and then bedtime at 7.
Finally, for nighttime wakeups- let him fuss it out for about 10 min. then go in and check on him, but don't pick him up- you're showing him you're there and you understand he's upset, but unless his diaper is full or he's hurt, he doesn't need to call for you. i'm not advocating CIO- i don't believe in that, but i do believe it's okay for a baby to fuss around and figure it out themselves. try this sched out for 2 weeks... i am confident it'll work- or at least provide a framework for you to create a schedule that will work for you. good luck!

I can't believe a nurse told you to keep your 6 month old up all morning long and only let him nap in the afternoon. Please don't listen to her!! At 6 months old, a baby needs about 14-15 hours of sleep a day... about 12 hours at night and about 3 hours during the day, or more in some cases. The reason why your little one isn't sleeping through the night is because he's overtired. At 6 months, you should be putting your baby down for his morning nap about 2 hours after he wakes up in the morning, then again in the afternoon for another nap. The more sleep he starts getting, the more sleep he is going to want...also once he starts being well rested you will see a change in how easily and readily he will fall asleep. I would recommend getting the book Healthy sleep habits, happy child by Marc Weissbluth. We had serious sleeping issues with our little one for the first 4 months of his life... after spending 2 months working on my son's sleep he is now 17 months old and sleeping 12 hours through the night, and nappping 3 straight hours for me in the afternoon and is incredibly happy and has a great disposition when he's awake. You're baby is so young that this sleep issue should be easy and quick to fix :) Teaching our kids good sleeping habits this early isn't just about having them be well rested, but also about teaching them soothing skills for later in life so they can become lifelong good sleepers. Happy sleeping!!

C., I say give it time. He's getting older so I would try to eliminate the noon nap, and keep him active at night until about 9pm and see how that works. As the nurse says, feed him before he goes to sleep for the night. You didn't say, but I would give him a nice calming bath before I put him to bed as well. That used to work but I don't know about now. I wish you the best!

Make sure that the baby is digesting all that food and milk well. The waking up could be a problem as simple as gas.

Hi there,

Yes, I have to disagree with the nurse as well. Some babies don't sleep through the night. It's just the way things are. Unfortunately as moms we take the brunt of it, but we're moms, so we endure.

Honestly, a six month old waking only once per night sounds totally normal, even nice, to me. Many babies wake more than that at such a young age. Your baby is still little, wait unitl he gets a little bigger to look at taking away a feeding.

hey you know my daughter is 10 months old she still gets up for a bottle about 3 or 4, at 6 months old she got up twice a night and her dr told me that she was old enough to have a little cereal in her bottle before she goes to bed. and your schedule may be off some such as at your babys 2m bottle try a half jar of baby food to keep him full and refreshed and i saw others wrote you it may be gas or a reflex problem with milk and alot of kids have it and parents dont even know. my nephew had it and they never new till 8 months old. so try food for lunch and cereal at night but not much. hope i could help

First off-it's very hard but be patient and give it time. I have been there and my daughter is not almost 14 months and I think I am seeing the night more and more. It will get better.

I second the recommendation on adding cereal to the baby food; do not put it in his bottle. I did the adding cereal to the food to make sure she is full. I nursed until 10.5 months and found that once I stopped nursing she stopped getting up every hour-she obviously was not getting enough to fill her tummy at a feeding.

Others advised of the overtired syndrome as well. That is true from my experience. One school she was in was not laying her down in her crib during the day for her naps so she was waking before she was well rested-only getting 2 short 30 min naps and then maybe passing out exhausted for an hour after 5 when we got her home. I changed schools for additional reasons but she was lied down in her bed as requested at the new school. She immediately was getting 2-1 hour (minimum) naps during the day. She might power snooze for 30 minutes in the evening but that was ok. I consistently tried to make sure no matter how much she slept during the day that she always was in bed by 8pm. We have to leave by 7am. Anyway her waking decreased to 2-3 times once the longer naps during the day were introduced.

Gas drops and teething tablets. Another cause of my daughter night waking at your sons age and even now is acute gas pains and teething-can make it difficult for her to fall asleep. I use the teething tablets sold in the pharmacy section of Target-just as the pharmacist. They are homopathetic so they contain no drugs and are dissolvable-my daughter loves them cause she knows they will make her feel better. 2 is all it takes after I brush her gums before a bottle when I know they are bothering her at night. I use mylicon gas drops for her belly.

Just give her water at night. I still give my daughter Formula at 14 months before sleep times and when she wakes in the morning, just to make sure she is full and getting enough vitamins. Since about 11 months I assured myself of her nutrition in take during the day and took the advise of just giving her water after she was lied down at 8pm. I started out by watering bottles down ~2 months prior until we got to just water. She now knows she will not get milk/formula until after 5 am at least. This is the time acceptable for my husband and I to wake. You could decide on your own wake-up time.

I feel for you and am scared of having another child because I feel like I haven't slept in 2 years-couldn't during the pregnancy either. My daughter did sleep 10 hrs straight the last 2 nights. Yeah! Your son will do this also just be patient and try to enjoy the mommy time and comfort of knowing you are taking care of his needs and being there for him. Obviously, I don't believe in the CIO option.

A book that also helped was the no cry sleep solutions book that was recommended to me by moms on this site. It was a very quick read-I know just the thought of reading a book almost made me pass out of exhaustion and that's why it took me several months to break down and order it online. But I read it on my commute and ~2 days.

Good luck and stay strong-you'll get to sleep some day.

It is normal. He sleeps for 6-8 hours straight, you should be happy :). It took my youngest until she was 14months to sleep thorugh the night in her crib. She slept through the night at af ew months old before then, but the differnce was most of the time she slept in bed wiht me. Your baby is fine, just go wiht it. He seems like he is already on a good schedule, belive it or not.

Going to bed around 8/9pm and waking around 6am with one middle of the night feeding around 3/4am sounds completely normal to me. My daughter had a middle night feeding until she was about a year old. She also woke every hour until about 7 mos. All babies are different, some sleep better than others, but waking once at night seems to be on the better side to me. good luck and hope you get some good suggestions!

it would be unusual for a 6 month old to sleep through the night. poor tired you. but keeping him up and only giving the little guy one nap during the day doesn't sound to me like a great thing to do with a baby so young. he NEEDS his naps! the advice you got to let him fuss a little, to go to him and speak softly to him and let him know you're there but not get him up and feed him makes a lot of sense to me, but if he's really hungry (and at 6 months he may well be), feed him! it'll be much less draconian than depriving him of sleep during the day. he's just too little for that.
good luck!
khairete
S.

I would have to disagree with the nurse. As backwards as it may seem, the more a child sleeps, the more they want to. If he's staying up too late in the evening, his sleep will be more broken and he may wake up earlier. Not sure why, I just know it happens. I was having similar problems, also putting my son to bed at around 8 (sometimes 9 before he was asleep), now we do bath and bedtime stuff around 7, and he's usually asleep by 8. He sleeps much better, and sleeps later in the morning.

C.,
I have three kids too and they were _all_ different in their sleeping habits. The youngest, now 2, started waking in the night at 7 mos and only recently started sleeping all night, but not regularly. He's simply a much lighter sleeper, never napped as long as his brothers. Just remember that they're all different and often they don't follow "the book".
What I would ask is, does he seem content and rested during the day? If so, then maybe he's getting all the sleep he needs. What's unfortunate is that _you_ have to rest and go to work. Maybe you can take turns trying to get him back to sleep at night. Or maybe you should go to bed earlier. I would try to cut out the feeding during the night, though. That's a hard habit to break--I know from experience.
If he's irritable during the day then he possibly does need more sleep. Good luck!

C.,
I was a little unclear on the flow of the day. Can you write out eactly what his routine is. How much is he napping each day and at what times? It sounds like he's feeding frequently as well, perhaps too frequently. I mean in the sense that he may not be hungry enough nad only snacking which then keeps him hungry more often. Without knowing more detail, I would really suggest you try pushing him to a 4 hour bottle/breast schedule i.e 6 am, 10 am, 2 pm, 6 pm, 10 pm (sleep thru). I followed the approach given by "The Baby Whisperer" for my first ( I have an 8 month old) and she has a really great approach that creates balance for you and your baby. Maybe you and your hubby should take a look a at the book and see if if that style fits the two of you. It sounds as if his schedule just needs a bit of tweaking. My son was able to be up about 2- 2.5 hours at 6 months, and was still mostly on 3 naps a day. Take a look at this book and see what you think, I LOVED it!
good luck !!!

You realize that your son is considered sleeping through the night is he goes to bed at 8-9 and wakes at 3-4 that is 7-8 hours of sleep. His little body need to be trained. So slowly decrease the amount you feed him at 3-4am and he should wean off that feeding. He may still wake but maybe he'll learn to comfort himself back to sleep without the feeding. My oldest son now 7 didn't sleep through the night he would go to bed at 8pm and up at 11pm, 1am, 3am, 5 am like clockwork and stay up from 6am. He did that until he was 5 1/2 years old. He now only sleeps from 8pm until around 2am and wakes and then goes back to sleep until 6 ish. We have done ALL the tests and that is just his body rhythm. So feel blessed that you get 7hours. Good luck.

C.,

Try adding cereal more often. You can add cereal to the baby food so that his tummy will be fuller. I have a 4 year old and an almost 2 year old. My 2 year old still gets up in the middle of the night sometimes to be changed or whatever. Making sure he has a full tummy when he goes down for naps or night time will help him sleep better and longer.

I feel for you! My daughter (now almost 3) didn't nap for more than 30 minutes at a time until she was more than 1 year old and down to one nap a day. And she didn't sleep through the night until 7.5 months. It sounds tough, but completely normal. What ended up working for us was pretty feeding her a bit more during each day time feeding, but putting her down for more naps since she was taking such short ones (as she got older, we combined them and she learned to sleep linger until it was one, long nap a day). I then fed her more in the afternoon/evenings, including one last 8 ounce bottle right before bed (which was around 9:00). As she got used to the one nap, and realized she was getting more calories during the day, she gave up that 3:00 feeding. Sounds like common sense and what the nurse already told you, but maybe it will start working soon so you can get some sleep! Good luck!

Hi C.,
I started watering down the night bottles until they were just water. That seemed to help get my son to stop waking for a bottle. Of course, he is now 15 and still not the best at going to sleep.
~A.

I babysit a 4 month old and she takes a good nap late morning and then another smaller nap in the afternoon. She gets here a little after 8 a.m. and her mom says she usually wakes up around 6:30 or so. She has a bottle around 9 or 9:30 and takes a quick nap or sits in her bouncy seat or plays on her mat. At around 11:30 we start a good feeding...a big bowl of cereal. After she eats that, she'll drink a bottle and then take a wonderful 2.5 hour nap. When she wakes up she'll play for a bit. Around 2:30-2:45 I'll feed her a veggie with some cereal. She'll drink a bottle and take another nap until her dad picks her up at 5:00 (she usually wakes up before he gets here and we play). I think if you stick to something like that and then add a feeding with cereal and veggies at around 7:00 or 7:30 and then a bottle right after that...maybe he'll sleep a little longer. The above schedule is what works for me with the child I babysit for and it worked for my 2 young ones (now 4 and 5). Trial and error....Good luck.

Sleep begets sleep, so even though it may sound odd, putting him to bed earlier will probably help. We were having issues with my daughter, and since we started putting her to bed between 6:30-7:00pm, she sleeps much, much better. When babies are overtired, they have more interrupted sleep as opposed to sleeping better. "Healthy Sleep habits, Happy Child" is a fantastic book that really helped us. My daughter now naps around 9am and 1pm and goes to bed around 6:30 and sleeps usually about 11-12 hours. Check out the book- it really works!! Good luck.