My daughter is just shy of being 6 months old. When she is sleeping in her crib, the first time she moves AT ALL she wakes up screaming. I am guilty of going in every single time and 9 times out of 10 having to rock her back to sleep. Hubby doesn't like this at all and honestly I am starting to agree with him because to me its ridiculous going in more than 5 times a night. It starts about 30 minutes after she goes down for the night. Any advice?
What is wrong is that she can't self-soothe. She's never learned how. And it's miserable for her to have to depend on you.
If you sleep train her (and it's hard, no kidding), she will stop waking everytime she moves. She will learn to sleep through the night.
Read up on the Ferber method (new edition). One of the things it talks about is being 100% consistent. If you aren't, then you shouldn't even bother trying.
Good luck,
Dawn
A 6 month old absolutely needs sleep training. I know a lot pf people don't like it but CIO works amazingly well if you do it right. Let me know if you need more info.
Try putting some white noise (I use a small fan) next to baby's crib to help drown out noises.Two hours after her last nap, give her a big bottle, rock/snuggle her a bit, and then put her in her crib BEFORE she is actually sleeping. If you rock her until she is asleep everytime, she will expect this everytime she wakes.Don't let her fall asleep with a nuk or nipple in her mouth either. The way she falls asleep the first time in the night is the way she will expect to wake up. If she wakes up within 2 hours I would let her cry, probably won't take as long as you might think. At 6 months you may still need to feed once or twice at night. I usually fed once before I went to bed, and then again at about 4-5am. If you don't want to let her cry try reading Pantley's 'The No-Cry Sleep Method'. I've used both, and it really depends on the kid and what you can handle. But the crying it out works alot faster...at least in my experience. I promise it works, but take it or leave it...Good luck!
You have to let her cry a little so she learns to self soothe. My older two were and still are wonderful sleepers, but my youngest is a terrible sleeper. I used to go and get him when he'd cry because I didn't want him to wake his brother (shared room). This was a mistake because he's three and still cries for me to come or just gets up and comes in my bed EVERY night. I wish I would have let him cry it out when he was a baby so he would know how to get back to sleep by himself.
She could be hungry.
If she is awake & hasn't eaten in 3 hrs, pick her up quietly, change her diaper, keep lights dim, be quiet, feed her, burp her & put her back to bed.
Try some white noise in the room.
You could do a nightlight behind her dresser so she has some very dim light.
Make sure she isn't teething (my son started at 4 months). If so, you can rub Baby Orajel on her gums at this point.
When I would feed my son for the last time at night (right before we went to bed at 11, I would do a "dream feed: p/u, make sure diaper was dry - if not, change it then give a bottle or nipple if breast feeding while they are still "asleep"....that would buy me 3-5 hrs at night).
Also, if I held the baby after feeding and they fell asleep in my arms, I would put the baby down w/i 10-15 mins for an easy transition.
I swaddled my baby until 5 1/2 months (that cut down on the moving & waking themselves up thing) but at this age she's probably too old.
If you do go in, just try in & rub her back.
Tell hubby not to worry about it since you're the one going in & trying o help her get back to sleep. Try to get out of bed quietly w/o moving the bed & tell him to stay cozy in bed & sleep.
Hang in there . Try what I said and this stage won't last long. None of the stages do, they are just hard to get through.
I would ignore the screams.
We ignored and after 3 days, wow! But he was a few months older. I too was guilty of what you did! And then they get used to it.
(Now, at 6 months she is probably still eating at night so pick a time or two to feed, ignore the rest).
I got them to sleep through by 10 months (but honestly it was age 2 before they ALWAYS did so). She is still young.
A 6 month old does not need sleep training. A 6 month old needs to be cuddled , fed , and rocked.
Not going to your infant when she needs you and giving her what she needs will do nothing but stress everyone out and she will loose confidence in your ability to give her what she needs.
She's 6 months old that's a growth spurt month, that's also a big milestone month. When they are growing and when they are working on a new trick they always sleep worse. Have you tried putting her on her tummy? She should be rolling over by now and sleeping on her tummy will prevent her arms from falling and hitting the mattress and waking her up. Make sure she's eating enough, she will eat more, more often at 6 months. Try putting a warm (make sure it's not hot but only warm) heating pad in her bed before you put her in, taking it out of course before you put her in so her sheets aren't cold and that waking her up. Don't do cry it out, the majority of babies that have to do cry it out , have to repeat it some time, it doesn't really work. Ferber went back on his method. Why trust something even the creator doesn't trust.
The western countries are the only ones that sleep train.
check out the cultural differences
https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-training/baby-toddler...
I agree that your daughter's basic problem is that she never learned to self soothe. It seems that you have always been there to do that for her. Try sleep training her, look up methods online or in books and see what looks like it will work for you, and stick to it. Whatever you do, she has to learn how to put herself to sleep or you will keep having this problem. Think about it, even adults almost always wake for a brief period at some point during the night, but we just turn over and go right back to sleep. Your daughter doesn't know how to do that so you are having to do it for her.
Try some music in the room maybe but remember anything you do could become a habit, use a night light, be sure she's warm, not wet, wrap her tightly but not swaddling at this age, Put her on her side ( Are we still allowed to do this? ) and be sure she's okay then let her cry a bit. It will not hurt her and she knows you love her already. If you do go to the crib pat maybe but do not pick her up. It won't last long because she'll figure out soon that she needs to go to sleep that you are there but not getting her right then.
