Mom W/ a 6 Month Old--needs Some Helpful Hints

on this 7-8 times at night--what does he do? Cry? Eat? Change diaper? Can you just pat him and he goes back to sleep?

Read Babywise!!! It really does work. My girlfriends had success and recommended it to me with my first and I had success. It's all about getting your baby on a schedule. With my 2nd and now 3rd baby, I tweaked it a little so it worked for our home and schedule. My baby turned 6 months on Oct 21st and she is sleeping an average of 10 hours a night and going 12 hours between a feeding at night. Any time you need to chit chat or need some mother-to-mother advice, send me a message. Good Luck!!!
S.

I am so sorry you are having a tough time. First I would like to say getting a baby on a schedule is difficult but you need to. I have 3 kids(the youngest is 5 months old) all were breast fed and sleeping through the night by 2 months.
At his age he should be in bed sleeping by 7pm. Put him in there and let him cry it out. In the beginning it could take up to an hour of crying. I stayed in the room and pat their backs help keep the binkie in their mouth if he takes one. When he gets up through the night do the same thing...do not take him out of the crib. If he needs to be changed do it in the crib with as little light on as possible. During the day he should be taking 2 naps lasting 2 hours each. Usually they are ready 2 hours after waking up then 2-3 hours after they wake from that nap. Dinner should be around 5-6pm then bath time and then in bed at 7.
The right amount of sleep will help keep your baby healthy and progressing at a normal rate as well as happy. Plus if Mom is well rested everyone will be happy!

Good Luck
K.

I am assuming he's no longer breastfeeding, so I suggest a pacifier. A little clip to his jammie so it can be found quickly.

Also, I don't know if you do this or not but, don't go to him at the very first sound. Sometimes when my daughter was little she would make sounds in her sleep, but if I just waited and listened she usually just settled back down. If she did need me I moved as fast as possible to her to make sure she didn't wake fully. It might take a few times before you can tell which sounds are what, but it might help.

Good luck.

I can't stress enough how much I agree with an earlier bedtime and schedule. I have a 7 month old (today). With my older kids, I never had to get a real schedule down. They fell asleep eating and that was that. My daughter doesn't always fall asleep eating, so I didn't realize I had to "teach" her to nap. She was a very unhappy baby and got up every 2-3 hours at night, until I got her on a schedule. I felt bad, cuz I thought she was just a high maintenance baby who was going to give me a hard time her whole life. Turns out, she was sleep deprived!! I got Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Once I got her on a nap schedule, she was a totally different kid and slept better at night. Although, the CIO method is not a fun thing to go through, we did it with our older kids and it only took a couple nights. I didn't start it with them until they were at least 9 months. If I find a different method to get my daughter to sleep through the night, I may try it, but will use the CIO method since it worked well for us as a back-up. I feel babies like schedules. You don't have to be a tyrant about it, but basic guidelines helps the baby and you, not just you. In fact, the nap schedule limits me more than conveniences me. However, it's better than having a very crabby baby and completely sleepless nights. I wish you the best of luck!!!

I have a child who hates to sleep and eat and do just about everything on his own terms so I can totally relate. He was my first child and I didn't realize how important a schedule really was. The first thing I would say to you is don't stress about this anymore. I know you are saying okay easy for you to say. The reason I'm saying not to stress is that your child can pick up on this and react. The other reason I'm saying this is the more negative energy we put out on an issue the more negative it can get. That being said what I found that helped our situation was this. First decide on course of action. I can see that you have been given a lot of great advise. Then decide whatever method you choose is going to work period. And stick to the plan and be consistant. We picked an earlier bedtime about 7:30- 8:00 and limited it to one book after bathtime. For our son a shorter ritual was better. I would place him in his crib and tell him I loved him and mommy would see him in the morinig. Then I would go back every 15 minutes and tell him mommy loves him and that he is safe. I would not pick him up or stay. He screamed and really put up a fight. My husband sat on me for real. But after the first two days he fell asleep within ten minutes. I hope this helps. I know how hard it can be.

When my sons was about 4-5 mos. old, I also tried cereal at night, thinking that would help him sleep longer. Big mistake for me. He woke up more frequently and more when cereal was right before bed then in the morning. I think it is because his tummy got soooo full with the food, and then when it is digested, it is noticed more that his tummy is now empty. Just a thought to give the food earlier in the day, and stick to bottle just before bed. Don't put him to sleep with a bottle however.
Good luck! This too will pass.
R.

My opinion is a bit different than most of the moms. I have 2 kids (3 and 19 months). We never set a strict schedule because it seemed like it was more about what was convenient to us vs. what they needed. We had a general schedule.

When it came to feedings, our son NEVER drank more than 4 ounces at a time (even at a year). Our daughter was completely different. He was a snacker, she engulfed everything.

Babies run on instincts mostly in the first year or two. We are there to guide them. Perhaps he's teething or something else is going on that he needs to be soothed.

As a full time employee who drove ~100 miles/day, I couldn't afford the sleep to let a baby cry it out for a week. With our daughter, cancer/chemo got in the way of sensibility. Trust your instincts. If you are tired/stressed, you can't be the best mom to him. And, it can make your own health suffer which will only exacerbate the stress.

Good luck. Wish I had more help to offer.

A lot of people don't like the baby wise book but if you use the basic principal, it works. I have a 13, 12, and 3 year old. My oldest slept in my bed until he was about 4 so I was determined not to make the same mistake again. My (younger) neighbor was telling me how her 8 week old baby slept through the night so I asked her how she did it and she said she read the book Baby Wise. So she let me borrow the book and it's the best thing I could of ever done. My neighbor breast fed but I didn't. If you don't want to read the book the basic idea is to have a schedule. I swear if you follow it your baby will be sleeping through the night, my youngest was at 11 weeks (7pm - 7am). Basically when the baby wakes up in the morning he should be ready to take a nap in 3 hours. If you follow the schedule all day long by evening the baby should be down for the night. You wouldn't think so but the better he sleeps during the day the better he will sleep at night. So here it is, the baby is on a awake, eat, play, sleep schedule. Say Liam wakes up at 7am, you feed him, play with him and keep him awake until 10am Put him down for a nap, hopefully 1 - 1 1/2 hours, when he wakes up you feed him, play with him and put him down for a nap around 1:00, when he wakes up you feed him, play with him and just let him have awake time. Around 4:00 you put him down for a nap, when he wakes up you feed him, play with him and give him a bath and by 7pm you put him down for the night. Basically from the time he wakes up he is taking a nap every 3 hours. THIS WORKS, and it doesn't take very long. It is so nice to be able to plan things knowing when your child will be taking a nap. Nobody could believe that my son was sleeping from 7pm to 7am, they all said your so lucky. I told them luck had nothing to do with it, I put him on that schedule. I told my pediatrician that they should give this book to every mom. Please don't run and grab the baby every time he cries, this is a new schedule and he will get use to it. I asked my doctor and he said that letting the baby cry for 20 minutes isn't going to hurt him. It always seems longer that it actually is, so if the baby cries look at a clock, because you may think he's been crying for 20 minutes and it may actually only be 10 minutes. Letting them cry is hard, I sat there crying wanting to get him but if you just wait they will stop. Some people may say you can't let them cry but they are probably the ones up until midnight with their kids letting them rule the house. You can have a normal life, your baby is joining your life, it shouldn't be the other way around. In the end everyone is happy you and most of all the baby. Please try this and don't give up. Please try it for a couple of weeks and let me know how it's going. I'm sorry this is so long but I just want you to know that it does work.

When my littlest was about 6 mo old his schedule was...

Dinner around 6 or 6:30 (baby food, cereal & sm bottle), lavander bath, a bottle before bed and rocking, then bed around 8 or 8:30. He sleep till about 6 am, I would get up change him, give him a bottle (8 oz) and rock & cuddle with him. He would be back in bed by 7:30 so I could go to work. He would wake again around 10 or 10:30, daddy would give him a meal (baby food, cereal and sm bottle), around 1 they would have lunch (baby food, cereal & sm bottle) and then nap from around 2 till 4:30 or 5 when mom got home.

So, I guess like most of the mom's said he did get 2 naps for about 2-3 hours each, 3 meals and a few extra bottles each day. If he did wake at night... very rarely I'd try to wait to see if it was just him adjusting or if he really needed something. Just like us, sometimes they wake up uncomfertable and need to find a new position and will go back to sleep if we let them.

I will say we have tryed getting all my kids on this schedule, but the youngest was the easiest. My now 4 year old was the hardest. He did have troubles with gas though... once we started giving him baby gas relief he started sleeping more on the schedule, but he was about 9 mo old when he did.

Good luck - hope you are able to get sleep soon!

I swear by the book "Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Baby". Read it; it worked wonders on our first who for the first 3 months of life - was about as sleepless as yours. Once we read and we established and earlier bedtime - it made a world of difference. Both of our kids at that age were going to bed by 7:30 and not getting up before 5 - for a feeding and then back to bed until 7.

The other questions I would have though - does your son have any allergies. A friend of ours older son have several allergies and until they found out - they couldn't get him to sleep through the night. Just a thought.
Good luck!

Hi K., Yes, a schedule is extremely important. My kids know when it is time to do everything. They are creatures of habit now. It is hard but by 6 months it should be easier. I am religious about night time routine which I think helps. We have dinner then bath time then bedtime around the same time every night. I used oatmeal bottles for my son when he was that age. He was drinking 9oz by 6 months so I would put in at least 3oz of oatmeal in addition warm it up so that the oatmeal will swell a little. all this after bathtime. My daughter doesn't like cereal in her milk so I started giving her stage 2 food mixed with a 1/3 cup rice or oatmeal then 5 oz of milk after bath time. It seemed to work. She is now 9 months and I now give her stage 2 vegetable with rice or oatmeal and then a stage 2 fruit as well before bath time. She doesn't want the milk but she still sleeps thru the night. Hope this helps!

Do you swaddle? My baby sleeps much better being swaddled. Also - not sure what your schedule is... my husdband is a SAH so I don't have to get the baby up in the morning. This let us get her on a schedule of going to bed around 9 which means we get more time in the evenings. So - I don't feel a child has to be in bed at 7 if they are able to sleep later in the morning. I also suggest the pacifier as well as trying to let them fall back asleep on their own. Our baby is still in our room, but I had to move her from right beside the bed to the opposite corner. Whenever she would move or make a noise - I was awake. Now that she is further from me, I've noticed I still wake up, but if I leave her be, sometimes she goes right back to bed. If she's hungry, she tells me. Best of luck! BTW-don't stress about notes saying -my baby slept 12 hours at 3 months, etc....ALL babies are different. We are at 5 months and only get up once a night. My friend has a 8 month old and is still up 3 times a night (they put her down at 7PM) my other friend has a baby that can sleep though anything and for 10 hours straight and she is at 4 months. You need to find what's right for you and your child.

Maybe he's not comfortable. We always dressed our baby too warm. Once we figured that out and stripped down on the layers a bit, he slept much better. It's hard to go through all the possibilities when you're totally sleep deprived but he might be too cold or too warm, or the room might be too loud or too quiet (try playing soft music?), or too bright. Or if he falls asleep with a pacifier and it falls out, that can wake him up. You also might just respond too fast. If you let him cry for 10-15 minutes, does he fall back asleep? Don't you wish they could just tell you what the problem was? :) Best of luck!

Hi! Oh my sleep is so essential. How do you function? We uread and used a book called "the 90 minute sleep program" and loved it. It worked well for our daughter. There is also a book called the happiest baby on the block that my help.

Oh K., I feel your pain! My first daughter (now 2 1/2) didn't sleep through the night until she was about 9 months old. It was awful. Like you, I was up all the time. First off, cereal bottles do no good. Most pediatricians will tell you to never put cereal in a bottle, unless your child has reflux. Cereal should be given on a spoon only. Plus, there's no proof that it helps them sleep longer. With my first daughter, I would wake up at every single little noise she made. My husband gets up really early and works long hours, so as soon as she started to whimper, I would run in there and grab her before she had a chance to wake him up. BIG MISTAKE! It would cause her to wake up more and then she wouldn't go back to sleep. She never took a pacifier, so the bottle was her comfort. I would be feeding her all night long, it seemed like! One night I decided to wait before I went in there, just to see what would happen. She fussed (never cried) for about 3 minutes and then went back to sleep. This was at 9 months, not 6 though. It is possible that your little guy could be getting teeth and it's bothering him. What time does he take naps and for how long? If he's sleeping a lot during the day, he could have his days and nights confused. It's hard to say with out more information. I hope you can get it figured out soon though. It's really hard to function on no sleep!

I know it sounds strange, but he may not be sleeping well because he's overtired. I second the suggestion of putting him to bed at 7. Try reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child - it's great and gives you options to try along with good scientific evidence (of which I skipped or skimmed most of b/c I was too tired and just wanted a plan!). If he is still breastfeeding, there's hope! My breastfed baby slept 12 hours at 3 months.

I had a five minute rule for myself in the night. I did not go to my kids at the first sound. I would watch the clock for 5 minutes. My thought was that this would give them a chance to go back to sleep if the really didn't need to and they learned that mom wasn't going to jump to their every whim. If they truely did need something than 5 minutes was not going to hurt them to wait unless they were in pain or sick and you can tell the difference in those cries. When I did go to them, I tried not to just feed them immediately. I would try to not take them out of their cribs if possible by patting their backs or humming to them. If I could get them back to sleep then great if not then try feeding. If I got them back to sleep and they woke a second time then I knew they were hungry that time. Most of the time I did not have to feed them they just were having trouble going back to sleep. But be patient if you decide to try the 5 minute rule.

Our bedtime ritual was cereal, bottle/breast, read or sing to them and into bed by 8. I wanted to rock them to sleep despite what the "experts" say, but all of my kids preferred to just be laid down During the day at 6 months they took 2 naps during the day. They usually woke for the day around 8 and by 10 or 10:30 ready for 1st nap for 1 to 2 hours. playing for a few hours and 2nd nap around 2 or 3. I always woke my kids by 4 or 5 depending on when they actually got their nap and how long they slept so that they were ready to go back down for the night by 8.

We found the best way to have a good nights sleep was schedule, schedule, schedule. At least schedule a naptime routine that works for you and feeding routine that works for you and stick to it, and it doesnt matter if you bottle or breast feed. I did both. I couldnt breastfeed my twins and they were sleeping through the night by 3 months and so was my breastfed singletons. Schedule.

I believe in compassion when it comes to sleep issues (no BabyWise CIO). I liked "The Baby Whisperer Answers All your Questions" and "The No-Cry Sleep Solution".