Need Some New Sleep Advise for an Overly Sweet 6 Month Old

If he is hungry feed him. Acid reflux is painful and gets worse at night. I know you are tired but you have to put his needs first.

Sorry, my boys didn't sleep through the night until after 18 months. A pediatrician once told me that at 6 months my son didn't need to eat at night. Right. Try telling him that. He would still wake up hungry, so we fed him. That's all he needed, and he went back to sleep.

We co-slept with our boys until they were 18 months. It was the best way we found to actually get a decent night's sleep. After that we put them in a twin bed and let them join us in bed in the middle of the night if they wanted to.

I think you just have to hang in there until he gets a little older. Take turns with Daddy, and sleep in at least one day each week. I usually get to sleep in on Saturdays, and my husband sleeps in on Sundays.

I don't believe in sleep training, and I definitely don't believe in CIO. I believe in meeting my child's needs, even in the middle of the night.

Hang in there. He will grow out of it.

I reccomend co-sleeping if possible. I was against it when my DD was a newborn, but by the time she was a few weeks old I had done a complete turnaround and made life much easier by just pulling her into bed with me. :)

If he has reflux, inclining the crib a bit will probably help. Laying flat is NOT comfortable for a reflux baby. I actuLly had my dd sleeping in her bouncy seat for several months as she had reflux, and slept better in it.

Sounds like he is getting up once, just different times. Feed him if that what he wants and put him back to sleep. Not much more you can do. If he was waking every hour that would be different. Only once a night, consider yourself lucky!

Sorry, I can't improve on that sweet baby! Count your blessings!
If you were nursing it could still be up much more than that. Let me guess, this is your first BOY? They are pretty hungry, needy and don't self soothe as quickly. As boys go, he's great:)

Not one of my kids or grand kids slept through the night until they were toddlers. I just think it's a myth...

I think infants have to wake up every few hours to eat. They need the food every few hours until they're toddler and even then they should will still wake up hungry when they're about to have a growth spurt.

He could also be starving. If you're giving him baby food he's likely to be going without nutrients and needing to binge on formula during the night.

I called the hotline one time for either Gerber or Del Monte and the person I talked to told me that the products they make are NOT for nutrition, they're to teach a baby to chew and swallow. Baby's need only their formula/breast milk for that first year. It has every nutrient they need in it.

If the baby is waking up and is hungry it might be due to him not getting enough formula during the day.

Baby food is okay, not bad for the baby by any means, it's just flavored goo. A tool and not for food.

As soon as it is cut up for cooking it starts losing nutrients, then it's cooked and processed into goo. By this time it's mixed with other substances and not very much of the foods nutrients are left.

Then it gets put into a glass jar and sealed up. The seals are tight BUT they do allow air in but it's minuscule amounts. Then the baby food is put into boxes that go and sit in warehouses for possibly months. Just aging.

Then it finally gets on the shelf where the temperatures and light start deteriorating it even more.

The lady told me all this. She said by the time you get it home it is nothing but flavored goo. It's not nutrition.

If you must feed your baby at this young age please consider getting a cookbook about cooking food for the baby.

After that conversation I bought a couple of cookbooks and used them. Remember your baby needs formula first and will until they are much older. The vitamins and nutrients in it is healthy for the baby and it's needed.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Feeding-Toddl...

http://www.dummies.com/store/product/Baby-and-Toddler-Mea...

I don't have any advice for you. I wanted to say I understand and it sucks. Both my kids were not good sleepers. My first one had acid reflux and was just sensitive to everything (and he still is extremely sensitive at age 10). He would wake up 6-8 times a night!!! Till he was 1 year old. Can you even imagine what a mess I was? Then the next year he would be up 2-3x a night. I was actually thankful for that. Ha. My second one was only up a couple times a night but is just now a good sleeper at age 4. I wish I had had one child who was good at the sleeping thing. So, from my perspective you have it really good!

oh geez, i'm so glad you're NOT leaving a happy baby to cry hard! CIO is a hinky proposition at best, and certainly not suitable for such a small fellow.
if he's only waking up once to eat, that's really not that bad.
if he's actually in discomfort from the reflux, it's a bit much to expect him to 'train' himself out of it. most adults can't train themselves out of pain and discomfort.
if this were my baby i'd resign myself to a somewhat disruptive schedule for a while yet and give him what he needs when he needs it. the phases pass so quickly at this age that he'll be onto the next one before you know it. it only seems long when you're in the middle of it and not getting enough sleep. you need to have your husband or mom take a shift now and then so you can get a good sleep, but you can't expect a tiny baby with hurting gums or belly to tough it out.
khairete
S.

I'd cut out one of the naps, probably the last one. If he's napping until 6:15 or so, he's not going to want to go to bed at night. Also, he is so used to sleeping for short periods of time, he doesn't get that long sleep at night that he needs (and that you need too).

I'd try something else for the reflux so he can eat more and spit up less, and so he's more comfortable lying down at night for long periods of time. I don't think the tylenol or ibuprofen is a good idea long term, only when indicated for significant teething pain or a decent fever (not a minor one). I'm in food science, and I can tell you that the reflux can be dealt with nutritionally (vs. meds) and that might settle him down in other ways. We also are seeing some studies that indicate overuse of NSAIDs is linked to diseases particularly of the gut.

I'd keep the swaddling for now - don't change too many things at once, you know? If it gets hot and you don't have AC then you can deal with that in a month or two. But yes, you need sleep and frankly so does he, so I'd work on the other things I mentioned. He's also got to learn to self-soothe, but that won't happen if he's uncomfortable from the reflux.

Wake up at the same time every day. Start a eat, play, sleep schedule, so he doesn't eat and then take his nap, he plays in between. Make sure he gets lots of tummy time and practice standing during the day.

So he's not up all those times but just one and it's random which one? If so, seems normal. Even my second who was easy was still up some at that age. But what helped was I would go to bed early and my husband who is a night owl anyway would do a "dream feed" before he went to bed at 11 or midnight. Could your husband do that? Basically feed the baby whether he's woken up or not... Nudge him awake with a bottle and the baby usually goes right back to sleep. That definitely helped me out. Then I was on duty if there was another wake up but with your baby there may not be one...

It's probably time to drop the third nap. This may mean an earlier bedtime, but, maybe he can sleep from 6:30-6:30. Have you tried a sleep sack? And does he have a transition object?

Here's the thing, I have three kids. Two slept 10-12 hours by 6 weeks. At 5-6 months, it fell apart. The developmental stuff with teething just makes it hard for babies. I am usually good with 1 night waking to 12 months, so if baby wakes prior to 2-4, I pick up-put down. After a few nights, they stop waking. Around 9-10 months, I then wean from that last night nursing. I do timed reduction of nursing, dropping 1 minute every 3-4 days. When it gets down to 2 minutes of nurse time, I offer water. They usually stop waking after a few nights. This is all in the baby whisperer. I love her stuff!

Hang in there. You are in the midst of one of the worst wonder periods. There isn't much you can do, just hang tight, take care of yourself, and remember it will change soon :-) if you are like me and you need to feel like you are doing something, check out the baby whisperer. It's a middle of the road approach, and I've found it to work well for us.

Is it time for solids? That may help the night hunger. If you're not into teach-to-sleep, then I also recommend cosleeping. I found when I was breastfeeding it was great for baby and me. I would put the baby on the breast while lying comfortably, and we'd both just drift off to sleep. Unfortunately bottles during the night require a lot more waking effort.