Not Sleeping All Night Yet

It is completely normal for a 6 month old to not be sleeping through the night. Neither of my children did until they were over a year old. It's hard but it will eventually happen. A routine is good but don't cut out naps, sometimes an over-tired child will wake up more at night. Do give him a few minutes to try to go back to sleep.

What do you do? NOTHING. As he gets older he WILL sleep all nigh. Some kids do at 3 months, some kids do when they are 1,5 year...each child is different. Warm bath are good, but do not let him stay all day up, he is too small fort this and as you can see, he is grumpy for a reason....

How long does he sleep at night? Do you have a nighttime routine you do with him every night? I WOULD NOT keep him up all day without a nap, that is insane. My daughter is 3 and still takes a 2 hour nap every day. In fact, your son could still be taking two naps a day. If you don't already, you need to have a routine/schedule in place and stick to it. It may take a few weeks to adjust but it will fall into place. When he wakes at night, what do you do? Do you immediately go in or do you let him fuss a L. to see if he can put himself back to sleep. I wouldn't run in at the first peep he makes. Also, rule out any teething, illness, reflux, a/c blowing on him, etc.

Try a "dream feed," where you go in and feed the baby while they're sleeping as the last thing you do before you go to bed. It teaches them to sleep for longer periods of time and should give you a longer stretch of sleep. That's how we got our 4 month old to eliminate that 4 am feeding

Babies are so individual in their needs. Based on real-life observation of a couple of generations of babies, I'd say FAR fewer than half are sleeping for the whole night by 6 months. Maybe half by 9-12 months, no matter what techniques their parents employ. Sleep "training" is sort of a medal of parental success for parents whose babies are naturally able to sleep through, but a bad joke to parents whose kids won't or can't sleep easily.

Keeping a baby up all day often results in an overtired baby who cannot sleep well, or who begins to develop dysfunctions that cause increased problems. Sleep begets sleep. But if your son is still needing night feeding or comfort, it's your job to give him what he needs.

Some babies (my grandson was one) don't sleep reliably all night until they are older than two, and there is NOTHING in the world besides heavy drugs that will make them. You will probably feel less unhappy about this if you just accept that no matter what certain sleep 'experts' say to sell books, many babies simply have legitimate needs that wake them up at night. (Find this in really tiny type on your Parenting Contract).

Look for opportunities to grab naps while your son takes his.

Here's a really useful web link on children and sleep: http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/sleep.htm

I agree with the suggestion to read Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child. I've read them all and that's the most practical. First and foremost, get the little guy on a nap schedule, 2x/day. Example: morning nap ###-###-#### or 1100 (wake at 11am), afternoon nap 130-330. Bedtime routine and down at about 730ish. Then it'll be easier to tackle the night time. 6 months is still on the early side of sleeping thru the night, but by cutting out one feeding at a time AFTER he's on a good nap schedule, you can soon expect him to do a good 12 hrs each night. Sleep begets sleep.

I would also suggest reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child. I've read a lot of sleep books and that one seems to have the most sensible advice.

My son is around the same as your's and has developed good sleep habits. I've been quite regimented with his schedules (sleep, feed, play) from early on. That said, some days he will be completely off schedule (or we have special things going on) so we just go with the flow then.

Naps are key (DS still has 3 per day) if you want him to sleep well at night. Not very intuitive but works!

We still have a "dream feed" at 10pm but otherwise he sleeps from 7 to 6:30 everyday.

It's totally normal for a baby not to sleep all night until a year or more. My baby started getting up just once around 9 months and still does. It's okay. It's a stage and he will eventually sleep. Just because some other babies start sleeping through the night at 2 months or because your ped says he "can" doesn't mean he is personally ready to do it. Every baby is different.

You should not keep him up all day. Getting overtired is not good for him; he NEEDS sleep -- at least 2 naps, probably 3 naps -- a day to be healthy and well-rested.

Be patient. Take naps and go to bed early if you can so you can be rested even if you have to get up several times a night. Have a good bedtime routine. Play white noise while he sleeps. Make sure you feed him 'til he's full during the day so that he hopefully won't be as hungry at night. But realize that he's perfectly normal ... most babies don't sleep all night at this age -- my baby was getting up at least every 2 hours at that age! It was rough, but we got through it and she now only wakes once in the night, and that's just fine. I can do once! She'll give up that waking soon enough, too.

By the way, at 6 months I believe the longest period of wakefulness they're supposed to have is 2.5 hours. Follow his cues, when he starts to get grumpy, rub his eyes or nose, put his head down on you, yawn, etc. you should put him down for a nap. It's counterintuitive, but "sleep begets sleep", meaning that a well-rested baby tends to sleep better than an overtired one.

A.,
Congratulations!
Your baby won't sleep through the night. He wasn't designed to. Sleeping through the night is actually less than optimal.

Try Dr. Jack Newman's website (it's bf'ing but I believe he also talks about sleep ; ) or kellymom.com.

If he's grumpy, try smiling. : ) You would be surprised! My older son will smile and laugh at the younger when he's crying for x, y or z reason, and he'll start laughing almost right off.

good luck!
M.

Hi A., I so feel your pain! My now 8-month old daughter wasn't getting through the night at six months either and I remember doing the bath,bottle, bed routine every night and praying that this night would be the one! It finally happened at 7 months for her. I read different books (which I could barely get through as I was so bleary-eyed!! The irony of this is amazing), enlisted friend and family help/advice, but nothing worked. I became desperate and thought I was never going to get a continuous chunk of sleep longer than 4 hours. What finally worked was a combination of two things: intro of solid foods (2x day) and moving bedtime to 8pm. One book I read swore the solution was moving bedtime earlier which I tried and didn't work. So now our evening goes: 6/630 dinner, 7pm bath, cuddles, watching her big brother, 750ish bottle, book and night night! She, thankfully, rarely fusses when it's time for sleep and is very happy to snuggle her bear and watch her mobile, falling asleep within 5 minutes. To note, her day naps aren't great- bout an hour or so 930am and 3/4pm- so I'd definitely still try for day naps so he doesn't have breakdowns because he's so overtired. Hopefully he'll get there by the magic 7 if not sooner....good luck!

Hi A.,

I see you got some good responses here, but here's my two cents' worth.
Motherhood teaches us patience. I had 3 kids in 4 years and didn't get a good night's sleep for 5 years. There may be "tricks" these days to get a kid to sleep through the night, but I just let mine work it out for themselves. I always went in to nurse or soothe or rock them, even if I had just been in with them a few minutes before. Infancy and childhood pass so quickly, I would savor every moment...and nap when they do! ;)

Good luck!
"Grams"
from the Pocono Mts. of PA

I'm right there with you. My daughter is 6.5 months and has decided to tease me with the good life a couple times of about 4 days straight with sleeping through the night, but then shes right back to waking once a night. She takes her nap at 930am for about two hours then again at 1230 for two hours then a 30min nap at 5pm. If she doesn't get those naps she is fussy and not a happy baby. I figure she will do it when shes ready.
Every baby is different. My niece is two months old and sleeping through the night already. She has the same sleep pattern as my little one. Each and to their own.

Just not ready to sleep thru. I would definitely not keep him up all day. He
needs his naps.

Try allowing him a two hour nap in the afternoon. He must still need a nap if he is grumpy. Six months is young. Many children need a rest after lunch into the early elementary school years.

Be sure to wake him up by four o'clock so he will be ready to go to bed for the night around eight o'clock.

Read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. It is very informative regarding sleep patterns in children. Good luck!

sorry hang in there my kids woke up every night til 5 yrs old try everything and if it dont work one day they grow out of it Do what works for you not what people tell you you should be doing

I found with my kids that the late night "dream feed" was the key to me getting a decent amount of sleep. I put the baby to sleep then a few hours later (for me around 11 pm) I gave the baby a bottle. I would have to wake them up and mostly they only half woke up and only ate about half of a daytime feeding. But that late night feeding got them past needing to wake up between 3-6 am (when I was an exhausted zombie mom). I also had a good 2 nap a day schedule in the daytime and I usually napped for one of them myself if I was tired.

Babies should not be kept up all day to try to make them sleep through the night. He is an infant. Is he waking up because he is hungry and wants a feeding? If so, withholding naps and giving warm baths will not make him sleep through the night. He certainly should have a feeding before bed, and if he needs one in the night. Is he eating solids yet? At six months, he can, and if you give him a before bedtime feeding of solids, maybe he wont' be so hungry during the night. Sleeping through the night isn't something you make them do, it's a natural milestone that each baby reaches when he or she is ready, it's not a learned behavior.