Sleep Difficulties

I have a seven month old who did the same thing. I found that when we let her cry out, her stubborn streak really shined through, but if I went over to her talked to her for a minute to calm her down, offered her the pacifier and walked away she would only cry for 5 more minutes before going back to sleep. Hope it helps.

Call Dr. Weissbluth and make a sleep consultation ###-###-####). You are so lucky to be in Chicago (me, too) where Dr. Weissbluth is accessible. If you do exactly what he says, your baby will be sleeping almost perfectly (and will be so happy!) within 48 hours. Dr. Weissbluth is a miracle-working, LIFE SAVER in terms of sleep. Seeing him is even better than his book :) You will thank me :)) My daughter is so happy always, developing beautifully, and sleeps AMAZINGLY thanks to Dr. Weissbluth. You have to do exactly what he says -- strict schedules (no breaking), no stroller/car sleeping, etc... Good luck -- let me know when you have seen him.

Do you have a regular nap schedule? as well as bed time routine? I have found that 'sleep begets sleep' - as hard as it may be to believe?

Hi M.,

6 months is to early to expect him to sleep through the night. He may be on a growth spert, so he is hungry, or he may be teething. He is also to young to let him cry it out. You need to wait until he is 11 to 12 months to do that. It is totally normal for a baby under a year to continually change their sleep pattern. My first woke up every 2 hours until she was 11 months & my second woke up two to three times a night until he was 10 months. Lack of sleep the first year is all part of being a mommy. If you need more rest then take naps during the day when the baby naps. The other option is to pump before you go to sleep & have your partner do the night feeding.

I really wouldn't worry, at six months he may be teething or
just changing his sleeping habits. Relax not all babies or children will sleep from seven til morning, mine don't. I look at their daily routine and some days if we haven't gone out they are not sleepy as early.

At six months I really think babies are still not reliable sleepers. Maybe he is going through a growth spurt? He may still need a feeding at that time especially if you are only nursing. It seemed like it took my son until about 9 months to developed a consistant sleeping pattern. Just hang in there...

Hello,
Don't know if this is helpful, but I, too, have had a good sleeper from the start (she's now 14 months), and when she started waking up and crying, I was so worried about starting a bad habit to get her back to sleep. However, I noticed that these periods are just phases, and that it usually accompanies something else... teething, solids, growth spurt (usually the latter, in our case). Because of that, I would often nurse her or give her a bottle to settle her back to sleep. It seemed like she wasn't getting enough during the day when this started to happen, so I would slowly try to add more food/nursing during the day. That seemed to help a lot! These phases only lasted around a week as I was adjusting her daily intake, and each night I would give her less and less milk, and then try to ease back into just comforting her to get back to sleep. So far, it seems to work. Even at 14 months, she still has random times of just not being able to get through the night... I don't know if that's any consolation, but it seems like you're conscious of doing everything 'right' to help him get back to sleep, and then just hoping for the best!
Take care,
Jen

I wouldn't worry about it too much - babies changes ALL of the time, and he's only 6 months old - just feel lucky that he was sleeping through the night at all! I nursed my little guy back to sleep for the first year - it was the only way for me to get sleep too, and he has grown out of it just fine and is a great sleeper now. Although at 2 1/2, there are still nights that he wakes up and I have no idea why. I know it's definitely difficult and frustrating, but try to remember that he's still a baby and maybe he just needs his mommy! Good luck, you'll get through it.

This is exactly when my daughter started having problems! It could be that he is actually hungry. Have you started solid food yet? I have started feeding my daughter avocado (fresh, mashed up) and rice cereal in the evening, then nurse, pj's and bed, and now she'll sleep until 4! If she does wake up around midnight (about half the time)I'll try to pat her back (she sleeps on her tummy now), but if that doesn't work I do nurse her, just not to sleep. As soon as she starts to slow down like she's falling asleep, I take her off, burp her, and lay her back down. I hope that helps!
T.
ps I have been told that "through the night" only means 6 hours at a time, at least while they're still little.

Hi,
I have a 7 month old and he stays up until around 10pm and usually sleeps through the night. Sometimes he gets up at 1am and I nurse him to sleep within minutes. When I do this...it isn't creating a habit because he'll go for a week without waking up in the middle of the night again. I think that when babies are this young, they are still going through major growth spurts and maybe just get hungry sometimes, while other nights they can go 10 hours without sleeping. I like to think of it this way...sometimes you're more hungry one day than the next, right? It seems like this may be a problem when they are 1 year or older, then I would try letting them cry through the wake up or make sure he isn't wet, and pat his back for a second.

Your son may really be hungry...check with your pediatrician about including cereal and/or fruit in your child'd diet. Also watch those late afternoon naps.
good luck! Just remember this too shall pass.

Don't beat yourself up. You are just lucky that he was able to sleep through the night so far. Most babies his age DO NOT sleep through the night. Moms will often brag about finally being able to get their kid to sleep but usually that lasts for about a day or so then their babies wake at night again. By then, the mom usually doesn't admit that their kid is waking again because she bragged so much that he/she was finally sleeping through the night!

Sounds like 11:30 is pretty normal. Do what you have to to get him to sleep at that time. It's still reasonable for you to nurse him at that time if need be since you can still get back to sleep. If he wakes in the wee hours, you might consider night weaning at that point, just not the 11:30 feeding. It will not create a bad habit. Once they start getting more calories from solids (at about 1 year) they will not need to nurse as much. I nursed my son to sleep (still do) and he learned to sleep through the night fine (he's 15 mos). As far as cry it out, technically, their memory cannot process this type of "learning" until much older. Whatever they learn by crying one night will probably not carry over the next night. My son also cried forever (45 min?++). I tried to CIO for about 1 week +. Yes, it worked for a little while, but then he started getting in all his teeth so his sleep went out the window! Back to square one. At that point, I decided I didn't want to do the CIO thing again. Yes he does cry at times, but usually only for 1-5 minutes before settling to sleep. If he doesn't settle by then, he won't. My husband will then go in and lie down on the floor next to his crib, sing to him, rub his back, etc. When he was 6 months if nothing worked I did nurse him back down.

You can try some homeopathic teething tablets called Humphrey's. You can get them online or at Merz Apothecary in Lincoln Square. He might be teething and you don't see anything yet. This might explain why the nursing helps (massaging the gums). Don't let yourself feel like a failure for not having your baby sleep through the night. There are so many factors that affect sleep the first year, there's no way you can know them all!