Please help with my 6 month old's sleep problems!

[aimee11621]

Have you checked to see if the temperature in the room is correct maybe too cold or too hot?

Light in the room ??? Our bedroom faces the street when there is a car passing by you can see the headlights.

Maybe she is being startled by the headlights? Dogs barking ?I Know too predictable.

Good luck

 

[tonyswife]

Oh, thought of something else after reading that last post...

White noise. I turn static on the radio a low level in his room. It blocks out outside noise.

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

I had the same problems with my 3rd. I didn't want him to wake my husband and children so I got up with him. I took him to the pediatrician and told her to check him out. I was so sleep deprived on 3-4 hours of sleep a night that one day I almost ran my mini van into a concrete barrier.

His doctor could not find anything wrong with him. This is what she told me. "HE IS SPOILED ROTTEN! Tonight do not go into his room unless he has a hurt cry. You know the difference." I was so physically exhausted at that point I said, "he can cry until the cows come home! I need some sleep."

By the third night we never heard a peep out of him.

Good luck and take care of yourself.

Lori

 

[WDWorBUST]

I wish I could help you but I have my own problems I have a 9 1/2 month old who sleeps with mommy and daddy and likes it that way. Granny holds her during her naps and she is spoiled rotten. But I cannot stand to hear her cry. And daddy isn't much tougher....he pretends to be but he's not. I like having her in bed with us but she is getting big enough that we either need to 1. By a king sized bed (we have a queen) or 2. Get her in her own bed - which I am okay with. We've had 9 months snuggled together....I do love it. The stupidest "baby" purchase me and DH made right now is a CRIB! What is wrong with that? I too breastfeed her so when I went back to work bringing her in bed with us was a necessity for me to function. She slept in her cradle the first 2 months of life. Any tips out there?

 

[decker96]

Welcome to my world!! Well my world 4 months ago anyway. My youngest went through this from 4 mos until 6 1/2 mos. The worst part about it was that she started sleeping through the night at 2 1/2 mos all on her own, then all of a sudden at 4 mo. she's up again and not just up once for a couple minutes, she's up for three hours! It was the same thing, I'd rock her and as soon as I put her back in her bed she'd wake up. She would only sleep if I was either walking with her or rocking her and I actually had to get her back to sleep before I could sit down in the rocker. I too thought it was teething, but Tylenol didn't help her either. I also took her to the pediatrician twice, sure that she had an ear infection, nope. I couldn't let her cry either because she would cry so hard she would make herself throw up. I don't have a problem with babies crying, we let our oldest cry herself to sleep many times, this one just couldn't do it. I know exactly how you feel. I was averaging about 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night and not in a row either, and I had two other kids, plus the baby to deal with the next day.
I bought this book called The No-Cry Sleep Solution (I can't remember the author right now, I got it a B&N on-line). It did help but I still think it was teething with my DD. I read an article on teething that said it's not really the tooth busting through the gum that hurts them the most. It's when it's moving up through the gum which can take a couple months before it actually pops through. My DD got 6 teeth in the time span of 3 weeks. After the last two popped through, she went back to sleeping through the night within two days. I'm not sure why the Tylenol didn't help, maybe it was just too painful and couldn't take the edge off for her. As she's gotten subsequent teeth, (only two more and they came in one at a time), she's had a bad few nights before they've come in. I think before she just had so many coming in at once it was unbearable for her. I think it's different at night because during the day they're busy playing, chewing on stuff, etc.
I did notice that you said that for naps your DD sleeps for about 45 min wakes up and then goes back to sleep about an hour later for 45 more min. Have you tried getting her back to sleep after the first 45 min? If she's going back down an hour later, she's still tired after the first 45. With my kids I noticed that if they were on a more reg. nap schedule, that helped their nighttime sleep alot. They all also have small fans in their room for background noise. I think this does wonders!
My best advice for you, especially since you only have one child is NAP WHEN SHE NAPS! Let go of the cleaning and the laundry a little bit. The world is not going to end if you have dust on your table or crumbs on the floor. This will not go on forever and you can then get back into your usual routine. If you're tired and crabby because of your lack of sleep, you're not doing yourself or your child any good. My SIL told me this when my first DD was born and it is the best advice I ever got. You do feel guilty about it at first, but trust me, I'm a much better mom when I've gotten my sleep.
Good luck to you and remember, this too shall pass, although I KNOW it totally sucks when you're going through it. Feel free to PM me anytime!

 

[diznygirl]

Okay - read this post!

Babies have a growth spurt at around 6 months, so it could be she's hungry. But the growth spurt only lasts a few days. So I don't think this is it.

I think it is the teething - she's hurting and wants to be held and comforted. Tylenol doesn't work on some babies - try the infant Motrin. And comfort her - that's your job as Mom. Or dad could help out. And don't just give her the medicine and put her back into bed - hold her until it takes effect - this could be 15 to 20 minutes.

Of course, then you may need to break her of the habit of waking up at 4 to be held, but that will be a lot easier, and you will notice the difference.

Babies need 14 hours of sleep - for my DS it was two 2 hour naps and 10 hours at night. For my DS it's two one hour naps and 12 hours at night. (And they were both sleeping through the night at 2 1/2 months and I ddin't use anyone's method. That's just when their little tummies are big enough to hold enough milk to get them through the night).

I really think all the books do is train the parents to do something-anything to keep them busy while the babies are just doing their own thing.

Six months is too early to be growing out of naps. I'm sure your DD is exhausted during the day from not getting enough sleep at night.

Remember - every child has the same basic needs, but every child is different!!

Good luck!

 

[shortbun]

I don't think I'd be going to bed at 6 or even 7:30.
Try 9 instead of 9:30. big changes are very hard to
implement in sleep patterns. The nap thing is where I'd
work on changes. 3 or 4 -45 minute naps, you are not
getting a chance to rest then and it's not enuf time to
accomplish anything although I remember thinking 20
minutes was precious when DS began to entertain himself
for that long! Lol!
Seven hours plus 2 hours of naps isn't much sleep for a
six month old. She may be just as tired as you are.
Good luck. Some kids just don't sleep.

 

[justhat]

Okay, well yesterday she only had 2 naps, both less than 45 minutes, so when we got home, she had her bath then we went to bed. She fell asleep around 7:20, but promptly woke up after 45 minutes, even though she was still exhausted. After about 20 minutes of her crying in the bedroom while I tried to get her back to sleep, I gave up, took her into the living room and she fell asleep on my chest watching the Olympics. She slept there about an hour, woke up to eat around 10, then stayed up till 11:20, when she finally babbled herself to sleep in our bed. There was an improvement though--I didn't have to get up and walk with her during the night! That's not to say she didn't get up, because she did wake up very frequently, but I was able to get her back to sleep by holding or repositioning her (which hasn't been the case for 2 weeks). She didn't get up for the day until 9am, and let me tell you how rested I feel! Like I said, I am not even trying to get her to sleep through the night (though of course that would be very nice), just trying to figure out what's causing the 3 hours of "I want to be rocked or walked" and how to end it. I would love to let her dad help during the night so I can get a little more rest, but she cries when he holds her during the day when she's happy so I can't imagine it working at night. Our bookstore was out of the Healthy Sleep book, but we did get th No-Cry Sleep Solution, so we'll see how that works.

Oh yeah, I do try to get the naps into 2 90 minute naps rather than 4 45 minute naps but she just won't do it. Unless I sleep with her that is. If I nap when she does then she'll sleep for 1.5-2 hours, but when she naps herself, exactly 45 minutes and she's up and she will not go back to sleep for at least an hour. I'm not that pressed to change that though since it took her almost 5 months to be able to nap anywhere other than my arms, so I'll take the 45 minutes in the bed for now.

Thanks, and we'll be trying to go to bed early again tonight. Hopefully it'll work out.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I have to agree with Pete's Mom!

But I totally sympathize with the OP - I remember those days with my twins very well. *Complete and utter exhaustion* would not have fully described it for me.

Being the investigative type myself, I tried everything to change the 4am - 7am "morning greeting" without success (to my chagrin). I simply had to ride it out, and it took several months as I recall. Thank God for a great resource nurse at our pediatricians who told me it was normal and would eventually evolve, so in the meantime I should get rest whenever I could.

Don't forget to read the classic "Ferber" book. Not everyone agrees with his interventions but it is extremely informative to learn about normal sleep patterns throughout the lifespan.

Welcome to the world of parenthood!! Nothing more gratifying but it's also the most challenging job on the planet.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

It's a process! Just figure out the schedule you want to work with and adjust over time. By the time you get it she want a "new" one.