HELP ME PLEASE!! - Sleeping through the night

stella6979 wrote: My daughter is close to 6 months old and will still not sleep through the night. She was getting the hang of it there for a while, but all of a sudden it's like she doesn't need sleep. She does take a few naps throughout the day, but they are usually only about 1/2 hour long and we've tried everything. Bottle before bed, warm baths, lots of stimulation, but she just won't sleep. She's up half the night if not more and that's every night. My husband works midnights, so I'm usually the only one home at night and it's driving me crazy. I knew I would be a little sleep deprived after having a baby, but this sleep deprived was beyond my imagination. Any ideas or suggestions? I'm willing to try anything!
Thanks

Maddie&EthansMom replied: Is she happy when she is awake? Or does she cry the entire time?

ediep replied: have you read The No Cry Sleep Solution, Heathy sleep habits Happy Baby, or the Baby Whisperer? These three books were incredibly helpful to be when my sonw as younger.

Good Luck

stella6979 replied:
She's usually very happy. Always laughing and smiling. The crying has pretty much dissolved but now she just whines A LOT.

stella6979 replied:
Nope. Never heard of any of them. I'll have to check them out.
Thanks a bunch!

mom2my2cuties replied: Do you have a set routine and consistent bed time for her? Babies tend to be creatures of habit and need that routine in order to sleep. There is this book, Happiest Baby on the Block, that could give you some ideas. With my kids, we tried everything and had to just let them cry it out but they were a little older.

When our girl was about 4 months old, we started her on this routine - 6pm was dinner, after dinner play time with mom & dad until 7. 7pm bathtime, then story, then song then bed.

stella6979 replied:
Too funny. That's pretty much the exact same routine we have for her. She has no problem falling asleep or going right to bed around 8, but it's staying alseep that we're having the problem with. I'll check that book out as well.
Thanks

mckayleesmom replied: Sorry...not sure if I can help much...Russell didn't start sleeping through the night till about 2 months ago and he will be 2 in January.

You said that she was doing it for a while...and now she is waking up...Perhaps she is going through a growth spurt or teething. Try some teething tablets before bed and maybe some Oragel (they have a nightime one) before bed.


My daughter always slept through the night ...but every once in a while she would have a spell where she would wake up for a week or so...Then it would go away.


Hope you get some rest soon.

Mama-Sandy replied: Just a note,
My son did the same thing around that age (he is now 9 1/2 months) and we realized it was because he was hungry. He would also rather play than eat, we added another bottle during the day and that helped. We also added a white noise machine to his room so he wouldn't hear things that would wake him up. Those two really helped!

I also noticed that you said "Bottle before bed, warm baths, lots of stimulation, but she just won't sleep" did you mean not much stimulation? I know with my Jack if I'm don't rock him a little before bed in a quiet environment he doesn't sleep well.

You will get used to being sleep deprived! I promise! Good Luck!

Sandy
Mama to Jen (16) and Jack (9months)

luvmykids replied: Ditto to Brianne, could be a growth spurt. What time is the last nap of the day, it may help to move it up a little earlier too. And when she wakes up is she ready and raring to go, or is it more of a waking to check things out and back to sleep?

stella6979 replied:
I just meant that we stimulate her a lot througout the day to try and tire her out. We do rock with her every night and like I said she'll go right to sleep, she just won't stay alseep.
I appreicate all the suggestions and plan to try them all. Hopefully we'll figure something out soon.
Thanks everyone!

stella6979 replied:
I have thought that maybe it was a growth spurt so hopefully that is the problem and will be over soon. She doesn't really wake up ready and raring to go, it's almost like she can't get comfortable. Not too mention, she's a pafcifier baby and everytime that dang thing falls out she's starts fussing.

CantWait replied: Could be a growth spurt or seperation anxiety. Maybe you could try putting her to bed an hour or two later.

Is she content in her crib when she wakes up, or does she cry. Is she is content, keep her in there to play and eventually she might fall back asleep. Also do you go in right away when she wakes up? If so try and hold off for 10-15 minutes.

Regardless, 6 months is still quite young, and she might not be ready to sleep through the night.

Best of luck.

stella6979 replied:
We've tried keeping her up later, but that doesn't work either.
She normally doesen't scream or anything, she just whines and fusses and with her still being in our room it's so annoying. And I hate to say it, but yes, I usually run right in there but only because we are still in an apartment right now and I feel bad for the neighbors.

Boo&BugsMom replied:
Ah, Tanner use to do that too. That's when we took it away. He would lay there adn cry because he knew we'd go and get it. After getting sick of getting up 10 times a night to go and get it I said enough is enough, took it away cold turkey, and has slept through the night since. He was about 10 months old I think, maybe 11.

I would suggest leaving her in her crib if she's not crying a lot. If she's happy when she wakes just leave her be and she may put herself back to sleep.

Mama-Sandy replied:
Jack did the same thing, he was a colicky baby the first 3 months so the pacifier was a necessity. We took it away at around 6 months because I was tired of picking it up too. He adjusted very quickly to not having it.

Boo&BugsMom replied:
Tanner was colicy too. So much that we had to put him on that expensive formula. Ick! Isn't colic fun? Another thing that saved us was that vibrating bouncy seat. That was a life saver!