6 Mo. Old Waking 3-4 Times a night...help

I agree with laeh, I have 2 children that I fed cereal at nite and they would usually sleep 6 or 7 hours. Usually a nice bath rub down in lotion then cereal and they would be relaxed and sleep good.

hate to tell you this, but this is normal for babies! think about it for a minute; dont you get up at night to go to the bathroom ? babies have tiny tiny tummies. they get hungry frequently! shes gonna triple her weight in a year - hopefully the only time in her life that she does that. if you weight 150, thats the equivalent of you weighing 450 lbs by the end of the year. think of how much eating you would have to do to gain that much weight! so yes, its day any night parenting!

some babies are releasers and cry for a few minutes (less than 10) to relax. other babies are increasers and they wont stop crying until they fall asleep from sheer exhaustion. what you teach her is that no matter what you wont respond to her when she needs you. sure, lots of people do it with their kids and they "turn out fine" - but LOOK at the kids in this world! they are NOT happy kids! they are not confident, they rebel against their parents, etc etc etc. the majority of kids are crying it out, and the majority of kids are UNHAPPY, so obviously, theres a connection. every parent knows their own child; and some, like i said, are releasers and do need to fuss a bit. but in the grand scheme of things, many kids are not able to deal with being alone, and that is just a part of who they are. ignoring them because its night time is pretty harmful; its not scheduled parenting; its 24/7. in a year, she wont be doing this anymore, and you are going to make a difference in who she will be by how you will deal with this now.

listen to your heart. also think of one more thing; if you are married, do you enjoy when your husband is away or you are away and you have to sleep alone? usually the answer is no. i know i am beside myself with sleeplessness when my husband isnt next to me. no one really likes to sleep alone, even as an adult, so why would we expect our infant children to be able to handle it! they arent soldiers! they are infants! babies! little children! we should listen to our instincts. it might sound like its silly or unpopular to do certain things, but fact of the matter is this is your own flesh and blood you are talking about here. how could you treat her with any other way than complete nad total love? you ahve to do what your heart and instincts tell you or you are going to regret it later.

something else that will help is having her crib in the same room as you. most people dont realize this but infants actually regulate their breathing and heart rates based on their parents breathing and heart rates. if they dont hear that, its more difficult to even do that. besides that, just having you right there will allow her to relax and calm herself knowing you are right there and not her alone in a room. my son would sorta sit up and look at me, and lay right back down. it was a comfort to him that he wasnt alone.

anyway, listen to your heart. i can tell you all i want about how i did it, and what MY son needed (he was DEFINATLY an increaser, and would NOT accept substitutes for what he wanted, but it paied off and he is a happy, well adjusted, independent, confident loving boy!) but most of all you have the specific instincts for your specific child. no one else (except dad) has that. you have to listen to what works for you and your family. i dont care who tells you to cio, not cio, whatever, YOU do whats best for your child and your family. ill tell you right now that when you "signed up" to be a parent, you "signed up" for sleepless nights. you "signed up" for 24/7 parenting. are you really going to get sleep while shes screaming in the other room? really? if you do, how heartless does that sound to you? i mean, if you are going to be awake listening to her scream anyway, why wouldnt you tenderly and lovingly care for her needs? babies have needs. its just who they are. if they didnt have needs, and didnt express them, they would likely not survive. :P so this is just part of the process. like i said, in a year, you will be dealing with something else. would you teach her that sleep time is a safe time where you will always respond to her or a time that shes left alone in her room ignored and completely alone? i mean, its up to you and your situation, but its really so simple.

I think cry it out is cruel and teaches a child no to trust their parents. Babies cry because they need something, not just to have fun.

She is having a growth spurt and needs to eat more. It will pass in a few days or weeks. It will happen again in a few months and then again around 15-18 months.

Is she teething? Ear infection? Babies don't always have to have a fever to have one. Make sure she is eating enough during the day to rule out hunger.

This is what they do when teething. I used to feed cereal at 11 pm when my 6 month old woke as I thought it was hunger. Whether it was a good idea or not for eating in a timely fashion was not one of my thoughts. I knew my baby would sleep five hours and so I was glad to give the extra dinner.
Then at 8 months of age the sleep schedule became very regular with few wakes ups. Five or six hours was normal. You can try it. I still think 5 hours of sleep constitutes a full night.

Is it the binkie or the fact she has realized that when she wakes and cries at night you will come. My DD slept through the night by 6 weeks through 4 months and then started nightwaking alot. Thought it was teething at the time so I went to her and eventually took her to bed with me when I was desperate for sleep and then the nightwaking increased more. The child didn't get a tooth until she was 10 months old! She had just figured out cause and effect--yay for her , not for me:) She cries I came and brought her to bed if she cried for too long even with me there. Generally growth spurts don't last longer than a few days too. I was not a big CIO fan--might work for some kids in that fussing seems to help them settle. Alot of kids get themselves so worked up crying they will actually vomit. My daughter did not settle well by crying by herself. I like Baby Whisperer for sleep training personally.

Didn't read the other responses, but I thought I'd let you know that my son started getting up more frequently at that age, too. Part of it was that he was too distracted to eat as much during the day, so maybe you've noticed that with your daughter too? My doctor recommends limiting solid food and keeping breastmilk/formula the major source of nutrition, so I got up to feed him and then he'd go back to sleep.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of CIO that young, but some folks do it. I knew my son was hungry, so I didn't want to ignore that. Also, if I know he just needs the paci, I usually just get up and give it to him and we all go back to sleep.

Anyway, that's what works at our house. You didn't say what all you've tried; and a lot of this is based on knowing that everyone was able to just go back to sleep after the problem was taken care of.

Babies go through periods where they sleep better or wake up more. It's usually based on their needs and their development. Good luck with however you decide to handle it:)

First you need to get her seen by the doctor to make shore it's nothing serious. But every kid is different. Some kids don't get on a good sleep schedule till they are 2-3 years old. Also, They usually hit a growth spurt when they are about 6 months old, which means they will want to feed more often and bigger amounts. Teething is defiantly an other reason. Also, at 6 months you can try the "cry it out method" as long as your baby basic needs are met and you have held her, it is ok to let him cry a little. Give her about 5 minutes of actual crying before you go in and reminder her that you are there. It will be hard in the beginning but she will eventually put herself to sleep with little fussing. The first couple of times hearing her cry can be hard but trust me is is easier in the long run. If you know that she has been fed and is dry and isn't in pain then it's okay in my opinion to let her cry for a little and learn to put herself to sleep! But do not let her cry over 10 minutes. That's what the doctors and my family told me when i had my first.