6 Month Old Waking up at Night

Try keeping her up a little later. It may be that she is going to bed to early. Also try giving her a bath and some cereal before putting her to bed. A full tummy also helps the baby sleep better.

It is possible that she is going through a growth spurt and needs that extra feeding, especially if she is just going back to sleep after being nursed. Has she started solids yet? Feeding her cereal or food about an house before bed, then nursing before she goes down for the night may help her stay full longer and make it through the night.

My daughter is 7 months old, after sleeping through the night for a little over a month she began a few weeks ago doing the same thing. I had tried all of the suggestions people gave me of letting her cry, stuffing her before she went to bed but nothing worked. We have been at this for about 3 weeks now. I noticed she was very hungry 3 times a night. I have learned that the only thing I can do is feed her, I started to watch her before she got up to eat and I could hear her tummy growling...I knew she was hungry. She is now very slowly starting to eat less each time she wakes up at night so I know we will be back to sleeping through the night again soon. All I can tell you is to ride it out. I know you are tired, I have been the same way but she is most likely going through a growth spurt and the only thing that will make her and you better and make things easier for both of you is to let her eat. The nursing for her will only be something she needs for a short period of time and she will get back to sleeping through the night. I know it stinks having to deal with it every night but it will get better. Try to rest when you can and I hope this helped. Good luck.

I had the same problem with my 6 month old son Dylan....he was rolling himself over or endig up in the corner of the crib crying....I bought something called the wedge which has these velcro bumper type things that stick on to a very thin pad. Since I put my son in the wedge he rarely wakes up now. I started doing this about a month ago. I put him down at around 10 and he does not wake up untill about 6 or 7. I think I may have bought it at babies r rus, but cant be sure....ive bought so much stuff at diffrent stores lately.

She may be going through a growth spirt. That is right on time for a baby of six months old.

Hello J.!!
I just signed up for this group and I am soo happy to hear someone else is dealing with the same issue I am. My daughter turned 6months (March 7). She slept through the night from one month old(we had to change her formula to special expensive stuff), we would put her down about 8-9 and she would sleep till 8. ABOUT 2 weeks ago life changed and I was pulling my hair out. My daughter would wake up at about 12 screaming out of control, I would go in, place her binky back in and pat her back(she is a belly sleeper). this worked sometimes. HOWEVER she would be back up screaming again at some point. At that point we were not able to soothe her back to sleep and I never give a bottle because I don't want her to know that is available at night:) She would end up in our bed. Which we did not want to make a bad habit out of. I took her to the doctor last week to make sure she was not waking up from teeth (she has 2 already) or her ears. He told me she was in a bad habit. THat I was to no longer rock her to sleep and to let her cry when she wakes up. I took her again today for something else and the other doctor told me it is something that happens when they are 6 months. It is seperation anxiety and they wake up and freak out when they see nobody is around. She did tell me to go in and comfort her let her know I am there and leave. To repeat in 5 mins, than 10, and continue until she goes to sleep. I was not able to do this, it broke my heart.
The female doctor today told me to use "tough love" she said not to pick her up or bring her to our bed.
I understand what you are going through, I am sorry this is so long. I will let you know how this goes we are going to try it tonight. I Feel the same way about not being able to pick her up, because she screams and sobs and it breaks my heart.
D.

Hi J..

I'm J.. A 38 year old SAHM to an almost 6 month old baby boy! He'll be 6 months on the 22nd March.
We aren't having the same problems...but similar I guess. Our son hasn't slept thru the night since we brought him home! So tonight is night # 3 of a new "Sleep Program" we are using with him. Like your daughter, our son will put himself to sleep around 7pm, we don't give him a pacifier (that's what we are trying to break him off because I am up in the night two and three times putting it back in!). So he falls asleep by himeself around 7pm but wakes up in the middle of the night.

What we do is this..we wait for about 15 mins to see if he will fall back to sleep himself. If not then one of us will go into his room. Try to soothe him with our voice, letting him know we are here and he's not alone, we'll cover him up, give him his 'bear blanket' and leave the room...doing this every 10 - 15 mins until he falls asleep. It's exhausting but it's only night #3 of doing this..and apparently it will get easier and eventually the baby is supposed to either sleep thru the night or learn to soothe themselves back to sleep....

Best of luck to you! And feel free to email me back. I don't know anyone in the area that has a baby my age! It would be nice to chat!

I'm a new SAHM and married to a great guy. We moved to Stroudsburg in May 2006 and we are TTC again :)

Hi J.,

Baby sleep is the great mystery isn't it? My 8 month old is breast fed and has been sleeping through the night since he was about five months old, but experienced a couple occations where, for a week or so, he would wake up during the night.

If she is on all fours when you go and get her, she probably is getting herself into a position that she is uncomfortable in and can't get her self out of. I would try rolling her back over on her back and trying to soothe her without taking her out of her crib. Also, I read that babies wake during the night just before a major development, like crawling...so she might be practing and just getting frustrated that she can't quite do it yet.

She may also be teething...there isn't much you can do for that but maybe give her a teething ring or something when she wakes and see if it helps.

Separation anxiety usually starts to develop around this age too. She may wake up and wonder where you are. You she see if you can soothe her by going to her and rubbing her tummy or singing to her without getting her out of her crib so she doesn't make a habit of crying to get you to come and play with her/nurse her/ hold her in the middle of the night.

Again, infant sleep is a mystery and I am certainly not an expert. Hopefully you will find a solution soon. Good luck!!!

You've gotten some great advice already! But one thing I wanted to add is that such behavior can occasionally be part of a vaccine reaction. You might want to think about the time line. If this started after your baby had the 6 month vaccines they cold be playing a role. Just something else to think about!

J.

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My nine month old went through a phase like this about a month ago. It lasted about a week. She would scream for hours in the middle of the night, and I could not figure out what was wrong. I think it was her teeth bothering her (she cut her first tooth a few weeks later. Could she be teething? If so, maybe try some baby Tyelonol and/or Orajel before bedtime. Good luck!

Hi J., I heard that there is a growth spurt at 6 months... maybe this is it? Or maybe she is about to make a milestone? I heard that babies eat more (middle of the night) just before they are about to do something new/monumental?? Don't know if this helps. Take care, :-) M.

J. P

I think I would try putting some baby cereal in the bottle with the formula and even try adding it during the day to so that the baby will get adjusted to a FULL belly. I fed my kids at 4 mths cereal as well as fruit are you doing that yet????

Sounds like she's working on crawling soon. Mine always had periods of interupted sleep patterns when they were learning new skills such as sitting, crawling, standing, walking, talking, etc. They would be so focused on learning the new skill that they didn't have time for sleeping. They would want to nurse while up usually too. Once they figured out the new skill they were trying to conquer, they fell back into their normal sleep pattern and all was well again. It is exhausting to have that interuption though. Sometimes it was just a few days and other times it was several weeks to a month. Spend lots of time with her on the ground crawling and encouraging her to reach for toys and such. Even some gentle wrestling/rolling out of the all fours position to help her know how to do it herself during the night may help things progress. This pattern was extremely predictable with my little ones.

It's normal for a child this age to wake and need to be fed during the night. I would not let her cry it out as that is frightening and dangerous. They cry because they need us; they know they need us to survive. When they stop crying is when they've given up on us coming to help them. Self-soothing is not a lesson an infant needs to learn.