Getting Her to Sleep More?

Hi P., I use to add 1 Tbls of organic rice cereal by Earth's Best to the breast milk and I also added fruit from the jar with the cereal and milk.It seemed to hold them longer because of more substance. My son is 2yrs 6mos old now and have no issues. Its going to be cheaper to clothe him than feed him. I hope this helps.

I know this seems counterintuitive, but try putting her down earlier. Sleep begets sleep. My 6 month old goes down from 7:30p-6:00a. Also, it's time to recruite dh. When she wakes up have him go give her the pacifier and soothe her. (You may want to start this on a weekend). She knows she's not going to get milk out of him. We did this when my daughter was 4 months old and it worked. There were about 3 hard nights of him constantly getting up but now she's sleeping through the night.

Put some cereal in her last bottle, you may have to make the nipple hole bigger. This always worked with my little ones. Start weening from the breast may be your next step. She needs more, and the sign is every 2 hour feeding. It will be more hard for you than her!!! I cried but, he cried less with a little help from the bottle!! Good luck!

Try soothing her back to sleep with the paci and just comforting her. Also give her some cereal/baby food before bedtime and that will fill her tummy up and she will last longer. Most likely she is waking up from habit and is really not hungry. At 6 months old she is very capable of sleeping for 8 hours or more. You might just have to do some sleep training. Some books that would help with this are On Becoming Babywise by Garry Ezzo and The Secret of the Baby Whisperer and I don't remember who wrote that. :) Good luck

I would try giving her a little cereal before bed (maybe at around 8-8:30?). If she can eat it from a spoon, I wouldn't put it in a bottle. Also, you may just have to let her cry it out at one of the feedings. At 6 months old, she has probably just formed a habit of seeing you in the middle of the night. If she takes a pacifier, try giving her that instead of nursing. You could also try a sippy cup with water instead of nursing. Once she realizes she won't get breastmilk in the middle of the night, she may stop waking up. Try soothing her another way, or better yet, let her learn to soothe herself back to sleep. This will be tough foe a few days, but will work if you're persistent. Best of luck!

dear P.,
cereal in the bottle. it worker wonders for my 2 daughters and many mothers before you. kids just have to have more at night. 1 tablespoon in a bottle is safe.
M.

None of my three children slept through the night consistently at 6 months, but every two hours is too often. It sounds like your baby is hungry. I highly recommend the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. I still refer to the book and my oldest is 7 1/2. Also, try putting your baby to sleep on her tummy. My first baby was probably a tummy sleeper and I kept putting her "back to sleep". Babies also digest better on their tummy. She is probably flipping both ways at this point anyway. You probably have already done this, but check the environment in your baby's room-make sure the air vent isn't blowing directly on her, no loud noises by her window, etc. Contrary to popular belief, only about 25% of all babies sleep through the night at this point. Also, definition of "sleeping through the night" vary greatly. Our first baby had such sleep issues (our second and third did not), that we had her sleep with us. I realize people have differing opinions on this subject one way or the other, but it worked and we all slept much more soundly. Every baby is individual and do what works for your family. Good Luck!

Mix some cereal into her food before bed and give her a bath with that bedtime bath (although I am not sure if its just the bath itself). That works really well for my son. My son didn't start sleeping through the night until 11 months, but I could get a 4-5 hr stretch like this.

in some cases, you just have to accept it. with ds#1, i tried everything listed by the other responders. he'd go thru 2 jars of babyfood, and a full bottle of milk mixed with cereal just before bed. (yeah... at 6 months... and he was 5th %ile on weight). we tried everything. we talked to doctors. the conclusion was that he was just hungry and had an extremely high metabolism. nothing wrong, just hungry. what finally worked was at 14 months we started giving him 2 spoons of peanut butter at bedtime. on night #2 of that, he slept like a ROCK for 12 hours. since you can't give PB to a 6 month old, the closest suggestion would be something high fat and high protein.

good luck! i know it's hard to stay sleep deprived for so long.

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It is most likely not a hunger problem but a comfort habit to fall asleep. I just went through this. My little girl is 10 months (waiting for her to get older wasn't working) and we had the same thing every 2 hours to nurse and it was killing me. Her doctor kept telling me I needed to teach her not to do that but I couldn't do it. Finally after her last check-up I said okay. I picked the weekend when my husband could help and I let her cry it out. Yes it was actually harder on me then her. I didn't think I could ever do it but it was easier then I thought on her and she wasn't mad at me the next morning. The doctor was right after each night it was much less crying and by night 3 she was fine. Now it's been 2 weeks and she sleeps from 8:30-7:00. It wasn't about a need to nurse but a habit she had formed. Now she eats better at meal times. Let me know if this helps. Best of Luck!!!

If she goes longer in the day after the solid foods, maybe she is just really hungry. Maybe you could give her a little rice cereal at the 1 am feeding along with her milk, or right before bedtime, and see if that won't help her to feel full and sleep a little longer before next feeding??

During the day keep her awake between naps longer. Dont let her sleep after her breastfeeding. She will eventually push all her sleeping together at night. It also will help if you give her a bottle with breastmilk or formula and rice or oatmeal cereal at night around 8. She will be filled up and the food stays with her longer. I used the sleeping method with both kids and They both slep thru the night early. I have a 10 month old that has been slepping from 830 to 7 since 6 months old. Also when they are going thru a growth spurt or food changes their sleeping patterns are the first thing to change.

P.,

I don't get a chance to read other moms' response. But what I did to both of my kids when they were babies was I fed them dinner (baby food) and breastmilk around 5:30 or 6:oopm. And I fed breastmilk again before their bedtime...that's it! That's what the pediatrician told us to do. If the baby wakes up in the middle of the night, just let them cry or hang out in their crib. The baby will learn to sooth themself to sleep (sooner or later). I think what your daughter's doing is more of a routine. The tough part is to let them cry but it's good for the long run.

Hope that helps.
P.

How much is she napping during the day? She might be over tired. I noticed when my son doesn't get enough sleep during the day he doesn't sleep good at night. Tired babies sometimes are so tired they can't sleep. Also, if my son wakes up to early for his night feeding I go in and rock him with pacifier back to sleep. It might take a few times but soon your little one will have a new routine. Right now the routine is wake up and mommy feeds me. Good luck.

Try mixing your breast milk with some baby cereal it will fill her tummy up more at night. You'll have to pump in advance, but the cereal always helped my babies to sleep a little longer. Good luck!