My 6 1/2 Month Old Continues to Wake up at Night a LOT HELP!!!!!!!!

Some babies need more to eat than others - why don't you just feed him?

That actually sounds really good, for a nursing baby. Go to kellymom.com, that site has a lot of great advice. Also the baby is going to need to nurse a lot more often, during a growth spurt.

Hi A.,
I am sorry that you aren't getting enough sleep. I have been there. I also nursed my daughter and until I weaned her she never slept thru the night. At 13 months is when she finally started sleeping thru the night. Your son is still young and he may still need to eat a bit. What does your doctor say? I have heard of babies sleeping thru the night, but not many. Usually it's the other way around. And until they are a bit older then they still wake up. Good luck and I also would NOT be giving my child any medicines that are not necessary.

B.

sounds to me like he's hungry. Breastfed babies digest much faster than formula.

I did not breast feed but had the same issues with my son. He is 10 months old and we finally took him to see Nancy Birkmeyer w/St. Lukes in STL. and it made a world of difference. After 3 days he was sleeping through the night. We are having a little issue now b/c of a cold/ear infection but we are in a much better place. If you are local in the STL area, please set up an appt. . . My son was waking ever 1-1.5 hours and I was losing it . . . Good Luck

Couple of questions....how much is he eating and when/times of day? Also how much is he napping? Did his teeth come through?

I have 4 boys ages 8,4,3 and 7-1/2 months. It's a little bit of trial and error. All kids are diffrent. Beleive it or not babies do cry for a reason! It's just figuring it out. At this point I would try to get him down to 1 nap. Feed him food 4x a day. My son goes to bed between 7:30-8. He wakes anywhere from 6-7am I nurse him and change diaper put him back to bed. He will sleep till 8:30ish. I nurse him again and then give him bannana and rice cereal he gets fussy around 11:30 I nurse him again and feed him lunch carrots/peas and cereal. Put him in for a nap around 1 ish and he will sleep till 3:30 I nurse him again, feed him dinner 4:30 fruit and vegetalbes and cereal. then give him small bit of cereal and fruit 6ish then bath at 7 then bed a little latter. If he is teething infant motrin and a little numbing teething on the gums. He sometimes get up 3ish I nurse him put him back to bed! Hope this helps....Oh p.s. if you havent done this make sure he goes to sleep on his own. This is lessons learned from my older ones. My son if fussy from 4 till bed. Make dinner making fun. ha ha. Obviously he is tired...but well worth the time and effort for my zzzzzzzzzz. Oh p.s. it's not the coffee! I love my coffee too! Just need to get his clock on track! Eating and sleeping babies at this age need 16 hours of sleep so you pick when you would rather them sleeping!
Best wishes I'll be praying for rest for you and all!
D. T

You say you've tried it all but you have not tried crying it out. When you hit your wall you will realize that it's the only way. To help you get there, consider this: you aren't the only one who is suffering from lack of sleep. Your baby isn't getting the sleep he desperately needs to grow and develop. He MUST learn to sleep and if you perpetuate the waking cycle he is in, you are doing him an even greater disservice than you are doing yourself. He will be tired and cranky during the day, making naps harder. When he gets older he may have behavioral and learning problems. The kid must sleep! Don't over-analyze every sound he makes and wonder about teething, growth spurts, illness, etc... If those things were the problem, it would be CLEAR. Make sure he is alright, then let him cry it out. It IS hard and we ALL hate it, but sometimes it really is the only way.

I empathize with you. Hopefully tonight will be better. He will get older and it will get better. Sleeping well during the day can help them sleep more at night (as long as nap time isn't too close to bed time). Being overtired can make it harder for them to stay asleep at night. I did find with my kids, especially my active son, that it was harder for them to nap or sleep when they learned a new skill. They were excited and wanted to practice it. I think having your husband go in is a good step. Yes, he will be tired but it really is a partnership. Personally, I would be really hesitant to give a baby something from the doctor to help him sleep. This sounds like really normal but tiring baby behavior until your son learns how to put himself back to sleep at night.

Is your son fully waking or is it baby noises? Babies can be really noisy sleepers.

Good luck

My son had ADHD, and it showed itself early in the fact that he would only sleep a couple hours at a time. I finally put a few safe toys in his bed to keep him occupied when he woke up at night. He would play until he went back to sleep again. You still don't get a great night's sleep, because if you are like me, you are aware he is awake and will keep one eye and one ear on him until he goes back to sleep, but it sure helped to give him AND us a little relief until he outgrew that phase.

At his age, he is actually sleeping very well. Some kids will sleep 12 hours, but most require a "dream feed" at 10 or 11pm to do so. It isn't until 9 months, when they are eating a decent amount of solids, that they can be expected to sleep all night with no feeds. I would feed him when he wakes, right away so he doesn't get too awake, and then worry about eliminating this one feed in a few months. Also, teething and reaching a new developmental milestone will disrupt sleep. That is very normal. Give him plenty of floor time during the day to practice crawling. This will help him get over that as soon as possible. But please, feed him when he wakes and don't let him cry if you known you're just going to feed him anyway! All that does is teach him to cry for 30 minutes (or however long) to get you to come in. That is traumatic and a nasty habit you'll have to break later.

I'm confused! What's wrong with 7 hours sleep at one stretch for a 6 month old? That sounds pretty danged good to me! There's many babies out there getting only 5 or 6 hours each night at that age. Part of having a child under the age of 1 year usually means the parents suffer through a whole year of "not enough sleep"....it goes with the job title!

Patience is a virtue, & this time in your lives will change as your son progresses in development. Why not try moving that bedtime back to 10pm....with your son getting up at 5am? I know that sounds warped, but it will allow for you to (to some extent) normalize your own schedule. & as for your own sleep deprivation, sleep when he does - whether it be thru the night or at naptime.

I seriously would not worry about ADHD or any other issues at this early stage. Make sure your son has a balanced day of restful naps (at least two for his age, probably 3 would be much better) & not in your arms, but in a bed.....and adequate physical stimulation to tire him in between.
Make sure that tummy is full of cereal & breast milk/formula, or even fruit & cereal before bedtime. I know many drs today frown on cereal & fruit/vegies before 6 months...but both of my sons were on cereal at their pediatricians recommendations at a very early age (4 weeks!). Neither of them, nor my sister's three children, had any problems whatsoever with digestive issues as a result of giving food before the current age threshold. Both of my sons slept very well thru their infant months as a result of that cereal at bedtime! & yes, I consider 7 hours a good night for infants....

One more thought: your son is so close to his next developmental milestones. Once he starts crawling, he will wear himself out more....& hopefully will sleep at night easier. Teething will factor in on this, but he truly should be worn out the more physical activity he gets!

As for your anxiety, during his naps, if you can't sleep - then hop on the treadmill or just walk back/forth thru your home....you will find that this will help elevate your moods, decrease your anxiety, & boost your energy.....or on the flipside....wear you out so you can nap, too! Peace!

Dear A. G.

Some information about me: I am honest and straight forward. So, with the grace and mercy of God, please don't take offense to the advise that I am about to share.

First let me start by saying -- "this is nothing new to man/woman". We have all shared the "sleepless night syndrome", if you will allow me to call it that :-) I truly understand, however, I must say that sleepless nights and infants are synonamous (sorry to say). I can tell you that what my husband and I did was alternate care when our children were infants. My husband and I took turns on getting up with them until they slept through the night. We would go as far as riding our children in the car seat since that would put them to sleep. It also helped to rock them back to sleep. One other thing, which these new fangled doctors disagree on is putting a little rice cereal in the night feeding bottle. This helps the babies stay asleep longer because their little tummies are full. Also, just because you are drinking less caffeine, does not mean that your soda contains, "no caffeine". Try getting off caffeine and carbonated drinks completely, since you are breastfeeding -- everything you put into your body is transferred to your baby. You make the call as to what you think is best for your child. But until you make your child totally comfortable and secure, I'm afraid to tell you, but you and your husband can look forward to a few more sleepless nights.

May the blessings of the Lord cover and surround you and your family forever more. Be blessed!

Sincerely concerned with the love of God,
Your Sister in Christ!

I didn't read all of the other posts, so I apologize if I am repeating something. Your son is actually sleeping quite well. You need to google 'sleep regression,' not because you will find a way to get him to sleep better, but because it helps to realize that he is going through a normal developmental process. You should be told that you will need to make him cry it out many times throughout his life if you choose that method. There exist many ages at which sleep regressions occur.

Hi A.,

You are sane, you just seem to be suffering from sleep deprivation! I have only ever known ONE mommy that did not go through this! (MY BFF's son slept 12 hours a night from day one)

My girls are 28,27 and 24 and I have a Grand daughter that is 5. The only thing about these wonderful girls that was the same was the fact that although I needed sleep, they didn't seem to need to!

Here's a couple of things for you to try: he may be getting enough to eat when you put him down, and it's just not sticking with him - when the girls were little we were allowed to give them rice cereal at bedtime - as a matter of fact by the time they were 6 months old they were eating baby food! I am not sure how they tell you to do it now, but all of my kids grew up just fine!

Now something for you - if you are a stay at home mom - when he takes a nap, so should you! There is nothing that can not wait to be done later, let yourself have some rest, this should help you from feeling so very tired!

One more thought for you - when you run in and get him in the middle of the night, you are training him that you will come running! I made this mistake with baby #1, and she wanted attention in the middle of the night until she was TWO! Often times for no reason other then she had woke up and didn't know how to get herself back to sleep. Therefor, babies 2&3 were allowed to self sooth and got back to sleep on their own - we were all much happier with the end result too.

If you think he is teething - baby motrin and something to numb his gums won't hurt either.

But no matter what advice you get - be it from other moms, the Dr., even your own mother - remember this is YOUR baby and you know him best! So you do what feels right to you!

Good luck and I hope you get some sleep soon.

N.

I would highly discourage giving a child this young anything to help him sleep! If this is your doctor's solution, I would find another one ASAP!! As far as having 'one little can of diet pop a day' I see two things wrong here. One, some babies (and people) are extreemly sensitive to any caffiene. Two, diet ANYTHING is not good for your baby! It comes through in your breastmilk. Artificial sweetners like Aspertame found in many diet drinks have been found to be CANCER CAUSING!! I know you care about your baby's health because you breastfeed him, so if I were you, I would cut out any artificial sweetner ASAP! (I have heard Splenda - derived from sugar - has had no conclusive research saying it is harmful. I am still not going to use it as long as I am nursing just in case because it is still too new on the market for studies of long term effects.)

Getting him to sleep 6-7 hours at a time IS a good stretch at 6.5 months for a breastfed baby!! My son didn't sleep through the night (8-10 hours) until around 9 or 10 months. My advice: go to sleep when he does, wake when he does to nurse him, then go back to bed until you have to get up or until he wakes again. If you stay at home, nap when he does, too. Do this for a week or two and you will feel like a new woman....promise!!

I co-sleep with my 6 month old - and the second he wakes up I put him to the breast - sometimes he will eat and then fall asleep - other times he will fall asleep before eating. Either way - we both win. He no longer requires a burp, so I don't have to worry about waking him up to burp him. My guy wakes up a 1-3 times a night, so consider yourself fortunate. Try to take a nap with him during the day so you can get back to feeling normal.

He could be overtired, I know if my kids are overtired they do worse at night. But I strongly recommend The no cry sleep solution. It has alot of good ideas.

First thing is get yourselves each a pair of ear muffs to close out some of the sound! Now has it occured to you that he MIGHT be hyper-active? It shows at an early age in many unusal ways-um kind of like what you have. Some kids are just overly active too. I am guessing he is in a crib-so does he have any kind of "toy" that makes music near his reach? Some thing to sooth him and influence him so he might not scream/cry. There are many of these music things that attach to a crib or can sit near his bed and he could reach it but not get hurt-look into that as he really needs a distraction! Now it is in your best interest to watch him closely for hyperactivity-look on line and ask some professionals (drs./schools/therapists/etc.) The sooner you start teaching him how to focus and learn from it the sooner he and all of you will benefit. Hyperactivity is not retardation-he is probably a normal intelligent child but needs direction on how to put his mind at ease and learn. Also don't forget he is growing and may need to get an extra feeding in the middle of the night. We all have plateaus in our growth and he is still a little guy and growing to an adult comes at different rates for everyone-he may be growing faster than you expect so go ahead and give him a quick "meal" and go back to bed oh yeah did you leave him in his bed with oh maybe some very-very soft music? Like a radio on the other side of the room where he has to be very still to listen to it? This always worked well for my family. You could always try a night light if there is not one and let him just look around his room-again a soft noise in the room is often something he will look for and draw his attention. Before you know it he will be 15 and may still be eating you out of room and board but I bet you will not be able to wake him for any effort. Take some pictures of how cute he is now yeah even in the middle of the night then you have proof he did not always sleep thru! Good luck and don't forget the ear protection for you.

The same thing happened when my daughter was about the same age. It got to the point where she would wake about every 45 minutes until about 4 a.m. and then she'd be tired when I had to wake her up. This went on for about 1 1/2 months.

I think she was teething, but I also think it had to do with her ears (close to her teeth). I took her to the doctor for a checkup and she had an ear infection. After two days on the medicine, she was sleeping through the night again. Now she sleeps like a champ (and she's 22 months).

Good luck!