Sleep/Nap Schedule

Hi J.,

There is a parenting meetup group. They have some helpful ideas for you.

Their web address is http://attachmentparenting.meetup.com

Hope this helps.

D.

your baby is proably having problems sleeping because of her tooth. try buying either one of the tooth/gum paste or a gel to sooth it.

Hi there. Just because your doctor has told you your daughter CAN sleep 6-7 hours doesn't mean that she will. There may be many reasons. She may not developmentally be ready yet, she may be waking and eating out of hunger, she may be waking and eating out of habit, it could be the teething. So many possibilities. Has she always woken several times at night? 6 months is still very little and I believe at that age, it is more common than not that babies do not sleep through the night. I would first suggest filling her cute little belly immediately before sleep to see if that helps. Maybe up the food intake to her eating full jars. If you know for certain she is not hungry and her teeth are not bothering her, there is always the controversial and very hard on the momma cry-it-out method. I did it with my daughter at 9 months because it was either she begin better sleeping habits or I was going to jump out in traffic. As for a schedule for your daughter, the only schedule is the one that works for you and her. No 2 babies are the same, and no 2 babies' sleeping habits are the same. Good luck!

My advice is to forget about the schedule. Babies change a lot during their first couple of years. It sounds like she is teething. It is completely normal to wake more in the night when she is teething. She will be teething off and on for a while now. I believe it is good to have some routine and order to your day but you need to be flexible. Babies needs are more urgent than yours. If you relax and go more with the flow, you may find that you are able to relax more and enjoy each other more. Babies are so unique. When the Doctor says the baby should be sleeping a certain amount at night it is based on averages. Your child is not an average. I'm sure you do not like being treated like you live in an assembly line world. Parenting is a tough yet rewarding job. One of the biggest challenges is figuring out what your individual child needs. If you want great advice on what is normal for a 5-6mo. old try The Baby Book by Sears. He and his sons are well respected pediatricians and his wife is a nurse and lactation consultant. I believe they have 10 kids and several grand kids. All that to say they have been around the block parenting. They also have a website. askdr.sears.com

Hi,
We had a similar experience - it sounds like she really is hungry, so I would just let her eat as much as she wants until she can't take anymore during the day. If you're already doing that, try giving her a full bottle around 10-10:30 pm (or when you go to bed) to avoid at least one nighttime feeding. During the night, I would give our son water instead of milk. He didn't like the water as much, so he wouldn't really wake up for food after that...Sounds like a growth spurt. Hope this helps.

I have an almost three month old and she sleeps a good eight hours at night. My trick is that I actually keep her up till about 10:30pm. So I put my older kids to bed at 8pm and keep my baby up for another two or three hours. I give her a bath every night at around 9:45pm to keep her awake a little longer. She takes a final feeding at around 10:30 and I put her to bed in another room and she sleeps until about 7:30 or 8am. So maybe you are putting your baby down a bit too early to expect her to sleep through the night. I actually read about keeping my baby up later in a baby book called "Your Baby's First Year". I hope this helps but ofcourse all babies are different so you'll just have to see.
A.

I woudl bet my WII fund that she is waking b/c she's uncomfortable. Teething hurts a lot! Try teething tablets if you haven't before and see if that helps.

Hi J.,

With this question you need to bear in mind the fact that there is no "should be doing..." at any certain age no matter what your doctor says. My eldest daughter started sleeping through the night (12 hours) by the age of 2 1/2 months. Of course I thought this was the norm until my second daughter came along and woke up a regular 3 times every night right up until she was a year old. At that point I was very tired of getting up every three hours at night and I had heard that a child often starts sleeping through the night once they are weaned. I did stop breast feeding then over a couple of weeks and that was when she started sleeping a full 12 hours.

You have a wonderfully unique baby and she will start sleeping longer when she is ready. Good luck and make sure you nap during the day when your baby does -(You can only do this with your first one so make the most of it!)

I have not read all the other posts, so I apologize if I repeat anything.

First, I think you're doing the right thing getting her down for the night by 7-7:30pm IF that's when she's showing her sleepy signs. But if you want her to be able to go longer stretches overnight, I would put her down a little later and give her a bedtime bottle of just a few ounces or breastfeed. Only do that if she can handle being up a little later.

Waking overnight-it depends how you're comfortable with handling it. I would say that she doesn't need to eat twice a night, probably just once around 2 or 3 if you get her down by 8pm. I'm not saying that tonight when she awakes and cries that you just let her cry indefinitely. Start with 2 or 3 minutes if that's what you can handle and then go to her and comfort her, just don't feed her. That's just my opinion.

The naps-She really should have 3 good naps a day and be able to stay awake for 2-2.5 hours which it sounds like you've got under control.

The best schedule is the one her body has naturally fallen in to. At that age, my son would wake for the day around 9, nurse and play. He'd be down by 11 for a couple hour nap and then again around 4 or so for another nap. It was just his normal body rhythm.

It took him much longer to start sleeping a 6-7 hour stretch. He woke to eat, not just comfort nurse, several times. I just learned to side-lie nurse and cosleep. That's the only way I was able to get a good night's sleep.

J.,

My first question would be, has she always been like this or is it something recently. Babies tend to eat more during growth spurts (one that happens around 6 months...if I remember correctly its 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months...) Sleeping through the night is not a requirement for all babies around a specific time. Babies have their own personal reasons why they are not sleeping through the night. It can be for various reasons like: hunger, hot/cold, clothing is uncomfortable, bedding is uncomfortable, teething (as you mentioned...babies may like to suck things to keep the pain at bay), startled by light, noise or even themselves, just waking because they want to be held...the list can be infinite. The schedule you have for your child should be one that you and your baby are comfortable with. Trust your instincts. Daytime naps are no exception. My daughter (2 3/4 months) sleeps about 15 minutes and then is wide awake. She goes to bed at 9:30pm and wakes at 4am. I am only breastfeeding. Sometimes she chooses to wake up at 2:30am. She snacks a little and then goes back to bed. Keep in mind also that babies as they get older may not need as much sleep as they needed when they were younger. I hope this helps a little. It sounds like you have your daughter under a pretty good schedule. Good luck :)

Sounds like she's going through a growth spurt. In this case, there is nothing you can do but wait another week.

Also, it sounds like she's going to bed much too early. I would try to keep her up another couple of hours and get some more food into her... play and basically wear her out before bedtime. This worked for my little one.

~L.
www.accesspilates.com
www.notaboutfood.com

Hi J.,

She might be going through a growth spurt. If you can nurse her in bed, you'll get more sleep. All 3 of my girls slept w/me when they were little b/c I got a lot more sleep when they nursed in bed. I put up one of those bed gates like the kind you put on little kids' beds so they don't roll off. That way I didn't have to worry about them falling off the bed. Hope this helps.

L., mother of 3 girls ages 9, almost 5 & 2

Hi J.,
My husband and I were totally going through the sleepess nights and days with our now 7 month old son. Up until he was 4 mo. he was sleeping pretty much through the night and as for the day well he did nap just in my arms (huge mistake). We noticed that at 4 mo. he hit several obstacles which contributed to his sleeplessness (cold and teething). Long story short it got to the point where our son would only go to sleep by being rocked/bounced and then sleeping in our arms both night and day.

I finally went out and bought some literature and eventually relied on this one book which worked for us. It's called the Sleepeasy solution by Jennifer Waldburger and Jill Spivack. It's a great book to read even if you do not plan to follow through with their method. It goes into how you can wean your baby off from night feedings because it sounds like your daughter may be ready to eat less or not at all at night OR you may need to feed her more during the day. For example, if she is only eats about 2-3 oz then they consider that "I just need my mommy to hold me" feed. At 6 months, I had my son eating:

6:00 - Bottle
7:00 - oatmeal with 1/2 or 1 jar of fruit
8:00 Nap
10:00 - Bottle
11:00 - Oatmeal with veggie or fruit
12:00 - Nap
2:00 - Bottle
3:00 - Fruit and Veggie
3:30 - Nap
6:15 - Up for night routine

Also too, you mention cutting teeth. Our son cut his 2 bottom teeth at 4 1/2 mo. and then his top 2 at 6 mo. so that contributed to sleepless nights. He was up every hour of the night and I'm not exaggerating. The book mentions that if your child is going through acute teething (actually cutting) all you are to do is totally nurture and do whatever you can to ease your babies pain. In other words, now’s not the time to worry about methods or tactics to get them to sleep. You worry about that when their teeth has come through. Again the book goes more into that and the difference between "chronic" and "acute" teething.

I could go on and on but don’t want to take up your time anymore...basically wait till your daughter's tooth has cut through to worry about her sleeping at night and day. If you find that she is still not sleeping through the night after her teeth have come in then you may want to try the possible methods mentioned in the literature I referenced. It was tough but it took only a week to get him to finally sleep on his own and soothe himself back to sleep. His lack of sleep was mostly my fault because I never had him on any schedule (day or night). A ROUTINE IS KEY AND CONSISTENCY!!!

At night (6:15 p.m.) we go upstairs in his room dim the lights, play music while we change him (diaper, rub lotion and massage), then feed bottle, the read the 3 same books every night, then say we love him and kiss him on the forehead and say good night, exit out of room. It totally works...never puts up a fuss unless something is wrong and goes to sleep. During the day for naps we go upstairs and I rock him to the lullaby rock a bye baby. Then put him down. Same routine always. Naps are still shaky and we're still working on them. He only naps 30 minutes but he just may be a short napper. Also, the book mentions that babies will wake up at a certain time and then there is a 2-2 ½ hour window of wake time till their next nap. (differs by age). Then there is a 2- 2 ½ hour window of wake time from when they woke up from their 1st nap till their 2nd nap, etc. The book goes into more. This was totally right on for my son and other babies in my mommies group. For example, my son wakes up 6:15 a.m. and then nap #1 is 8:15-9:30 a.m then his 2nd nap would be 12:00 p.m.

Good luck and hope this information helps keeping in my mind that every child is different and what works for one may not work for another.

Six months is a common growth spurt age, and all "rules" about eating and sleeping go out the window during growth spurts. Just go with it and know that it will end shortly--usually 7-10 days.

My youngest just stopped nursing at 26 months. Now at 31 months, she is finally sleeping through the night. When she was nursing, I needed sleep so I just brought her into bed with me and let her nurse when she wanted and I was able to sleep through it. As a matter a fact, my older girls did the same, they just stopped nursing a little earlier due to being pregnant with the next. That's what worked for me. It was important to me to nurse and I wanted to go as long as we could. A lot of people couldn't believe we let her sleep with us, but it was just for a short period of time. We knew she wouldn't be a baby forever. Every child is different, and I am amazed that some actually sleep six hours at a time before they are 2 since none of mine did (nor my nieces). :)Does she really stay awake for only 2 hours at a time during the day? Maybe she’s getting too much sleep during the day? Which is funny for me to say since I believe a well rested baby sleeps better. But that just sounds like a lot of sleep. I would expect her to wake every couple hours during the night then. She probably is teething. Try orajel or pain relief of choice. Good luck! It won’t be this way forever!

To get all your sleep concerns answered please try to attend:
Laurel Moms Club & Mocha Moms of College Park
Present
Kim West, “The Sleep Lady”
Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Our Savior Lutheran Church
13611 Laurel Bowie Rd. (Rte 197)
Laurel, Maryland 20708

KIM WEST is a mother of two and a Licensed Certified Social Worker-Clinical (LCSW-C) who has been a practicing child and family social worker for more than thirteen years. Known as The Sleep Lady® by her clients, over the past ten years she has helped more than a thousand tired parents learn to listen to their intuition, recognize their child’s important cues and behaviors, and gently create changes that promote and preserve his or her healthy sleep habits.

West has appeared on the Dr. Phil, Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, TLC’s Bringing Home Baby and CNN, and has been written about in a number of publications including The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Child, Baby Talk, Parenting, The Baltimore Sun, USA Today and the Washington Post. West hosts the sleep section of The Newborn Channel, played in maternity wards in hospitals across the country.

ADVANCED REGISTRATION $10, $15 AT THE DOOR. SEATING IS LIMITED!
FOR INFO CALL : ###-###-#### OR ###-###-####
Email: ____@____.com

for more information on the sleeplady go to www.thesleeplady.com

It sounds like your daughter may be going through a growth spurt. I remember when my daughter was around her age she all of a sudden was getting up to eat a bunch in the night and was still eating really well during the day. It lasted for about a week that she was that hungry in the night and then it took a while for her to get used to sleeping again because she was in the habit of getting up and seeing mommy in the night.
As far as a nap schedule: at that age I'd let my daughter wake up whenever and put her back down for a nap two hours after that and then I'd nap her again after lunch. Sometimes she'd take a late afternoon snooze as well. I think she was about 7-8 months old when she switched from 3 naps to 2 naps per day.
Good luck finding a schedule that works for you and your daughter. I know every kid is different.

Deffinatly go to see Kim West, “The Sleep Lady” or get her book "Good Night, Sleep Tight, the sleep lady's gentle guide..." it worked for both my oldest (now 3) and my youngest 7 months, who now sleeps from 7:30pm-7am. She has great advice for newborn to about 5 years old in this book. I still refer to it for my oldest. It was a life saver when my dd didn't sleep for more than 15 min. at a time at 4 months, shortly after we started her program (which does not include "cry it out") she was sleeping 8-10 hours a night.
if you address any problems now, it will be alot easier to deal with than when she gets older.
Good luck,
Kami
Kami

My son didn't sleep 6-7 hours straight until he was 9 or 10 months old, and even then he woke up to nurse. It's partly because of the breastmilk, it digests so much easier that babies need it more often than formula. With the teething she is probably also really wanting the comfort. You may get her to sleep longer for a couple weeks at a time, but don't be surprised if each new tooth causes you to feel like you're back at step one! Good luck, it will get better!