I know I'm probably driving everyone crazy with this and I promise I won't write about it again!
I guess I'm just wondering for those of you not fortunate enough to have a 6-month-old who sleeps through the night, if you ever just chalked it up to development and waited it out a bit? That's where my head is at right now. She goes down for naptimes and bedtime just beautifully...no need at all for any sleep training methods at all. It's during the night that things get complicated...she wakes frequently (last night she was up, smiling and alert at 1:30, then again at 4...). As a first-time mother, and someone who has never had super high energy levels, the interrupted sleep has taken a toll---I'm grumpy much of the day (just ask my hubby, he'll verify that! ;)) and long for a good night sleep. Both my husband and I have tried just soothing her, picking her up, patting her back, not picking her up, letting her cry in the hopes she'll soothe herself back to sleep (sometimes she does), etc etc etc...but most of the time it's my breast she wants (no bottle, no pacifier) and ultimately that is what gets her back to sleep. Of course, there are times when it is appropriate to feed her...and other times when I know that nursing her is just caving in. In the case of last night, if we were all to get any sleep at all, I had to bring her in bed with me and nurse her and that's just what I did. I keep hoping that in another month or so she'll be a "different baby" and her system may mature and we'll some major developmental shifts, one being a better sleeper. Did any of you just wait it out and if so, with good results? Thank you again for reading...
Whatm you are going through is entirely normal. However you must not get in the habit of having your child sleep with you--that is an awful hard habit to break once they get older.
I agree with the other posters. My daughter was the same way at 6 months and it really took its toll on me as well but my thoughts were, the sooner I satisfy her needs the sooner we both could get back to sleep. She would wake up 2-3 times each night and would want to eat so I would feed her. Sometimes it would take an hour for her to fall back to sleep sometimes ten minutes. Now at 11.5 months she is just wonderful, sleeping thru from 7:30-7 each and every night with the exception of teething and growth spurts. Just hang in there and it will get better. She may just not be ready yet.
R.-
I can only talk about my two children and their sleep habits. Neither one (2.5 years old and 5.5 months old) have ever been great sleepers.
With my daughter, she would nurse the last time around 10pm and by a few months old, was sleeping from 10-6am. She dropped her middle of the night feeding pretty quickly.
With my son, it's a different story. Before this past week (he's sick and teething so waking up every 2-3 hours!), but he would go to sleep at 7pm and wake up between 12-2. Then he'd eat again 1-2x before we got up for the day at 6. I think a few things were different from with my daughter.
First of all, I fed her much later in the evening. With him, he's in bed for three hours before I would have even thought about feeding my daughter and putting her in bed. But with her, it was just the two of us (hubby works night) so it wasn't a big deal to let her nap in her swing until I was ready to go to bed (and I went to bed later also).
Now, I have a toddler to put to bed and spend time with so it's not as easy and carefree. My son put himself on the 7pm bedtime schedule and I went with it because it gives me alone time with my daughter and time to get her to bed.
Second, my son is a stomach sleeper so I think when he's congested or having teeth pain, maybe it wakes him up becasue he's sleeping on his cheeck or face?
Third, my daughter LOVED her binky and I think that helped soothe her at night when she did wake up. My son rarely takes his. Instead, he'd rather rely on the boob for comfort.
So to answer your question, I think that each baby is different and as far as not sleeping through the night or needing comfort or to eat in the middle of the night is completey normal. Because she's breastfed, that will differ to from those babies who are formula fed and stay asleep longer. It could be her age or something that is hurting her. I suggest doing whatever you can to get sleep, even if that means allowing her to lay with you and nurse back to sleep.
I rocked my daughter to sleeep for her 1st year of life and she nursed or had a bottle and fell asleep like that. I rocked her off and on until she turned 2 and now she just likes for me to sit next to her.
My son, on the otherh and, will get reallly upset and cranky and once you put him in his bed on his belly, may fuss but then falls asleep.
I did not do an "sleep training" with any of my kids. I'd feed them, put them to bed, if they woke up I'd check on them and take care of their needs to get them back to sleep. Sometimes that was a diaper change, sometimes that was nursing, sometimes it was rocking, etc. Whatever they needed I did. My kids are now 8, 6, and 2 and all sleep through the night, in their own beds, with no drama. I know we'd all like to have that baby that sleeps through the night but I found that by just taking care of what they needed and not beating my head against a wall trying to figure out what to do to make them sleep through the night we were all more calm and actually slept more. Believe me, she will eventually sleep through the night and you might actually find yourself missing that special quiet time with her in the middle of the night!
Good luck,
K.
As the mother of an almost 2 year old who still doesn't sleep through the night....yes.
I agree with Karen. And I totally understand what you are going through. What you are describing sounds exactly what my husband and I went through with our daughter. After trying several methods of trying to get her to sleep I just did what I thought she needed. Whether it was BF her, changing a diaper or just holding her and rocking. There were many nights of both of us falling asleep in the rocking chair together. Eventually she figured it out on her own and now sleeps through the night every night in her own crib. She's 15mo and is a dream. I was very grouchy because of the interrupted sleep but now everyone wakes up happy.
Dont' get discouraged you and she will figure it out together. She's only 6mo she just might need some more time.
It is developmentally appropriate for a 6 month old to wake and NEED to nurse during the night. They usually go through a growth spurt at this age. Also it is alot less disreptive to you and the baby to simply nurse the baby for about 5 to 10 min and let them fall back to sleep that way than to try other forms of getting them to sleep and then nursing anyway. Don't look at like you caved in but that you are meeting your babies needs!
