My Almost Six Month Old Son Won't Sleep!

Idea #1:
Get the no-cry sleep solution....it saved my life. It is not a quick fix but it helps you identify the possible problems and gives you ideas on how to change the behavior. My son used to wake every two-three hours now its 1-3x/ night. He sleeps about 12 hours all thanks to the advice in this book. cry-it-out didn't work for us he just got progressivly more and more agitated. If you cant afford it take it out from the library. By the way the woman that wrote the no-cry sleep solution has a similar story to yours her son woke often and needed to nurse to go back to sleep.
Idea #2:
I also found the baby wisperer helpful but her sleep plan didnt work for me either. so be flexible experiment and try different things. He will sleep better when both he and you are ready.
Idea #3:
I also found with my son that when he would change sleep positions at night and he would wake up I thought maybe it was the cold cotton sheets... so I invested in furry flannel sheets and voila he started waking less after adjusting his sleep position...I think it is because the sheets are always warm.
Idea #4:
Make a bedtime routine and stick to it. one example of a routine is to start AT LEAST an hour before bedtime with quieter play and dimmer lighting, then move on to a warm bath and lotion rub-down and then pajamas. then try rocking and snuggling a bit maybe nursing in sleep-inducing darkness and then try putting him down. This has worked wonders with my son. By the time we get to the lotion he is already rubbing his eyes because he knows he should be getting sleepy now.

Hopefully I helped a teensy bit. If not I hope someone else will. :) good luck mamma you are doing great!

Sounds like he may need his own place to sleep. Not only his own bed, but in his own room. My second little guy is a very light sleeper (just like his mom) and was only able to be in our room for two weeks. Neither of us were getting the sleep we needed. Once he was in his own room, it only took a few weeks until he was sleeping through the night. I think most of this had to do with the fact that since we weren't in the same room anymore, he didn't see us if he woke up and figured out how to self soothe. He is now 11 months old and is still a wonderful sleeper and LOVES his own bed and room. Good luck! I hope you get lots of great advice and find some things that work for you!!

Hi, you may want to check into food allergies/sensitivities. My son had a bovine protein intolerance, and wakefulness was one of the symptoms. He was breastfed, and I had to cut ALL dairy (including whey and casein) from my diet, and I also had to avoid it in his. An "elimination diet" (try googling it) can help you pin down any food sensitivities.

The No Cry Sleep Solution is a great book on sleep. I highly recommend it. She has tons of tips for getting a breastfed baby to stop needing to nurse back to sleep so many times at night. It helped my son go from sleeping 90 minutes at a time to at least 4-5...

Also, make sure you start to put him to sleep before he seems tired. Often once they get really tired, they get a second wind and will really fight sleep. My son never really shows many signs of tiredness, he just gets really hyper and won't stop moving.

If you can, move him out of your room - we tend to wake babies up when we are moving around in the night. If there is a place in your house that he won't wake your other child up, you may want to try moving him there. Even if it is the living room, it may be worth having a crib in there for nighttime until you get his sleep established. Also, I am a firm believer in cry-it-out. My daughter would cry for a long time too - like 2 hours. One night I gave her my smelly shirt from that day, so that she would have my scent. She quieted down within minutes after that, and still sleeps with one of my shirts. It may be something to try.

Hello, I also have two wonderful children around the same age as yours and what worked best for me was to bring the baby into bed with me. I was nursing any way and that way I didn't have to get out of bed at feeding time. Also the baby wasn't so awake because I was right there when he was hungry and able to take care of it and lay him down right beside me. Both of my children slept better when they were with me, so I gave in and got a lot more rest. Also, right now my son is a year and I start him out in his crib (because sometimes I'm not ready for bed and I don't want him rolling off) and when he wakes the first time then I bring him in with me. Hope some of this helps.

I have a almost 5 month old that has been like this since she was about 3 months. I just can't believe she won't sleep. She only gets 4 to 6 hours of sleep a day (and so I get less). I won't get to much into my story and I still haven't found a solution.

I have taken her to the doctor to make sure she is OK. I have let her cry it out (which I never had to do with my son) and she cried for over 2 hours never giving up. I have tried books like Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Another book was suggested is written by a doctor who works at a sleep disorder clinic for children called "Babywise". I have looked on the internet for ideas. I have tried all sorts of white noise in her room (fan, purifier, sound machine). I have tried lambs skin under her sheets. I have tried a car ride and just letting her sleep in it. I have now that she is older tried rice in a bottle and rice from a bowl. Nothing has changed. Yes I breast feed as well but we have tried at least 1 bottle to well give me some separation from her for a bit and to also see if maybe she is just to comfortable with me and will sleep for someone else. It hasn't worked yet but at least I get a break.

Just keep following your instincts and you will do great. I know you are sleepy but if you can get someone to help you even one afternoon for a few hours and you go get some sleep. Have your husband take the baby for a couple of hours so you can rest. I found that getting myself 30+ min has really helped me be able to keep going.

You know they are OK, changed, fed but they are just awake. Taking in the whole world all day long. My doctor hasn't said anything about it to me yet but a friend did and well there is a sleep disorder clinic here in Seattle at Children's.

Have a good support group of friends & family to just talk to while you try and figure this out and get through it. Good luck to you and I am praying for you.

Hi S.,
Some good advice from previous people!
My 11 month old went from a fairly good sleeper to like yours around the same time. She would actually wake every 1 to 1.5 hours for feedings. It was exhausting and I only was getting about 3-4 hours of sleep for several weeks.
There's lots of reasons babies wake up - hungry, lonely, thirsty, bad dream, too hot, too cold, etc. etc. plus there's teething, milestones (cognitive and physical) that they wake them up. There's a big growth spurt at 6 months too.
Is there any way you can get more feedings in during the day?
He might be overly tired too, during the day. When he takes his nap do you nurse him to sleep? Do you wait until he's *really* out before putting him down, 10-15 min after falling asleep? Have you tried a swing? It might mimic the soothing motion of the car and encourage him to nap more. Or maybe you could try "wearing" him around as he naps? My Ergo was a lifesaver for me during these times.
We used No Cry Sleep Solution -it has amazing suggestions for all these things. Another extremely helpful book was the Dr. Sears Sleep Book.
Hang in there, you're doing a fantastic job. You sound very in-tune with your boy(s). Sleep will come again soon! What I've learned so far is whenever I think I'm getting the hang of things, whenever a pattern seems to be emerging, it changes!
Good Luck and hope you all get rest soon!
A.

I have sooooo been there! So I'm sorry to say that I found nothing to help except for the tincture of time. My second slept great until 5 months and then got progressively worse. We tried all the regular stuff: teething tablets, teething gel, colic tablets, motrin, tylenol, gas-relief drops, sleeping with him, having him sleep in the crib, we tried changing his diet after taking him to a naturopath... None of it helped, he just had bad nights and horrible nights that fluctuated (but not in response to anything we did). In the end I concluded that it was a year of rough teething because he got considerably better after his 16 teeth all came in. Now he's working on the next four molars (he's almost 2) and we're still having some bad nights.

I truly hope you find something that helps. Otherwise you have to work something out with your husband so that you can both stay sane and just wait it out. Cry it out didn't work for us either (though I refused to try it when I felt like his non-sleeping was because of physical discomfort) and neither has cutting out night nursing until 4 am. Sometimes you just get a needy child and it's a lot of work, but what can you do? They need you.

Good luck, get some rest. Where do you teach German? I'm have a German minor!

helthy sleep happy baby is a wonderful book, put your babies to bed earlier. I know it sounds crazy but he is not sleeping well because he is overly tired, then naps after 2 hours of awake time. It works and it saved my sanity.good luck. also if you can move the little one to another room. some crying whimpering at night is normal and needs to be ignored.

I would try the baby whisper method: EASY: Eat Activity Sleep You time. The You time doesn't really happen when you have two children, but it's a nice thought! We did this method with both of our daughters. When we were really consistent with it, it worked like magic. Our youngest daughter would sleep for 5 hour stretches at a week old! We made the mistake with our first born of letting her "snack" and cat nap. We'd feed her a little bit, let her sleep in our arms, then snack a little more on the bottle. But, with our 2nd, we started out right away just feeding her until she was full, playing with her, then laying her down still awake to sleep. Then doing the whole thing over again 2-3 hours later. It really does work. Best of luck to you!

Could he be getting teeth? My almost 13 month old has 8 front teeth and all four of her molars have broke through. Babies can show and feel the signs of teething a couple months before the tooth breaks through.

Whenever my kids are restless and not sleeping well it is usually one of three things: growing pains, teething, or their allergies. Both my kids are sensitive to seasonal allergies.

If he is teething, I like to give my kids Tylenol before bed to help them sleep. Then I use Baby Orajel during the day if I need to.

Good Luck!

My lil man does the same, for his naps, he sleeps about 10:00 for his first nap, but before than i get him a nice breakfast, (baby food) make him play a little with, i try to keep him activate for a while, then i cahnge his clothes and diape by then he is getting tire, i nurse him and he is off to sleep, now if i feel he has not taken a long enough nap, i allow him to nurse one more time, i notice if i catch him right before his starts to wake himself up he will get about another good hour in. I usually do that all during the day. but once his father is home I give him to him because he does a good job with putting lil man to sleep. At nite i just make his bath time late about 10:00 by 10:30 he is falling alseep, if he wake during the night i do the same and nurse him. hopefully this works. I know every child is different, my lil man is so different from what his sister was when she was young she was SO EASY...lol..

"Babywise" by Ezzo and Buckman was a great benefit to my whole family--with our firstborn we used it more loosely, with the second we went more by the book and it worked like a charm.