Help! My Baby Won't Sleep! - Atlanta,GA

When my son and daughter was 6 months old, their pediatrician suggested that they have cereal, 1/2 jar of fruit in the morning; 1/2 jar of fruit, & 1/2 jar of vegetables at noon; at night he suggested cereal, and 1/2 jar of vegetables. I hope that this helps.
P. S

Unfortunately, this is normal for some babies! Both my sons finally starting sleeping longer stretches around 9 months, although (I hate to tell you) my older son didn't sleep through the night until well after a year. I did not feel comfortable letting him cry because I thought he was genuinely hungry. Good luck!

All babies are different. If you have been going to her in the night then continue doing it. My daughter is 14 months and slept a full 8 hours for the first time two nights ago only because she wasn't feeling well. I have come to the conclusion that she won't sleep through the night any time soon so I've had to cope with little sleep. Is she nursing? If she is then continue to nurse her through the night, if not then she may very well need another feeding through the night for some time or just need your comfort. Have you tried bringing her to you bed? Our daughter sleeps the first half of the night in her bed and the second half in ours.

Hi K.,
i read all the books mentioned, not one single method did anything but exaserbate the problem (not that there is not some very good things to learn, however). I think my little guy had some digestive pain and caused this plus later problems associated with sleep until we fixed the digestion. If she takes a bottle, you might consider giving her digestive enzymes or proibotics in the bottle. They make them for kids (you can research them, but the natural benefits are all positive, the body will get rid of what is not needed). If the problem is that she is seeking food in order to calm the tummy, this may help you alot.
Try to implement some of the eat, play, sleep routines that the books discuss, because they are very good practice and will help her digestive as well.
Good luck, J.

Do you give your daughter a bottle after her 8pm cereal? I suggest giving her a bottle around 8:30/9pm.

I know this won't help, but it happened to me too! i just think some babies have a different sleep pattern than other babies and this is the way it is...My child also had recurrent ear infections so he did not sleep all night for a loong (too long for me!) time, but if yours is healty and you are doing everythibg you are supposed to do to make her feel full, safe and comfortable, then i would just hang in there. You are not alone! i can just tell you it'll get better, my child has been sleeping all night ever since he grew out of it. Take naps when you can and eat light, nutritious food to keep you going. Good luck!

I would seriourly recommend buying Dana Oblemans "Sleep Training System". I never was one to let my baby cry, and for 14 months we put him to sleep in our arms, or by rubbing his back, and he never learned how to fall asleep on his own. His is why they wake up all night. Buy this product and you will NOT be disappointed if you follow one of the 2 methods of helping teach your child to fall asleep in their crib at night and at naps without your intervention (back rubbing, shhhshing, or anything else). My husband and I chose to do the method where I am in the room with the baby, I never leave until he is fully asleep. the first night was HORRIBLE!!! There was lots of crying and protest b/c he never knew how to get into bed and lay down, close his eyes and drift off to sleep. My husband and I switched back and forth every 20 minutes, lying him back down, rubbing his back for a second to calm him down and telling him "night night". He cried for almost 2 hours. Then woke up 5 hours later and cried again for another 2 hours. Then the second night, 20 minutes of fussing and he slept through the night!! 8:15 until 6 am!! He's still on track. We have a couple of hick ups, but nothing we can't deal with. Also at nap time he goes right in the crib and goes right to sleep for our babysitter...but not for me just yet. He still gives a little protest before he finally falls asleep. The program is more than worth the money. I wish I got it sooner b/c 14 months of interrupted sleep can really take a toll on your marriage and your work...not to mention youre just frazzled!! Do it now...it's the best thing. previously i felt unready to hear anyones advice about letting my child just"cry to sleep". this was a tender program and really really helped our quality of life. Now i only wish there was something this easy to solve my marriage issues that have gone by the wayside for a year.

God Bless. I know this will work for you too if you stick to one of the methods

http://www.sleepsense.net/

That's pretty normal. Most babies don't make it all the way through the night without waking until they are about a year old. When a ped says through the night they mean 5-6hrs at a time. She is probably going through her 6 month growth spurt. Cereal getting them to sleep longer is an old wives tale. One thing you can do is feed her just before you go to bed. That may get you another couple of hours. But remember her little tummy is only as big as her fist. It's gonna empty fast cause she's doing a lot of growing and developing right now. Just feed her when she needs it and make sure you feed on both sides, burp in between and after.
Sounds like your are doing great.
Babies will sleep all night when they do, I raised both of mine the same way and my daughter who is ADHD did not sleep all night till she was 3 years old and STILL wakes sometimes and she's almost 8. My son slept all night right around a year.

Do not take the advice of someone that tells you to ignore your mother instincts and let her cry until she falls asleep. God gave us instincts for a reason , use them. Crying is the only way for your child to communicate right now.

Here is an article in the Harvard Gazette from a study that Harvard did on adults that were let cry. The study concluded that adults that were let cry as babies were more prone to have emotional and psychological disorders as adults and were more susceptible to stress.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/04.09/ChildrenNeedTo...
Here are two more links one is a study written by a Ped. The other is an article by the famous Dr. Sears.

http://drbenkim.com/articles-attachment-parenting.html
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/5/t051200.asp#T051205

I have no advice for what to do about your daughter, but here's what you need for you: an early (or late) birthday present of a night alone in a nice hotel with room service and an in-room massage.

Yes, "sleeping through the night" for a baby doesn't mean 8 hours. :)
Are you sure she's hungry? With mine, I'd offer the pacifier first. If they went back to sleep then I knew they were just wanting the comfort of sucking.

Oy! I feel your exhaustion! Hang in there, it gets much better as the baby ages. That is, until baby #2 comes along, I assume! lol By age 6 months, she should be able to go much longer without a feed. Try weaning off one night feeding a time (one feeding per 2 weeks or a month). First, we established a good sleep routine, a full dinner at 6:00, bath at 6:30, play and read books after bath, asleep by 7:30. As far as sleep training methods, we tried Ferber, twice, once at 8 months and again at 11 months. Our son is now 11 months, 4 weeks. We thought 6 months was too young. We tried that method of laying the baby back down to sleep and soothing him gently while gradually inching away from the crib and closer to the door with each episode of crying (don't know the name of this method but SuperNanny uses it). We've also tried plain ol' crying it out, usually after a week of much exhaustion and frustration. We always ended up at square one by the beginning of the next week. What finally worked for my son, a hybrid of all 3: After a couple of nights of Ferber, on the third night, when he woke up crying, I would gently pick him up and then immediately but gently lay him back down to sleep. I would pat him on the back, rub his belly, sing gently, shush him softly, etc. I tried not to pick him up out of the crib, but I caved in a few times. A mother can only stand to hear her baby cry "mama" over and over again pathetically before caving in. Those times when I was strong enough, I patted him on the back until he got so mad that he'd hit my hand away (so cute). I must've done this a hundred times. It was a battle of wills and the first battle lasted for hours. However, after 3 nights of this (2 nights Ferber plus one of the SuperNanny method), he got so exhausted that when I finally ran out of energy myself and left him in the room to cry it out, he was able to cry and soothe himself back to sleep in about 10 minutes. The next night and subsequent nights got better and easier. I've kept this up diligently for about a month, and now, when he wakes himself up in the middle of the night, I let him fuss and he usually soothes himself back to sleep in about 3 minutes or less. If he gets hysterical, and continues for more than 5 minutes, then I check up on him, which is a good policy because he woke up one night with a fever of 104. We are still in the process of totally weaning him off night feedings, but now he only wakes up for one feeding a night, as opposed to 4 or 5! That is a victory in our house! I think what really helped me out was changing my strategy to wean him off gradually one feeding at a time. Trying to go cold turkey was too much to handle.

GROWTH SPURT!!! Babies in the first year grow SOOO much and it takes a lot of nourishment to do that. If she's crying, go ahead and try feeding. If she doesn't want it, she won't take it. ITA with Beth regarding CIO. Follow your mama bear instincts.

Sleep when she sleeps. If you work full time, see if you can get a friend or babysitter on Saturday and take time to NAP. It will get better as she gets older.

Hi K.,

I can totally understand your frustration and desperation for sleep. I have a 9 month old who sleeps through the night and since 3 weeks old. He started sleeping 7-8 hours after we trained him when we brought him home. Your baby is conditioned to wake up because she gets fed but doesn't need the bottle at this point in the middle of the night. It may take a few nights of hearing your baby cry for a little while but she will realize that its sleep time and not wake up time and learn to settle herself on her own. If you can let your little one cry for a little while when she wakes up and see if she settles back on her own. You can set a time that feels comfortable to you and then if she doesn't stop crying check on her but try not to feed her. Check out "The No Cry Sleep Solution" This book can give you some good ideas on what to do. I also let my baby play in his crib when he wakes up to help him know this is a safe and fun place.
I know it is hard and I see my baby changing constantly with sleep during the day and sometimes at night. They are going through so much in those little bodies. Keep me posted.
Best of Luck,
T.

I feel your pain. When my son was 6 months old he was still waking up every 2 hours at night to nurse. We tried everything and the thing that worked for us was sending dad in to help get him back to sleep. Because if I went in he would want to nurse. Once we got him weaned off the night time feedings. We had to let him cry himself to sleep for a few nights so he could learn to go to sleep on his own instead of being rocked to sleep. It was hard but worked a lot faster than I thought. Most healthy 6 month babies are capable of sleeping through the night without any feedings. Most of them (like mine) are in more of a routine of waking up to nurse rather than waking up because they are truly hungry. Most importantly do what works for you and what you feel comfortable with.

I just skimmed over the other advice and thought I’d put my two cents in. Every time my daughter’s sleeping patterns change, she’s either gone through a growth spurt or she’s getting ready to hit a milestone. It seems like your saying this has been going on for a while and isn’t a change from her normal. We tried a method her dr. recommended: When she wakes up crying, let her cry 5 minutes, then go in and sooth her. Yours may calm down if you pat her back or tummy, and hush or hum for a minute or two. Ours get’s super angry if I do that without picking her up so I give her her pacifier say “I know your upset but it’s time to sleep. Mommy loves you, night, night” and leave. Then I let 15 minutes go by and, if she’s still crying, go back in there again and do the same thing. I think it lasted 45 minutes the first time and got better each time after that. Occasionally, before that, I got to the point where we both just had to get some sleep and I would let her sleep in the bed beside me. I never slept really well like that (still half awake worried about her safety), but I got some rest and the extra sleep would help her get back on schedule sometimes. If it seems like something has changed or you feel like you should, you may want to take her to her doctor and make sure there’s nothing wrong. I’m not sure if you’re nursing or giving her formula, but I remember reading that nursing babies need to eat more often then formula fed. If you are just nursing, you may want to try giving her some formula at night (or mixed with expressed breast milk) as that will probably stay in her tummy a little longer plus Dad could give it to her giving you a break. It’ll get better, soon! Hang in there!

Part of it is being used to waking up and seeing you. The other part is that cereal does not have many calories and she may actually need to eat again. Give her cereal a little earlier (7pm), then a full bottle at 8pm.
She may still need some training to sleep through if she's still waking up after that. The pacifier is great to just pop in, if she's just looking for soothing at night. Of course, then you'll have to get rid of it later :(

I didn't read all of the responses but here is what worked for me. All of my babies are great sleepers and I never had major sleeping issues with any of them.

What worked for me was changing their nap schedule during the day time. For example, my 11 month old does not get a nap after 4 pm. She goes to bed at 8:30 each night and wakes up at 7:30 each morning. She usually has a nap from 10am-11am and then 12:30-3:30. That's it. She has been on the same schedule since 5 months old.

I did similar nap schedules for each of my 3 kids.