How Do I Get My 6 Month Old to Sleep Through the Night? - Cranberry Township,PA

Hey K.,

Is she on any baby food or cereal yet? She just may need a bit more to eat before going to bed. She should be sleeping through the night by now. I've found that fussing I could ignore but all out crying, she really needs something if she is crying like that.

Good luck!

Hi, K., I have 4 children and I am a nanny. The best thing you can do is keep the lights low and don't interact with her too much at 2 am. Just feed her and put her back in her crib. You should always try to lay her down when she is still a little awake so she learns to soothe herself to sleep. In the mean time you should go back in and let her know you are still there. Just pat her and leave again gradually increasing the time you are gone. If you are breastfeeding, she might not sleep all night till she is 1. Good luck!

K., Have you tried putting her to sleep on her stomach? As soon as my son was old enough to roll over we started putting him to sleep on his stomach. He sleeps 10-11 hours per night. I tried it first at nap time so that I was awake and constantly checking on him. Good luck

I completely agree with Abbie P. Our little one is 19 months old. Sometimes she sleeps 10 hours, sometimes 1 or two. I recently started a steady bedtime routine which has helped enormously. She knows what comes next. She also goes to bed late--9:30pm. Earlier times just don't work.
The most important thing I did, though, was adjust my expectations. I started working again when she was three months old. I was so tired and would get so frustrated trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Once I realized that she is getting what she needs in terms of sleep, that she was healthy and happy, it changed my perspective.
I have also come to cherish the times we spend together. the day will come all too soon when she doesn't want to be with mom!
Good luck.
K

I read somewhere once that it is unrealistic to expect a child under 18-24 mos to sleep for extended periods of time.

Also, another thing that you need to realize is that technically, "sleeping through the night" means that they sleep for 5 hours at a time. So really, she IS sleeping through the night.

I know it's tough--you really just have to take it one night at a time.

My daughter slept for HUGE stretches of time from very early on. My son though, just recently started to sleep for 8-10 hours at a time & he's almost a year! Every baby is different!!!

To make things a lot easier on you, maybe you can consider co-sleeping or having her sleep in a pack n' play or something IN your room or just outside of your room. The closer she is to you, the less effort you have to use!

Good luck & hang in there!!!!

let her stay up a little later. my son will sometimes fall asleep on the bed while we are watching tv arond 10:30-11pm. make sure you are feeding her baby food not just formula. giver her a bath before she goes to bed,this should relax her. let her cry,she may cry for 20 minutes but she will go back to sleep.

I read this book called Healthy sleep habits healthy child. Really awesome. It said to put the baby to bed early at like 7:00 or 7:30 and have her sleep until 7:00 am. Your daughter should also be taking naps during the morning and afternoon to help with the night time according to the book. My pediatrician never had me feed my son past 6 months old during the night so I would check with him or her about feeding at night. They also might be a good resource about the sleeping too!
I hope this gets resolved soon--- I know how hard that is!

K.,
I was totally againt the cry it out method until my husband and I were so exhausted at 6 months and at our wits end and tried everything else that did not work. First, put her to bed earlier. My son gets his bath at 7:30ish, brush teeth, read a book , do prayers, lights out and I rock him till he is almost alseep (about 5-20 mins depending on his tired level) then lay him down. The first night we did the cry it out it took 45 minutes and my husband and I almost killing each other but the next night it was 15 minutes and then the next 5 minutes of whimpering. Go in and check on her after 10 minutes without saying anything but give loving gestures (no picking up) then extend it to 12 minutes the next time then 15 etc... If you are not nursing and feeding her enough before bed she is plenty full and just wants the bottle out of habit, which has to be broken. My son sleeps 10-12 hours every night now. It does get better and CIO is not mean or heartless at all. Just make sure she is not sick or teething before doing this method.
Good luck and sleep is on its way!
Chris

We had great success with the 3-Day Sleep Solution when my daughter was 4 months old! We also use Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Good luck!

Hi K.! I didn't get a chance to read everyone's post, but I thought that I would add my two cents. My daughter's didn't sleep through the night until they were 11 months. I know that isn't what you want to hear, but I wanted to warn you that it might not happen for a while. Good Luck!

Hi K.! I guess we were lvery lucky with our first daughter who was breastfed and slept through the night when she was just 2-3 WEEKS old. We would put her to bed after nursing her around 9pm and she would wake up around 6am to be nursed again and then would fall back to sleep of course being so young. Our second little girls started sleeping through the night when she was about 4-5 months old. We gave her some cereal with her formula after a nice warm bath and massaged her with some lotion. She fell to sleep and for a little while she would still wake up in the middle of the night 1-3 times but we just went in there, sooth her and she fell back to sleep. Eventually she just got the hint that that's when she needs to sleep. Only 2 naps a day too! We had some trouble with Emily taking 3 naps and she's like her daddy... can sleep anywhere, no matter what noise or light is around. lol Good luck!! And I agree with the nanny/mother who suggested leaving the lights super low when you go into her room when she wakes up in the middle of the night!

Have you added solids yet? Sometimes they wake up because they are hungry at this age. Try giving her cereal close to bedtime and then do your usual bedtime feeding of breastmilk/formula. I am also one that cannot allow my son to cry for too long :)

At 6 months, if you think she's actually hungry, you should go ahead and feed right away. If not, you could give her a half hour or so. (I personally wouldn't wait much longer than that, just because the longer you wait, the longer you are awake too...) My son didn't sleep through until 7 months (which is still relatively early for a breastfed kid).

When my son was that age, I recall telling a friend that he didn't yet sleep through the night. When I told her he went to sleep at 8 and woke around 1 or 2, she told me that is sleeping through the night for a baby that age!! I guess as long as she is getting 5 to 6 hours of sleep, you have nothing to worry about.

You should talk to the doctor about the night feedings, but if she is breast fed, she'll probably take a night feeding or 2 for a few more months. I can't remember the details of my son's feeding patterns, but I know for a fact he was still waking up for a feeding at 6 months.

Hang in there and enjoy it! It seems like it will last forever, but before you know it, she'll be a toddler and you'll wonder how your baby grew so fast!

Food Food Food! All day long, not just at night. this is the miracle solution. Feed her as much as she will possibly eat all day long, not just right before bed. Feed her even when she doesn't seem hungry. Babies never over eat, but they may eat a little less then they need without seeming upset, leaving them hungry at night. After three days of feeding her more in the day, (it takes a while to register in the body that she is well fed) you will see the difference. I wish I knew this with my first, who didn't make it through the night until one year old. My step sister (who has 12 kids and this worked for ALL of them) then told me the trick, and she started sleeping through the night immediately. I've done this with my son, and he's been sleeping through the night without fail since 3 months old.
Once you are certain she has had all that she can possibly eat for a few days, you should let her sooth herself at night if she wakes up (which she probably won't)
If you're nursing, thicken some breast milk bottles with cereal or throw in formula to the night time bottle, it sticks to the ribs better.
Good luck!

I recommend reading Ferber's How To Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems. It makes sense and worked beautifully for our family. If you do read it, persistently and consistently follow the program. Your daughter will learn to soothe herself back to sleep.

A very happy mom to an even happier toddler,

T. :)

We had terrific success with a version of CIO called the Sleepeasy Solution by Jennifer Waldburger. It is excellent for any sleep situation you will encounter. My daughter was 5 months when we sleep trained her and she still sleeps 12 hours a night at 8 months. Please check it out- It is an easy read and very simple to follow. Even if you don't use the plan, it is an excellent resource.
Best of luck!
R.

2 of my three children did not sleep through the night.

My youngest still wakes me up every night.

Different children do different things. I don't feel that 6 months many babies are sleeping straight through the night. IMO seems against nature.

I think it depends on why she's waking up at that time. My second baby was hungry in the night and I would give in to the nursing until she was older and realized that she shouldn't need to be eating so frequently still - it had become a bit of a habit. I would feed her a very hardy baby cereal for dinner and then at bed time nurse her to sleep and she would sleep through the night.
Good luck!

I used the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child with my daughter. Brenna is 11 months now. The book says that nightly feedings are okay until 9 months. If you think she is hungry go in and feed her but don't speak to her or get her excited. Also try moving her bedtime earlier. Brenna ate during the night untill about 8 months and now she sleeps from 7pm until about 6:30 am.

Hi K.

I feel a little like my babies were odd, that both started sleeping at least 6-7 hours through the night between 7 and 9 weeks. That lengthened to 12 hours somewhere around 6 months. Mine were both formula fed though and many people say that formula takes longer to digest which is why the babies seem to sleep longer. My pediatrician told me that as long as they were getting the appropriate amount during the day that around 4-6 months was when they did not need a middle of the night feeding anymore - consequently this was also the time that they both started waking more often because they weren't sleep trained. I did what most Mom's do and rock them and then put them in the crib asleep. I used a cry it out method at this point to teach them to fall asleep on their own and it worked like a charm for us.

Try putting her to bed earlier. She's probably overtired/overstimulated and her brain can't settle down into the deep sleep she needs. My daughter is 7 months and she goes to bed between 6 and 6:30 every night. She usually sleeps until at least 6am. It took me months of struggling every night for hours to try to get her to go to sleep to realize that I needed to put her down before she was overtired. I'm not sure what your feeding schedule is like but my daughter has a 6-8oz bottle 4 times a day and 2 solid meals....that should be enough to hold your baby through the night, and she shouldn't need to eat at 2am. If you are nursing her needs may be a little different, and you may want to try supplementing with a bottle for her last feeding. Good luck. You are not alone in the chronically sleep deprived department. You have to just remind yourself that this is only temporary, and eventually she will sleep through the night.
J. W

Not to be negative, but my daughter is 3 years old and still doesn't sleep through the night every night. She still often gets up around 2 or 3 a.m. and comes over to our room. We used to get up, get her a drink, and put her back to bed in her own room because that's what everyone said to do. However, that could sometimes take up to an hour when both my husband and I were exhausted because we both work full-time from when she was 6 months old. Now we keep a blowup bed on our floor and she'll just go back to sleep in our room. Now obviously, you can't do that with a 6 month old, but I just wanted you to know that it's probably nothing you are doing wrong, that in my opinion, some kids just don't sleep through the night. Do whatever it takes to get her back to sleep as quickly as possible so you can go back to sleep and be more refreshed in the morning, especially if you are working part or full time. Crying it out never worked for us.

My kids are 4, 6, 8, and 10 years old (not months, LOL) and sometimes they still don't sleep through the night! At 6 months? My kids never slept through the night at that age. In fact, I don't know anyone's children who were sleeping through the night so young, especially those who are breastfed. Formula-fed babies tend to sleep a bit more, but at 6 months, it seems a bit much to expect them to sleep all night long. Don't worry, this too will pass!