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6 Month Old Was Sleeping Through Now Waking Often

6 Month Old Was Sleeping Through Now Waking Often

The baby sleep problem

My baby is a what I would call a pretty good sleeper with some bad habits. I have allowed him till now to fall asleep whilst being rocked, cuddled or nursed. This was working fantastically until now, he used to transfer from cuddle to cot well and then sleep 10-12 hours straight and it was the same with naps. Of late he has started waking when put into his cot and then taking about 45-1 hour to settle (which isn't to much of a problem) but the worry for me is the lack of day naps which is often resulting in him not having a sleep during the day unless he falls asleep in the car but would wake if I tried to transfer him.

He is a very happy, alert baby and I fear because of all the stimuli during the daylight hours the cuddle/nursing technique doesn't quite cut it during the day. He has also started waking once or sometimes twice during the night - this possible may be a result of teething. Anyway I do feed him and change him and put him back in his cot and on the odd occasion he will resettle himself. My girlfriends are completely disgusted in my nursing to sleep technique and have been urging me for sometime to let Willem "CRY IT OUT" and my partner and I were preparing ourselves to do this in a weeks time. I am completely in a stress about doing this as I am a Mother who has not really let my baby cry much at all and because he seldom cries or fusses on his own accord it would be very excruciating for me to let him "cry it out". I have also tested the waters (for a few minutes) and he really seems to wake himself up more and get very stressed when left to do this.

OK so given I am a first time Mother and not really knowing where to turn from here a lovely friend (who feels my pain) has given me your website and explained how she used the "save our sleep" as a guide as well as using a blankie "hugacub" to help her wee baby to resettle himself at night. She now experiences full nights sleep.

I am not totally against the "Cry it out" method if it is the most realistic method of giving our baby the tools to self settle however feel that it is more in my nature to be a bit more gentler if possible. Can you please recommend a system (books, cuddlers, etc) for me to try to get my lovely wee man a good routine. I am currently using a Go go bag and find it is excellent.

I would appreciate your honest opinion and help.


Extra information

Where does your baby sleep?
In his own room in a cot.

Tell me about your daytime routine – ie what times does he have feeds/solids/sleeps/bedtime?
He wakes between 6.30am -7.30am breast feeds at 8.30am then roughly has breastfeeds every 2 hours during the day. He has some solids between 5.30pm - 6.00pm. If we can manage to get him to take a day nap it is generally down at 12 noon feed or 2pm feed (he nurses to sleep) he often goes without a day nap and never has a morning nap. Bath at 6pm or 6.30pm and nurses to sleep between 7pm and 8pm.

If he’s not on solids yet, is he hungry, grabbing at food, looking ready for solids?
He is on one lot of solids a night. About two ice cubes of veges or apple mixed with breast milk.

How do you settle him at sleep time and bedtime? What about during the night?
He nurses to sleep at all sleep times including during the night.

When does he wake in the night? What happens when he wakes?
He wakes anywhere between 12 midnight till 4am when he wakes I change his nappy, breast feed him to sleep and put him back into his cot. Some nights he need cuddling back to sleep. He usually is up for 45min-1 hour.

Does he move about in his cot? Kick off blankets? Bang his head/arms legs out of cot?
He did a lot until I brought a Merino sleeping bag, now he stays in the same place during his sleep. However when I have tried putting him to sleep awake he moves around crying so much that he usually gets his arms and legs out the cot.

Does he have any sleep cues, like fed to sleep, rocked, needs you there, music?
Nurses to sleep.

Does he use a dummy? Just to fall asleep or while he is asleep? How many times do you put it back in during the night?
He has never used a dummy.

Does he have a blankie or special toy that he always has at sleep times?
No he has not got one of these.

How do you feel about leaving him to cry? Have you tried this? For how long? What happened?
It scares me.


Our recommended sleep solution

Thanks for all the extra information about your baby's sleeping. It sounds like the combination of several things has made his sleep worse – getting to the age where baby’ sleep cycles change (about 5 months), his discomfort from teething and a continued association with feeding to sleep.

The key issue to address is breaking the association he has between feeding and falling asleep. Your partner is quite right that once baby learns he can fall asleep without a feed, he will be able to resettle himself and sleep through the night again. Many younger babies can sleep through the night after being nursed to sleep, but this is generally not possible after their sleep cycles change at 5 months. Rather than just stirring and drifting back to sleep, babies over 5 months wake fully if anything is different to when they fell asleep. Click here for a bit more info on sleep associations.

There are several key areas that may help you with this:

  • Self-settling techniques

  • Routine

  • Movement in the cot

  • Positive sleep associations

Teaching your baby to self settle

The first thing you and your partner need to do is decide how you are going to teach yoru baby to self settle. Don’t let your friends pressure you into using a technique you aren’t comfortable with, as you aren’t likely to be consistent with it and also why do something that makes you feel guilty! Consistency is absolutely the main thing that teaches a baby good sleep habits, and you need to use the same settling technique for day sleeps, bedtime and any night-waking.

Click here to read by info on teaching your baby to self settle. There are 3 options for you to consider – no cry sleep solution (no crying but can take a while to work), controlled crying (pat for a couple of minutes, leave for 2 minutes, pat for 2 minutes, leave for 4 mins etc) and leave to cry for a set time then help to sleep (covered in Save Our Sleep). Any of those methods are suitable for your baby's age, so have a read of the info and decide which you guys are OK with. Then I recommend you buy the relevant book, as for the technique to work quickly, you need the full info.

Routine

This is absolutely key to getting an older baby to sleep well. Babies of his age need to know what you expect and when you expect it. A good simple routine will also make your days much easier, as you can plan when to go out, know when to have him into bed, and ensures he is feeding/has solids at the times that are most helpful with sleeping. It will also ensure that you stop space out feeds from sleep times, which ensures you break the nursing to sleep association.

I recommend the routines from ‘Save Our Sleep’, as they work (as your friend discovered!). When I started using one for Tom (now 18 months) at about 7 months, he was back to sleeping through the night after only 2 days.

For a baby of his age, he should not need any feeds during the night. I would recommend however that until he is consistently sleeping through the night, you do a dreamfeed at about 10pm. This means a feed while he is asleep – get him gently out of bed, onto the breast, feed both sides, then back to bed still asleep. Don’t worry about nappy changes or burping. If he wakes during this feed, he needs to go back into bed awake. Doing this feed means you can rest assured he has had enough milk to last the night, then you can use the self settling techniques you choose (see below) to settle him for any waking in the night (which will quickly get less and then stop). Doing the feed while your baby is asleep means he doesn’t know he’s had the feed, doesn’t have the sensation of nursing to sleep and ensures he has a full tummy when you go to bed.

I recommend that you don’t do ‘top-ups’ before he goes into bed, either during the day or at bedtime. This will just confuse him and reinforces the association he has between needing a feed to fall asleep. And with your 6.30pm feed, ensure that there is a decent gap between this feed and going into bed. I suggest you gradually stretch this time out to at least 15 minutes of awake time – feed, /story or play cuddle/ then into his Sleeping Bag & bed.

Until he is used to having his day sleeps at these times, you could try putting him into his Sleeping Bag, then into his pushchair fully reclined and going for a walk. If he can start to fall asleep at the right times, it will quickly set his body clock into having sleeps at these times.

Sleeping bag & movement in the cot

I firmly recommend that you use the merino sleeping bag for all sleeps. This will help you to get him sleeping during the day. And always take it if you are traveling or need him to sleep in his pushchair when you are out.

Positive sleep associations

You can start to build some positive associations for your baby, so when he sees/hears particular things, he knows it’s time to sleep (and stay asleep). These associations replace the one he has now – ie that he thinks he needs to nurse to fall asleep. Having more sleep associations will also help get Willem sleeping better in the day too, as there are very clear signs that you expect him to sleep.

The best ones are:

 

  • Sleep music/White Noise –Try leaving a baby sleep CD on repeat quietly during the night or use a white noise mmachine which will block out background noise. Yogasleep has options for white, brown and pink noise as well as nature sounds.

  • Comfort blankie – One Willem is over 7 months old you can introduce a comforter, something small & cuddly that Willem can easily find during the night. You can get him attached to it by holding it when you are feeding or sleeping a couple of nights with it under your top, then only give it to him at sleep times. This will be essential for you, as you will need to replace ‘you’ from the falling asleep equation. My favourites are Cuski and The Sleepy Bear Muslin Comforters

  • Sleeping bags are also fabulous for sleep association – see above.

 

I suggest you start your sleep program by introducing music, the routine and a blankie and continue nursing to sleep (or drowsy) while your baby starts to associate those things with falling asleep. Also start placing him into the Babe Sleeper so he starts to get used to the feeling of being zipped in and not being able to move about too much. Then as you either gradually put him into bed awake (No Cry technique) or use one of the other settling techniques, he will already have the other things to help him self settle.