6 month old suddenly not sleeping well

[mkksmom]

My baby is actually 7mo today, but ever since 6 mo, she stopped sleeping for long stretches. She's gone through phases of bad nights, even bad weeks, but this is the worst it has been. She slept 6 hours straight at 1 day old, and has always given me at least 1 4 hour stretch followed by 3 hour stretches. Now, I am lucky-- very lucky-- if I get 1 3 hour stretch followed by 1-2 hours at a stretch. She always went right back down, and now is up talking to herself and grabbing my face for an hour at a time.

I can put her down half asleep after a short bedtime routine (story, song, prayer while nursing) and like tonight, I put her down, she rolled over to her side, cried out, I gave her the paci and she went to sleep. But she is waking up so frequently.

I am thinking it is just one of those phases (too much going on-- last night she was up babbling "dada" for the first time and she just learned to army crawl) , but she was my good sleeper. I used to get 6-8 hours straight. So, for those who had good sleepers up until 6 months, when did your baby go back to sleeping well? I am thinking I may end up having another year of this, but hoping that we can get back to at least 4-5 hours a couple of times a week. My house is falling apart, I'm grumpy and everyone is asleep right now, and I am sitting here typing about not sleeping. Guess I better sleep while I can! But seriously, anyone ever have a baby like this? AND did you live to tell the story? My older dd never was a great sleeper until 18 months. Tell me there is hope before then.

[tabrizia]

Both mine went from sleeping 12 hours give or take at 3 months to being up every few hours at 6 months. DS starting sleeping through again when I nightweaned around 15 months. DD is still up every few hours at 13 months, I won't be nightweaning her till at least 15 months, and once that happens I'll have to see if that helps her sleeping.

I will admit some nights are better then others, but on average now at 13 months, she normally wakes up about 3 hours after going down and nurses, then wakes up another 2 to 3 hours later and nurses, then once more another 2 to 3 hours later, and then she will sleep anywhere from another 30 minutes to 4 hours before getting up for the day.

[Louisep]

Sounds like a classic sleep regression. If you're lucky, your LO will come out of it soon. It took us a long time to get through it, but we made it. Just try and find ways to cope with the sleep deprivation - my dh gave me lie ins whenever he could and I always napped with ds. Cosleeping and laying down nursing also helped make me feel more rested.

[One_Girl]

My dd would completely change her sleep schedule every few months and she was also very grumpy and slept less if she was close to getting sick, if I wasn't with her enough for her during the day, and when she was growing. She may have an ear infection. Some babies don't have a lot of symptoms of them besides trouble sleeping.

[ZeezMom]

I could have typed this verbatim. I have a 6.5 month old who has been giving us "teh business" for nearly a month now. We used to get at least 3-4 hours out of him until that point. What's worse? He's almost a carbon-copy of my first DS in the sleep department. We thought for a while there, we lucked out.

Hang in there. It DOES get better. Acceptance is everything.

[Jenine]

Same here! DD is nearly 7 mo. and has been up a lot more in the last 3 weeks. I used to be able to nurse her and lay her down within about 15 min. Now it can take up to 45 to get her to sleep, if I try to walk her she is practically propelling herself out of my arms. She is actually kind of cute, if I put her down on the bed she rolls around and sticks her butt up in the air and does down dogs. I also used to get much longer stretches throughout the night and was able lay her right back down after nursing. DH and I would marvel at that, DS was not ever that way. I sometimes had the urge to say "ta-da" after putting her down . DD is/was my good sleeper too.

I've just chalked it up to sleep regression. She is learning to sit up and crawl and been doing the middle of the night dadada's too...middle of the night acrobatics not so cute!

OP, it's been a couple of weeks since you posted, any changes? Looking for some hope!