Desperate for sleep

[olive&pimiento]

My soon to be 6 month old still wakes every 2 hrs to nurse, and usually one of the other children wakes up at least once during the night. It is really taking a toll on my health and life in general. I would just love a reading list on how to get the 6 mo to sleep through the night, or even 5 hrs. I am starting to feel very desperate. I have some pretty bad health issues that flare up with lack of sleep. I know he is very little, so of course I want gentle means...
Thanks in advance,
Nicole

[MamaKnight]

Any luck?

Hi Nicole!

Did you have any luck with helping your babe to sleep through the night? I'm in the same place right now with my 6 mo girl and I'm scared that this sleep pattern we're currently in is going to play out for several more months.

I, too, have health problems that are exacerbated by sleeping only 1-3 hours at a stretch. I don't know that my spirited little one will do well with anything resembling CIO.

Thanks for any help!

Sara

[lizsky]

Hi mamas, I'm having the same challenge with my 6 month old DD. I recently read Elizabeth Pantly's no cry sleep book. Honestly most of her ideas aren't that novel, but it can help to be reminded of some ideas. Some of her suggestions are to nurse more in the day to try to encourage them to do more daytime eating and less nighttime eating, develop a bedtime routine, try to get baby to fall asleep in a variety of ways, use music/white noise as sleep cues, gently try to reduce the amount of time you nurse at night, have your partner do more nighttime soothing, etc..

I am planning to try some of these ideas more consistently soon, but my DD had a fever, then she's been teething, and now has a cold, so I'm waiting until she's better to really work on it.

The one thing I have done which has helped me feel like I'm doing something is to keep a sleep journal- I write down when she naps, how long, how I got her to fall asleep, and then I write down the same for bedtime and night wakings...I have been doing it for 3 weeks now, and its actually made me feel better- even though I feel like most nights are terrible, the journal has made me realize that every once in a while she does sleep for 3-4 hours in a row, (usually her 1st stretch when I'm often not in bed yet myself) and looking at the better nights has helped me brainstorm how to work on it.

Hoping it improves for all of us soon.

[Cartesia]

Hi Mamas -

When my LO was that age he slept for 2 hours for the first stretch and then woke up EVERY HOUR for the rest of the night. I thought I was going to lose my mind.

What I kept hearing from other mamas is that 6-9 months is THE WORST for sleep and right around 9 or 10 months it gets better. That was certainly my experience. When my LO was 10 months he started sleeping 5-6 hour stretches.

How do you put your baby back to sleep? Do you have to wake all the way up to do it?

We couldn't co-sleep past 7 months because the rolling around was horrible so what we did was put LO on a mattress with a safety-gate all the way around it (and pillows in the cracks). That way I could lie down with him and nurse when he woke. If I drifted off to sleep then fine, if not I would just get up and climb into my own bed. Then we moved this whole arrangement into another room which works fine too.

I find that having lights off in the house helps me fall back asleep after each waking - so even if it is only 10 at night, a dark house helps.

Are you the only one doing night-time parenting? Any way to get a 4 hour chunk where you aren't the "on duty" one?

No Cry Sleep Solution was helpful for us but honestly I think time did the trick more than anything else. Sleepless in America is also really great and that helps us a lot now with a toddler.

I'm really glad we didn't resort to CIO - the sleep deprivation was one of the worst experiences of my life but honestly it really really did get better and I've heard that from enough mamas that I think it is a general truth. Not great - not easy- but better. Good enough for now....

[olive&pimiento]

Well, little guy got his first tooth yesterday, so I think that explains why he started waking more frequently. My other two didn't get teeth until 8 months, so I was a bit surprised. I am going to try giving him some tylenol tonight to see if I can get a longer stretch. I have been keeping him in our bed instead of the cosleeper, and that seems to make me feel like I am getting better sleep, even though we are waking the same amount. I don't want to rush the time, because I love this age, but it certainly is challenging!

[SilverFish]

we are here with the "suddenly much more frequent waking 6-9 month period" too! and we had a LOOOONG stretch of sttn too... there were at least 3 months where she slept straight from 9pm-6am! i don't know if it makes it harder or easier to suddenly switch back to newborn style waking.

things i'm trying out which occasionally work:
a infant tylenol the second she starts this specific kind of cry in the evening which means teething pain. if we have to use it every night for a couple of days, i'm ok with that.
swaddling really seems to help for day-time naps and the first sleep period of the night.
bedsharing... we were cosleeping with her in a crib next to me, but even that motion of sitting up and reaching into the crib wakes me up much more.
making my partner be responsible for at least one period in the night. my dd is a cuddler, so i make him cuddle her so i can stretch out and move around a bit more freely... sleeping with her right next to me makes me feel more tired because i'm squashed into a corner or sleeping on my side.

[Tattooed Hand]

Originally Posted by Cartesia

Hi Mamas -

When my LO was that age he slept for 2 hours for the first stretch and then woke up EVERY HOUR for the rest of the night. I thought I was going to lose my mind.

What I kept hearing from other mamas is that 6-9 months is THE WORST for sleep and right around 9 or 10 months it gets better. That was certainly my experience. When my LO was 10 months he started sleeping 5-6 hour stretches.

This is where I am at now. DD is 9 months and life has been hell for the last 4 months. I am barely hanging on. DH is taking an unpaid leave of absence from work because I don't know how much longer I can continue to function.

I want to believe things will get better but I won't believe it until I see it.

[olive&pimiento]

Well, here we are at almost 11 months and still, we are waking every 2-3 hr. For awhile, if I was desperate, I would put him to sleep in his car seat and we would get a five hr stretch. Now even that doesn't work.  Again, looking for ideas.  I would really like to night wean.