6 months and barely sleeping...

[slgt]

OK, that's an exaggeration. But DD is just about 6 months and her nighttime sleep is driving me nuts! She wont' sleep in the cosleeper, but guess what - as long as she's in bed with us, she's awake every hour or so. Not awake, just stirring. If I manage to stay awake until she's all the way asleep and move her back to the cosleeper, she's awake 1/2 hour later.

She did just start rolling yesterday - and I mean full-on barrel-rolling, so she has mobility. And I think she's working on a tooth or teeth. Hard to tell on the latter. I gave her some chamomile before bed tonight b/c she was just not settling and it is just chamomile so it can't hurt.

ARGH. I know this wont' last...DD#1 did this too...I guess I'm just looking for sympathy/empathy from others in the same boat?

Do you think there is any point to trying more of a routine? We have one, but it's not very involved - a book or two followed by nursing. She's just generally sort of agitated the past few days. As soon as we get a mattress for older DD, I'm giong to try moving her into a crib at the other end of our room, see if that helps...

[LeaPea]

No words of advice, because I am in the exact same boat with my 7 month old daughter. She has never been a good sleeper, but for the past few weeks she has been waking up trying to crawl! I am so exhausted. We tried a routine, and she just laughed at us! I figure she'll sleep someday....

[sunflower.mama]

I guess it is normal because our 6.5 month old is driving me nuts with nightime waking too.  She's been good forever so this is new and guess what?  She just started rolling over too.  We cosleep so I just nurse/deal with her but since she had been doing so well for so long I was wondering what was up too.  I am working on establishing a daytime nap schedule - in her crib - and figure nighttimes in crib are a ways off, but this is a step in that direction.  Good luck!

[Knitting Mama]

Yeah, it's a hard age. Actually I think the entire time between like 6 to 9 months is a hard time. Physical milestones like crazy, mental leaps, teething...it all wreaks havoc on the sleep! Cecilia is 9 months now and is finally starting to get back to regular sleep. Crawling and pulling up and cruising have helped-- now that she's not frustrated with her lack of mobility she sleeps better. Hang in there, mama!!

[Spiralshell]

My little guy (now 14 months old) had a stretch around that age when he WOULD NOT SLEEP. Seriously, hardly ever more than 45 minutes. A long long stretch of sleep was 2 hours. Far worse than newborn. I thought I would go completely insane.

I tried changing his routine, I tried music, aromatherapeutic bubble bath, more of this, less of that... in the end he worked his way through it. I'm certain that I had nothing to do with this -- it was all him. I can't remember how long it went on, a few weeks at least, but it was ROUGH. I was working full time, then up nursing and rocking him all night long,  I thought I was going to come completely unhinged. Then he sorted out whatever it was, and was back to sleeping 2-3 hours at a stretch (his norm, to this day) and I regained sanity because finally I got to sleep more than an hour at a time!

Sorry I have no fix it ideas... just get zen about it. Sleep whenever you can, don't worry about the dishes/laundry, and know that This Too Shall Pass!

[Terrilein]

Oh, you def have my sympathies. I'm kind of in the same boat. My boy won't sleep in his co-sleeper either. He sleeps better next to me, but is also really restless and keeps DP and me up half the night with his loud nursing, fussing or "talking". DP thinks we're doing something wrong, and he and his parents have been mentioning repeatedly how CIO works like one of his SIL's did, which I just won't do, and generally giving me a confused, pained look when I don't show enthusiasm for CIO or make a big show of looking alarmed that ds is still not sttn yet. DP's also been putting forth the theory that "some babies just sleep better in their own beds" which I agree with, but that's just not the case with our ds. Besides, where is the baby supposed to sleep? We don't have an extra room in our apparment just for the baby. No matter where the baby sleeps (our room, separate bed/dd's room/imaginary nursery), I'm the one who's going to have to get up to feed/comfort him. Which means I'll still be getting little sleep. And if I'm not sleeping, I'm sure as <censor> not going to let him snooze through a feeding. It's just a ridiculous situation at the moment. DP is only home on the weekend anyways so I'm going to continue co-sleeping. I'd rather NOT have to leave the room (or my bed) to tend to my baby's needs if there's no good reason not to.

And developmentally we're not even anywhere near crawling. He's been rolling for quite a while now, but he can't pull his legs up under himself to get up on all fours. So he's not rocking yet, either. However! he obviously WANTS to be mobile and watches other crawling babies with great interest. So I let him practice rocking on all fours while supporting him. Hopefully he'll get the idea soon.

[Summer1216]

Edit

Edited by Summer1216 - 2/22/11 at 4:00pm

[slgt]

Summer, I like your approach...but I'm afraid I don't quite have the wherewithal to actually get out of bed yet! That's definitely part of the challenge - I'm too darn tired to actually get out of bed and into the rocking chair. I think a change of habit would help DD get out of this all-night snackbar routine, but I just don't have it in me! I work full time so don't have napping opportunities during the day. Oh - speaking of which (whom?), I hear her fussing, 2.5 hours after she went to bed....sigh. Off I go!

[aphel]

Why why why oh why is this happening now????

I commiserate with all of you. DD is 5.5 months and for the past 2-3 weeks her night time sleep has completely fallen apart. She was giving me 5-6 hour stretches at 4 weeks old, and now, I'm lucky if I get 2-3 hours. We cosleep, so it shouldn't bug me, but she has an AWFUL latch, so when she eats, it wakes me up fully every time. Honestly though, I could live with the night time stuff if she would take some decent naps. But lately, she won't nap for more than 30-45 minutes, even if I'm wearing her. Which means she's cranky, and I'm cranky, and nothing is getting done around the house.

Cecilia's Mama - it soothes me so to hear that your LO did eventually grow out of this and is finally sleeping better! I can live with it for now as long as there's an end in sight.

It's just a phase . . . . just a phase . . . . just a phase . . . .

[laneysprout]

This sounds pretty typical for breastfed babies who co-sleep.  Remember, too, that there are many reasons why baby might want to nurse aside from being hungry.  Some babies just need that comfort.  In our family, we all get more sleep when that can happen in our family bed and I can just doze while DS snacks and snoozes.  It will pass!