Sleep! Does it get better?

[Jenko]

My 6.5 month old DS has gone from waking once or twice a night to waking every hour! It's been getting worse over the last 6 weeks. As soon as I pick him up he stops crying and I settle him back to sleep by rocking and or feeding him, till he's really asleep or he wakes again as soon as his body hits the cot.

I have tried lying him down and breastfeeding him to sleep and letting him sleep with me, but he still wakes after an hour and is unsettled and I need to get up and rock him again.

My DH and I just seem to tag team all night. I don't mind soothing him back to sleep, I just wish he would actually sleep for a few hours at a time.

What I want to know is: Has anyone that has had a baby that wakes and cries most of the night and goes back to sleep in their arms, do they eventually start sleeping longer again at night. I don't want to do control crying, but I need to hear some positive stories that there is a light at the end of the tunnel...or am I going to be rocking a 10 year old to sleep?? :laughing: ..kidding ;)

[greengables]

My DD who is now 21mths went thru phases of crying thru the night more often - I really think it was teething. The only thing that would stop her crying was bonjela on her gums and panadol.

She would have ups and downs with her sleep.

She has always woken once per night, sometimes up to 6times!!

now she wakes up because she wants to sleep with us!! Eek

[Mahjong]

You poor thing Mel :( I know what you are going through. Even though Wy was bottle fed, he was exactly the same at that age and I was a walking Zombie.

Just trying the think what we did....

I think from memory he was cutting his 2nd and 3rd tooth at that age, but he was also just a very clingy child. Bonjela and Panadol worked a treat, also having a Dummy worked, but having said that, if he doesn't have one, dont give in and give him one LOL! They are buggers to get off them!
In the end, I think it only lasted a max of 2 weeks, once the teeth came through, I ended up co sleeping with him in my arms, devils avocate I know, but I was desperate for some sleep.

Hope Mister sorts his sleep out ASAP, I bet you are exhausted!

[Jenko]

Thanks for your replies ladies.

MumofGG - Looks like we've both been blessed with sleepless babes!

Yes Beth, I am a walking Zombie :sleeping: :laughing: He won't take a dummy, which is good and bad (Jenna still has one and she's 3!)

He has his bottom 2 teeth through, come to think of it that's when the night waking started. I give him Bonjela and panadol sometimes...but he is fine during the day. It's just the nights!

It never seems so bad in the day time. It's like we say..."oh, he's a terrible sleeper" BUT come night time and it's just sooo hard to keep on getting up....I lose count of the number of times I get in and out of bed!

[SassyDiva]

Oh babe nothing worse than no sleep... god the sleep deprivation is a total killer....!!!!!

Sounds as though he is teething tho.. so I'll have my fingers crossed this phase doesn't last long for u :fingerscrossed:

To answer ur question... Jackson was a killer, waking every 2 to 3 hours till he was 12 months.... his 23 months now and still wakes once a night for a snuggle and top up feed, I dont know if it gets easier or u just get acustom to it - I think half the time his the one training me... thats why I need girls nights :p

[lovinmybub]

This is exactly the problem I'm having!! Dh has the baby while I try and find a solution on Bubhub!!

My son is 6 1/2 months old and used to wake 2 or 3 times a night and settle easily back to sleep, but for the past 6 nights he has been a shocker! I am so tired and grumpy.... When he got his first two teeth his was a little more unsettled and we had 2 awake all nights but nothing like this! I think it is his teeth, but panadol, nurofen, bonjela make no difference at all.

When he wakes I can settle him and put him back down but he's awake again within the hour. When dh gets up to him he cries alot more and wakes as soon as he hits the cot! I've also found the only thing to do is take him to bed with me and hold him, which kills my arm and I still don't sleep. He STILL wakes every hour even this way, but settles faster. I really don't want him to get used to sleeping in my bed either, he's always been really good in his cot.

I think I'm going nuts... It's so frustrating...

It's good to hear I'm not the only one. How can these babies function so well on no sleep? Ds is still only have two short naps during the day!!!

I hope for our sake its teeth, and they're through soon... Then 4 down... Only 16 more to go!:banghead:

[DIANNEKB]

My son now 19 months old was like this till he turned 1 and when I decided enough was enough ... I had tried everything you can think of to make him sleep but nothing worked... The only thing was controlled crying and he didnt really even cry that much... I did the whole super nanny thing sat by his bed with my back to him and slowly moved out further every night and I did the same thing when he woke at night and eventually (after 3-4 days) he started to sleep through the night, But I do believe my son was ready for this and you need to make sure your bub is ready or you will fail... cause I tried many times and failed.

Good luck

[Hollywood]

I went through that with DS at 5 months when he got his first 2 teeth, and are starting to get it again with more teething (I know this time that it's teeth, very obvious signs). He woke every 1.5 hours for feeds for a few nights until the teeth popped through. At the moment he's waking about every 2 hours so I'm quite exhausted. Luckily he sleeps with us at night so I pop him on the boob and fall back to sleep (gotta love BFing!).

His naps are all weird too at the moment. Today his morning nap was 20-30 minutes (normally 45), but as I type this he's asleep and has been asleep for 2 hours and 20 minutes (fell asleep at 1:40pm when we went on our walk, and we were out for 1.5 hours, so he's asleep now in his pram inside the front door).

He's stirring now....better go. Good luck with yours!

[Hunni2]

If anyone in this thread is interested, I started a very similar thread in Natural/Attachment Parenting - called 'No sleep... help!' Jenko (who started this one) found it already, but there is some good advice, some is similar but might be helpful to others.:)

[wild at heart]

Jenko: What I found when my ds (7 months) was doing that was that it had something to do with the daytime. We had to change his pattern during the day longer periods of time between feed. He is not sleeping through but now only wakes once during night. I saw a midwife from a private sleep clinic and she always says to address daytime routine first! We are still trying... (aren't we all... he he he)