Seeking Advice on a 6 Month Old That WON'T Sleep Through the Night.

First, if he is not crying or screaming why do you go into him. You might
be making things worse. He may just need to yell himself back to sleep.
If you think he wants to eat, feed him once. Then just try to comfort him.
Pat his back, but do not pick him up He will eventually get it. Good luck.

I know it sounds counter-intuitive but have you tried bringing his crib into your room, or even bringing him to bed with you?

Babies have attention and love all day long, at night if they wake they may be scared. Around this age as well, there is a lot of drifting in and out of REM sleep as that is the only way the brain can repair and build new cells (think, he's bombarded with words, images, toys, experiences all day long! It's a lot for one little brain to take in...) to store all the new information!

If you try putting the crib next to your bed for starters, he may see you guys and go back to sleep!

Before trying CIO, read up on cons. Attachment Parenting is growing in popularity because there is no crying involved! Plus, it has been proven to be damaging for the bond.

I feel like I mysefl am typing this post. I have a 6 month old son who for some reason doesn't belive in naps. If the nanny is lucky he will sleep for a total of 2 hours during the entire day. We started putting him to bed at 8, but he would be back up at 11 then 3 then 6:30 for the day. Again we are both working parents too. To help with our son we now keep him awake until 9 or 9:30 (elimiting any mommy daddy time) and right before he goes to bed we give him a bottle to fill his little tummy. This has done wonders for us. Now he may wake once like this morning he wokr up at 4:30 hungry so I fed him and he went right back to sleep. We however still swaddle the little guy and this helps him sleep so much better.

I wish you the best of luck as I was just in your shoes. And yes, you can give it time, but it is hard being the best mommy and daddy when you are too tired to to anything.

We just did CIO with our 5.5mo old for similar reasons. She just wanted to play overnight, and it the broken sleep was messing with her daytime sleep, as well. Not to mention that we were exhausted.

Not everyone likes to do that - and it sucks to make them cry - by my God does it work! 2 nights, and now she's sleeping 11 hrs straight through, not a peep out of her at night.
I put her down around 6 every night, and she wakes up between 5-5:30 to eat. Sometimes she goes back to sleep for an hour, sometimes no. But I can deal with the early wakeup if I haven't been up all night!

I just did this last week, and I can't tell you how much better we all feel getting sleep again!!! (Both DH and I work full time)

...And in response to the post above me, I have to disagree. Cry or don't cry, you have to do what's comfortable to you. But under NO circumstance does crying damage the bond with your child. I personally know and am quite close to 3 child behavior psychologists. Every one of them would tell you - based on years of experience, reaseach and education - that CIO, if anything, promotes strong and independent children and does no impact on the parental relationship.
So, make your choice based on what you're comfortable with. But don't let anyone tell you that you're ruining your kid or being a bad parent for choosing one style over another.
I would also suggest an earlier bedtime. If he's sleeping that little during the day, he's probably overtired and his little mind is on overload.
Good luck!

Yes, sounds like most babies.
And mine when they were babies.

6 months old is a growth-spurt time and a time of many developmental changes. This tweaks them. It affects sleep. And they may be teething at this age too.
And, per my kids as babies and what our Pediatrician said, from about this age, they get 'separation anxiety' too.

Plus, if a baby is hungry, they can't sleep. Feed him on-demand. Not by a 'schedule.' My kids as babies had HUGE appetites, they woke every 2 hours or so. I nursed, They fed, were satisfied after feeding, woke again, grew like weeds, and were very healthy.

Plus, make sure he naps during the day. Lack of sleep/over-tiredness, makes a baby sleep worse, and they wake more.

I would try feeding him, on-demand. Yes, at night. My kids were voracious feeders. At growth-spurts, they need increased intake. For the 1st year of life, breastmilk/Formula is a baby's primary source of nutrition. Not solids and not other liquids.

How IS it at daycare? Do they feed him on-demand? They should. Not by a schedule. Is he getting enough intake, there? I would check on that.
Babies... often go through periods of 'cluster feeding' too. Which means they even need to feed every single hour. Which is normal in a baby and at certain junctures. So if being fed by a 'schedule'... a baby will NOT be getting adequate, intake/feedings. For example.
Don't feed him according to when he ate last. Going by a clock, does not indicate, the feeding needs/hunger of a baby. Nor their growth-spurt needs and intake needs, per their development.

Also, from that age of 6 months, my son had a 'lovey.' Which HE gravitated toward. A stuffed toy. So he slept with that too.

all the best,
Susan

My DD was doing the same thing. I started letting her fuss (but if she actually started crying for me, I would give her a minute or two to try and calm herself down, then go to her) I found that when I feed her an hour before bed, instead of immediately before laying her down, she sleeps more soundly. (She went from lots of waking up to sleeping until 1:00am within 3 days of changing her bedtime routine to nursing, bath, rubdown with lotion, PJS, books, lights out and lullaby.... I used to do the same exact thing, just nursing last.) I also found that picking her up so that she fell asleep immediately helped. If I tried the 'pat and soothe in the crib' thing with her, she would just get more and more pissed. But when I pick her up, she immediately falls back to sleep. So I started picking her up, then setting her down before she fell all the way to sleep, and setting her down more and more awake. Now I will hear her wake up, then fall back asleep on her own. Once in a while she still needs to be cuddled, but I don't mind now that it's not all night every night. She still wakes up about 3 times to nurse (1:00 am, 4:00am, and 7:00am), but even that is getting better... I also moved her bedtime from 8:00pm to 9:00pm...

looks like you are putting him to bed too early... and maybe you got yourself a demanding co-sleeper. Most infants - breastfed or not, prefer the warmth, safety, comfort and love sleeping next to Mommy gives. Babies are designed to need skin to skin contact for development.

Just because you were able to force it out of your oldest... doesn't look like your little guy is going to take it.

So, he sleeps initially about 4-1/2 hours until midnight or so. After that, how often is he up and do you feed him? At that age, we put DS to bed after his last feeding (generally 11 pm-11:30). I would expect that your DS is hungry when he wakes up at midnight and I would feed him a full feeding/bottle (whatever you are doing). When he wakes up again, I would try feeding. If he is not hungry, I would simply check his diaper, say goodnight again and walk out. It is good he can fall asleep himself. Can you move his 'bedtime' to later? it may decrease his waking to once in the middle and then 6 am? It may help people respond if you post more details about when he wakes in the middle of the night and what you do.
The sleep deprivation does get better :)

I think that at 6 months, babies should be able to go all night without eating, so I would discontinue that. Also, when you go in the room at night, do not talk to him, no extra lights, etc. Simply go in, give nuk and leave. The first time, wait 5 minutes before you go in and each subsequent time, wait an extra 5. You may be surprised that he will find the nuk on his own and go back to sleep. Right now, he's used to you making it better. My son had 3 nuks in the crib, so he could always find one. This process may take a few nights, so I would see if you can arrange for a family member or good friend to take your oldest for a couple of nights (over a weekend) so you can work on it. Good luck!

has he just made any major developmental milestones? those things can interrupt sleep. teething? that will do it too. try some tylenol if gums look red and swollen, or if you can see teeth poking out.

is he too hot? check the back of his neck. if its sweaty, his room is too warm. if its not, consider his fingers and toes for too cold (put them on your stomach or arm or something, your hands wont exactly be able to properly figure out if hes cold)

other things to consider : a white noise machine or cd. our son NEEDED to sleep to the sound of a vacuum. we ran ours every night for 2 months before finding "for crying out loud" - a cd with 8 tracks of white noise on them. it was a lifesaver.

also: infants are very immature; and they sometimes just want to be with or near their parents. this is also normal and healthy. is there a way to have his crib in your room? my son used to wake up, see that i was right there, and lay back down. we were pretty open with our son about sleep; he slept in our room until a week before he turned 3, and now even as a 4 year old, he still comes into our room in the early morning (3 am or so). he is the MOST excellent sleeper otherwise, and knowing full well that in a few years time he wont want to do that anymore, we are soaking it up. you wont regret it either if htats a choice you want to make. we had a bed on the floor of our room for him and he would lay there or we could put him there if he got annoying in our bed LOL@!

anyway, just do what works. do what your heart is telling you to do. ;) your instincts are the specific ones that your son needs. :) so just do what you have to do.

Sounds totally "normal" to me, both my kids were like that, longest sleep span at that age was about 5 hours, then up every 2 hours till 6 am. Eventually we had to do CIO with both of them, there was no other way. My now 4 year old daughter, we did CIO at 9 months, right after weaning from breastfeeding, and after the 3 first nights of crying at bedtime, she "got it", and was a great sleeper from there on till now, rarely gets up at night. My son , we tried to do it at about 6 months, and it Kind-of took - he was still nursing though, so he still woke a couple times a night. Well, those couple times hung on, and now at nearly 2 years old, he still rarely sleeps through a whole night without waking and crying for something....unfortunately I have encouraged this, because I go in there, to prevent him from waking his sister and my husband....I think we need to take away his pacifiers (loses them and I have to go find them) and do CIO all over again, really, but I am dreading it, he is VERY stron willed. I am exhausted, though, and I am thinking a week or so of terrible re-training might be better then who knows HOW much longer of him needing the paci to go back to sleep and not being coherent enough to find it!

BY the Way, he STILL sometimes takes 2 naps and sleeps at night from 6:30 or 7 PM to 6:30 am....at 2 years old, so I don't think your little guy is getting too much sleep in the day either.

We try to follow the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child Book, Dr. Marc Weissbluth....our 2 year old goes to bed between 6:30 and 7 pm....maybe you need an earlier bedtime an a little CIO? Good Luck!

Jessie

My kids both did this...6 times might be a bit much, but four times a night was the norm for us with all three of our kids.

I would look for some info on the internet to see how much sleep a 6 month old is supposed to be getting. I know some one year olds that have given up a morning nap; if he's going down at 7:30 and sleeping til 6, and napping twice daily for 2-3 hours, that may be expecting too much? That's more than my kids slept, but my kids perhaps were on one end of the spectrum.