sleeping problems of a 6 months baby girl

[nomi]

Hi, I am the mother of Danielle, who is now 6 months old. Till the 5 months her night sleeping habits were more or less ok - she slept for about 9-10 hr with 1-2 wakenins for breast feeding. But these days we are experiencing impossible nights - she turns asleep around 24:00, the better cases are after breast feeding than we put her in bed awake and after like 20 minutes, she is asleep. but if she refuses to eat well or is very tired, or if we try to early the hour of sleep and put her in bed she screams and wont relax untill I take her. The next phase is after 3-4 hrs, she cries, still with her eyes closed. In general,I breast feed her and she is going back to sleep, but sometimes she refuses to eat (she cries when I put her near the breast and turns her head from it) and can cry for 10 to 15 min, than, after she is relaxesd, I put her back in bad and after 30 min she is crying again and this time she wants food. the same can happen for the following 3 hr and in very bad nights this can happen each 1.5-2 hr. How can I return her to sleep for full nights? maybe she is not getting enough food from my breast before the night sleep? why is she crying when I put her to breast feed, when I know that she is really ungry and 10-20 min later she finally eats? how can I early the hr of her night sleep? and how can I make her learn to fall asleep alone?... during the day she has in general 3 naps, each nap lasts for just about 30 min and in the night she sleeps for about 9-10 hr.

[GG]

It sounds as if she is overtired.  Sleep and food are interrelated.  If babies don't get enough sleep, their feedings get messed up.

Do you have a routine for your dd?  If so, could you post it?  If not, this could be the big problem.  Babies are happiest when they know what to expect.

[nomi]

what is dd? I didnt understand your reply....

[Jaime]

dd = dear daughter  :wink:  sorry bout that - here's a link that explains what they all mean

http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/site-acronyms-what-they-are-and-what-they-mean-vt38166.html

and to get back to your original sleep questions, we'd like to know what your typical day looks like.  when does your lo (little one) usually eat/sleep/play?  i agree with GG; does sound like she's overtired, but we can tell a little better when we see your typical day.   

[nomi]

Thx for your reply. So here it is: My lo finally awakes at about 10:00-10:30 am, usually she cries a little. I try to feed her, not always she wants to. I put her to play alone for about 40min, when she's bored we play together and sometimes I take her up with me. I try feeding her again, if she didnt eat previously. Around 12-12:30 she falls asleep for 30 min. Around 13:00 we go for a walk & play in the park. Around 15:00-15:30 she falls asleep at her carriage for 35-70 min. than we return and I breast feed her. afterwards we play together. Around 17:30-18:00 I put her in her trampoline to watch DVD and feed her with some vegetable soup. most of the time she falls asleep there for 30min. around 20:30 I feed her again and either she plays alone or we play more together until her father returns home and then he plays with her. the bath time  is changing: during the week around 21:00-22:30 and on weekends around noon. when I see she is rubbing her eyes, around 23:00-23:30, I try to put her in bed. Usually after breast feeding, but sometimes without. sometimes it goes smooth and she falls asleep alone within 10 min and sometimes I have to pick her up couple of times until she is relaxed. at night her awakenings vary between each 1:30hr to 3:30hr. each time she cries, sometimes she wants to eat and sometimes she just cries for 10-15 min on my hands.
The feedings throughout the day are problematic-sometimes they are very short (3-5 min), sometimes she cries when I put her near the breast and moves off her head. I have to walk with her and diverse her until she takes the breast and even then she can sometimes continue crying.
besides the above when she is not tired or hungry she is very cheerful, smiles a lot and takes interest in everything.

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

Hi there Nomi - sorry you're having a rough time of it! Do you have Tracy's book?  You might find it helpful to read it - it explains about routine and the importance of getting full feeds and good sleeps during the day.  But here are a few things to think about:

Babywhispering is all about EASY - that's a flexibe routine based on having your baby follow the pattern: Eat, Activity, Sleep, and then time for You!.  So you're aiming to have some play time after she eats, so she's not being fed to sleep.  At 6 months, for most breastfed babies, the routine from start to finish will be about 4 hrs (give or take - could be just 3 hours or more than 4).  So if you start the day by feeding her at 8am, then she should be ready for another breastfeed (after having had some play time and a good nap), by about 12pm - you see what I mean?

You also want to make sure that she's getting full breastfeeds during the day, so she's not as hungry for the breast at night.  That's part of why it's good to have a routine, so you're not just feeding her snacks all day.  Try to keep the distraction minimal when she breastfeeds to help her eat more at one sitting and get the fatty milk at the end of the feed.

Then comes naps.  If she's only having a bunch of 30 min naps all day, she might be getting overtired by the time bedtime comes.  If she's overtired, she may not sleep as well at night and she might be harder to put down.  Tracy's book talks about extending naps, but there are also some great links on the nap forum. At 6 months, most babies have 2 long naps (around 1.5 hrs or so) and a shorter nap later in the day (30-45 min).

For bedtime, it's really important to have a routine. If she's playing, then all of a sudden you notice she's rubbing her eyes and you try to put her down, she'll fight you, and she won't be as relaxed to have a good night's sleep.  Better to choose a bedtime that works for you and your family ahead of time and stick to it.  Most people here tend to aim at a bedtime around 7 or 8pm...I notice yours is much later - is that what works for you though?

Once you choose a bedtime for her, start a wind-down about an hour in advance.  Quiet play...bath, massage, reading a book, a breastfeed... have it all end at bedtime, so that you can put her down even BEFORE she starts rubbing her eyes.

Finally, you have to decide what you want to do about nightwakings.  Do you want to keep feeding her everytime she wakes up? She may well need to be breastfed once overnight at this age. But remember, if you feed her close to her morning wakeup time, she won't be hungry when she wakes and you want to try feeding her fairly soon after she wakes up... Whatever you do, you need to be consistent, so that she will know what to expect when she wakes.

I hope that helps a bit!  Good luck and let me know if you have more questions.

[nomi]

Thx for your reply. I bought tracy's book and read it. I started making some changes and I have some more questions.
I succeed to form a night sleep frame from 11:15-10:20 (more or less).
The first breastfeed in the morning is about 10:30. than its activity and according to easy she should sleep again from 12:00-13:30 give or take...- how do I put her to sleep during the day? sould it be like at night if she is crying? if we are at home I hardly manage to put her to sleep and if we are out she falls asleep in her carriage. for 2 days she had 2 long naps and 1 sohrter, just as you described, but in the rest of the days we are trying easy she had naps of 30min if any - how can I extend those naps? also, in 6 months age should she sleep in each cycle of easy or should she skip some? THX again. waiting anxiously....

[Jaime]

there are lots of helpful announcements & posts in the nap forum about getting them to go asleep, and then extending the nap.  i'd recommend a look there.   :wink: