please help!my 6 month old is waking every 2 hours

[gailemma]

any advice?im currently breast feeding as well as solid feeding.breast-5 times a  day along with 3 solids,breakfast lunch and dinner.my baby goes to bed at roughly 7 pm,he goes to sleep no problem from when i put him in his cot awake.
 the problems start when he wakes at 10.30 for a b/feed.after that he wakes every 2-3 hours,i b/feed him and every time he is on the breast only 5-10 mins.(i take him off before he falls asleep on me)he goes back  to sleep no problem.this trend continues until we get up at 8-8.30.
 i dont think he is hungry,just a bad habit we have both got into.it has been this way sinse he was born.any suggestions how to break it would be greatly appreciated

[2sweetpeas]

HI,

I am no expert, but I found that a 10/11 pm feed with both my kids disrupted the whole night. Maybe just skip this feed (eg. pat him back to sleep)? Not sure what you routine is but BF 5 times a day seems a lot alongside solids and night feeds. It definately seem habitual. What is your EASY?

[gailemma]

thanks for you're reply.i dont follow EASY,however here's our day-
8.30 rise
9am breakfast (porridge)
10am b/feed then nap
11am play time
12.30pm lunch
1.30pm nap(the timing depends,some days it could be for 2 hours.other days 30 mins)
3.30pm b/feed
3.45pm playtime
5pm dinner
6.45 pm bathtime
7.15 b/feed then bed
he has pretty much had this "routine"sinse he was born.we are making the transition of putting him into his own room from tonight.maybe this will help?(or make things worse!)

[jess, lukeys_mom]

Hi there,

Welcome to BW 

Have you read any of Tracy's books?  I was going to move your post to another board to get you more help, but before doing so I just wanted to mention that this whole site is an extension of the Baby Whisperer books. Therefore the advice you'll find is tailored to creating an EASY routine that is tailored to your child's needs to help her be a happy baby who is well rested/fed/calmed/understood    The members of the community here will try to help you tweak your lo's routine in the same way that Tracy would have...  let us know if you are familiar with BW and are interested in this type of advice. I'd be happy to put your post in the right spot 

[gailemma]

hi,i havn't read any book's of Tracys book's..yet!I was advised to come onto the website from my sister.She's having problems with her 20 month old but thats a whole other issue!!I would be both gratefull and interseted in any help which the community on here can give.Yes,please do put my post in the correct place.thanks so much

[JaxM]

Hi Gailemma! I am also very new to teh site and to Tracy's wonderful ideas

I just wanted to mention that both my kids also had very disrupted nights if they woke (or if I woke them) to feed round 10/11pm. I founf that they then woke every 2 - 3 hours thereafter.

We my daughter did it I stopped feeding her then, which was easy because I was waking her and she quickly went back to only waking once. She is 5 months and wakes up mostly once or twice a night (although we have had some stella mare nights thrown in!)

Wait to see what the more seasoned members suggest, i just wanted to had my 2cw

[gailemma]

Hi JaxM,thanks for you're post.
 Its great to hear we're not the only one's with this problem!
Tonite he went to sleep no problem in his own room,but woke after only 2 hours.I went to him,touched his arm and gently spoke-its bedtime Christian,time to go back to sleep.After 10 minutes i went in and did the same again,then again after 15.After 1/2 hour he had drifted back to sleep.
 This is the plan for the rest of the night if he wakes again(Not picking him up or giving eye contact either).Hopefully as i havn't fed him he may have a better night,as strange as it sound's!
 Heres where the fun begins,wish me luck!!

[sherry lynn]

Hi gailemma - I do want to mention that getting on a good routine is going to be really important to getting over these NWs. It is important to break the feeding to sleep prop. That is def. true, but you will find it a lot easier if he stops waking less at night and is tired enough to go back to sleep.

We had a very bad patch at 6 months with NW and it was all because of our routine.

For example, what you have listed above is not appropriate for a 6 month old. We were on almost the same routine, very similar (except the feeds. We did do a 4 hour between feeds routine, which is another important aspect)

You need to have at bare minimum 2 hours between the time he wakes in the morning before he goes back down for his nap. You will find that he will probably take a longer nap, which will help you feed less often.

Are you willing to try to get him onto a better routine, along with willing to drop the feeding to sleep?

[JaxM]

Hi Gailemma! How did you go during the night? Did you leave lttle one to cry? I have been doing this for awhile now and it was not working. She used to get very upset and each night she would cry for longer not less. Eventually I stumbled upon BW and the PU/PD method. It has helped and we are now down to 1 waking (from 3)!!! Maybe you shoudl give it a go?

I have to agree with Sheryl though, get on top of the routine and the NW will decrease. We have had great improvement in just two days beacause I got a little more serious.

Let us know how you go

[*Jo*]

Hi Gailemma and welcome to BW!!!

I hope you will find lots of encouraging support here on the BW boards, to back up what Jess has said, this site is an extension of the books, because there is so much information in the books there is no possible way to be able to teach you everything here I highly recommend purchasing the books and then you will have a better understanding of the kind of support you will get, we can only do so much here and its alot better to "get it from the horses mouth" so to speak, Tracy explains things a heck of a lot better than some of us can, we have only learnt from her and pass on our own experiences.

For the age of your child the recommend time they are awake is 2.5 hours, however you cant just jump to that time, you will need to do it gradually and also without feeding beforehand, there are a few techniques to doing this, all of which are layed out in greater detail in the BW books. Perhaps your sister and you can read teh books together, i know two heads are better than one in these cases!!!

[gailemma]

Hi,well that is the first night in his own room over.This is how it went-
7pm bed
9.45 woke.kept going in to him grad increasing the time i left him.he fell asleep again after 45 mins
11.15 woke b/fed.
1 am woke, did as 9.45.fell asleep after 45 mins.
4.30 woke b/fed.
6.30 woke,did as 1 am.asleep  after 45 mins.
8.30 woke,up b/fed and porridge.
It went pretty much how i expected it to,and im just glad that the first night is over!He woke at exactly the same times he always does,only diff was i didnt pop him straight onto the breast.To me this proves he is not hungry as he did go back to sleep.
Im off out soon to buy some of Tracys books.This should really give me some great direction rather than just struggling through in the dark(so to speak!)

[*Jo*]

Yay!!! one thing you can do at this stage is a technique called shh/pat, basically you pat your DS on his back or chest (depending how he sleeps) rhythmically and say "shhh" sometimes the shhh isnt appropriate for babies older than three months so just see how your boy responds to it, he may not like it, Caleb doesnt, he just likes the patting. This way we are staying with our child while they learn to settle and not leaving them to cry, Tracy does not advocate CIO or CC and so we dont support this in any way, she feels it breaks trust between parent and child. She said many times that there is a gentler solution for every situation, we just have to find it.

happy reading!!!!

[jess, lukeys_mom]

Hi Gailemma,

You're already getting some great advice and I am glad the site has inspired you to go out and get Tracy's books. The book(s) should help you get an overview of establishing a routine and troubleshooting problems with understanding your lo's signals, and this site should provide you with some support tailored to your situation if you need it.

Since as Jo mentioned, BW advocates using gentler methods for getting your lo to sleep, it is a general principal of the site to keep Controlled Crying and Cry It Out methods of sleep training from being explored within the sleep threads. However if you want to try another method of sleep training - either the two described in Tracy's book, or other methods where a baby is not left to cry on his/her own - you should find a good amount of support within this great community!

If you are able to hold off with sleep training for a couple of days until you are able to skim the sleep and routine sections, I think you might find that the wake up issues you are having boil down to needing to do more regular feedings during the day and establish a regular sleep pattern.  My concern with what is happening now is that your lo may be doing more crying than necessary and may actually be hungry more than you think, based on her routine during the day. It could also be that she has something else going on in addition to that such as teething, etc.