Now 6 Months Old and She Still Wont Sleep! HELP!

At 6 months my daughter was drinking more than just 3-4 ounces at a time, I think we were using the 8 oz bottle and she was drinking close to that. She was also sleeping through the night... By that age we were having to put cereal in her bottle to keep her full as well.

Try the Dr. Ferber method. You've got to wean her from the night bottles. She will cry up a storm in protest. There is really no need for her to get 5 bottles during the night. Once she learns to self soothe, you will all get better sleep.

in short here's the method.
1. establish a go to sleep routine, lullabye, prayers, story, whatever works for you.
2. put her to bed drowsy, but not asleep.
3. walk out of the room. (she will cry).
4. go back in at intervals 1 min, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes.
5. when you go back in, you can stroke her, but do not pick her up, do not give a bottle, do not try to put her to sleep. the point is to reassure her that you are still around, but that she can't rely on you to get her to sleep (she's got to do that for herself).
6. the point of going back in at intervals is to reassure her, and yourself, that she is ok.
7. on day two, you start at 5, on day 3, you start at 10, at day 4 you start at 15. (shouldn't really take more than 4 days, but go up to a week). If it isn't working after a week, look hard at whether you've been doing it correctly. Consider giving it a three week break and trying again.
8. you do this when you put her down for naps, and every time she wakes up at night. (yes its more bother than giving her 5 bottles, but it will only last a week, and you won't have to get up to give her bottles from that point forward).
9. modification for the daytime (if the total cry time during the day goes over 30 minutes, stop, take her out of bed, and wait for the next nap slot to try again. if she falls asleep on her own before the next nap, excellent, she is learning to do so without using you/ the bottle as a crutch.
10. the process requires TOTAL COMMITTMENT on your part to the process. if you relent, and give her a bottle after she's been crying for 40 minutes, all you've taught her is that if she cries for 40 minutes, she'll get a bottle.
11. if she cries herself into a tizzy, and vomits, Ferber says to quickly and quietly clean up crib and baby and carry on with the method. thankfully, our DS never did this.

We did this early, as our boy was crying constantly. It was harder on us than it was on him. apart from this summer when my MIL stayed with us and decided to "help" at night, DS has slept the whole night through roughly 8pm - 7am without any trouble.

He literally jumps out of my arms and into his crib, smiles and goes to sleep.

Good luck to you and yours.

I didnt have this problem with my daughter but I have heard that you could try to soothe her by having a shirt that you have slept with previously, close to her when she sleeps to help her get back to sleep - she may very well just be a healthy eater but my bet is that she is using the bottle as a soothing tool to get back to sleep. Instead of a bottle maybe try to cuddle her with a piece of clothing that smells like you and a nice back rub. We have always used this ladybug that projects coloured stars all around the room too. Not sure if it helps but my daughter really likes it and at 23 months still uses it nighhtly and asks for it
Good Luck and I hope it gets better for you

Have you tried giving her more in her bottles during the day? So she is still getting the same total each day?

We did this with my son to get him off night time feedings...

Every few days increase the day time bottles while decreasing the night time bottles. We also for a few days would add water to the night time bottle so that he was still getting the same amount of liquid but less calories. So I'd go up in my daytime bottles 1/2 an oz for 3 days while decreasing the night time ones by 1/2 an oz. After I dropped a full oz at night at the next drop I would also decrease the amount in the whole night time bottle. I did this until I got to 1oz/1 oz then dropped completely after about a week. If he struggled with a drop I'd stick at where I was for another few days before trying to drop again.

So if I started at 4 oz at night
3.5 oz formula/bm 0.5 oz water for 3 days
3 oz formula/bm 1 oz water for 3 days
2.5 oz formula/bm 0.5 water for 3 days
2 oz formula/bm 1 oz water for 3 days

He was drinking 32 - 36 oz a day when I did this so he never stopped drinking that much he just moved up to drinking 4 8 oz bottles during the day (12 hour period)

You already have some great suggestions, but I just wanted to point out that you are training your child at this stage in life. Right now, it seems like you're training her to need a bottle to go back to sleep. The longer you keep it up, the more you instill the habit and need for the bottle in order for her to fall back to sleep. At 6-months-old, she should be able to last longer than 2 hours without eating, so I don't think it's a hunger thing - it's a soothing thing.

I agree, it's time to start cereal before bedtime and increase the formula. And it's time to train her to self-soothe. The Ferber method is hard, but like-it-or-not, it works. My husband hated letting our girls cry, but we had to sleep and we had to train our girls to go back to sleep on their own. Three nights of crying (and each night got progressively better), and they were sleeping all night long. Stay long-term focused, and you can do it. The mama below (Fanged Bunny) explained how to do it. Our girls are excellent sleepers now - 11 or 12 hours a night without waking, and even when they do in the morning, they're content to just wait and play until we get them. We couldn't be more blessed. :)

my best friends daughter still doesnt sleep through the night & she just turned A year.. when my daughter was little i couldnt handle being awake constantly so i kept her up all day, when she wanted to sleep i talked to her and kept her awake & then she slept through the night. i think meagans right though she probablly needs more food, 5 bottles a night is intense but if you start giving her 8 oz bottles it might keep her asleep longer.

also dont do co-sleeping it will turn into an even bigger nightmare trust me, my nieces are 5 & 2 and STILL have to sleep in thier parents bed..

Have you thought about co-sleeping? My son was exactly like this, always waking up5-8 times a night to eat, although we breastfed. I had to have him sleep with me so I could get some sleep. Maybe if she is sleeping with you she will sleep longer.

I'm so sorry :(

Please get and read the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth. This book saved my life (or so it feels!) I took everything from this book and within days of reading it, I had a little boy sleeping 11 hours at night and taking nice, regular naps.

I would give bigger bottles, but I would focus on getting her to eat as much as possible during the day time so that she gets most of what she needs during the day. At 6 months old, my son was still having one bottle at night. When I felt several hours had passed and he woke crying, I would assume it's fair to think he could be hungry and wet and so I would go to him without talking and without turning on lights - I would change him, feed him and place him back down. No rocking to sleep. She's 6 months old, which is an appropriate time to start letting her cry to sleep. This is not something cruel - this is you teaching her the skills she needs to sleep and be healthy and happy. After the one nighttime feeding, I would ignore the other wakings that happen. She'll pitch a fit, but within a couple of days, you should be fine.

I would also ensure that you are focusing on not letting her get overtired. I would assume by now she is wayyyy overtired, which makes it very hard for children to settle into a good sleep. I would focus on very early bedtimes for a bit (6:00 maybe) and putting her down for naps after only a couple of hours of wakefulness.

I would try giving her some cereal. It sounds like she is getting hungry really fast so I would try something that is a bit heavier that will keep her full longer. We had to do this with my last child. We started cereal at 3-4 months for the reflux and to keep the hunger away for a longer period of time. Yes, she will out grow it and yes, it is probably a growth sput, but it sounds like she is just hungry. She will stop eating when she is full. Also, have you tired to give her more than 3-4 oz at a time?

Ok, this is one reason why we only had 1 child.. I have to be able to sleep to function.

I know you are exhausted and very frustrated.

These are the things we did to help our daughter sleep through the night. It worked at 6 weeks..

Sleep with her crib sheet one night or at nap time. Place this on her crib mattress.

At night, give your baby a nice warm bath. use a low light in the bathroom.
Use good long strong strokes on her arms, legs, head.. Like a massage. No horse playing. Make it as calm as possible. Take her to her room, with low lights, maybe some soothing music or white noise.. like a fan.

Try not to talk to her. You could put some lotion on her again with nice long strokes. Place her in her pajamas.

Then feed her a nice sized bottle. No eye contact look away or close your eyes. No talking.. let the music play. Make sure you get every burp out of her.. In between burps, rub her back in upward motions.

When you place her in her crib, lay her on her tummy, with her head up against the corner of the crib, head against the bumper.

Make sure there is no light in the room.

At night when she wakes, let her cry for a while. If she does not calm down, very quietly and is as dark as possible, go in and pat her bottom to kind of rock her forward and backwards.

If she needs a diaper change, do it in the dark, do not make eye contact do not talk.

Maybe place a night light in her room or leave her door open and only allow the light from the hallway to come into her room (which ever one is the least light you can work with).

If she needs a lovey, look at what you have that is soft and not too thick. Sleep with it one night or at nap time. Let her play with the lovey during the day, place it in her stroller or in the car seat with her. This can be a blanket, a stuffed animal, some children like something with a silky texture on it.

You need to take away anything that gives her stimulus. You want this time to be so boring she goes right to sleep. Soon she will be in a pattern of longer sleep.

I am sending a good nights sleep.

I am so sorry and feel for you so much!! Both of my kids had this as well, and I have a 6 month old too. He sleeps pretty well, but not as long as I would like. I read your older posts, so I see you are on the Alimentum, which is good. How much Prevacid is she getting? We are going 7.5mg 2x a day, one about 2pm and one about , if she isn't getting the night dose, then the acid maybe affecting her at night. Also, she may need to be sleeping at an angle. The best angle is the infant carrier carseat. I actually put my little guy in his at night on his Graco Sweetpeace Soother so he has noise (jungle theme) and movement. It seems to really help a lot. This is how my daughter slept also. I know you said the acid reflux is gone, but it may not be really....teething can aggravate it really badly.

Next, for a binky, did you try the gerber latex ones? These are round like a bottle nipple, and are not "orthodontic" or shaped to the mouth at all. It is round like the very old fashioned ones. I have found them at Walmart, and occasionally at Fred Meyer.

For bottles, my babies were drinking 8 or 10 oz at a time, usually I make a 4 scoop bottle, (playtex drop ins) which holds 10 oz with the expandable liner, so I fill it up all the way with the water. I have figured out that he needs his rice food dinner, about 2 hours before bedtime or he won't drink his whole bottle and then he gets hungry in the middle of the night.

I hope these tricks will help you. I also like the one about sleeping with her blanky so that she can smell you when she is sleeping. If I can help more, please let me know. Good luck!!!