6 Month Old NOT Sleeping - Please HELP

Hi A.,

I feel for you -- the days and nights are so tough when no one gets enough sleep.

A couple of things came to mind when I read your post:
1. 6 months seems quite young be down to one nap, especially if your son isn't sleeping through the night. Our pediatrician told us all the time when our daughter was younger that "sleep begets sleep". What if you put him down for a morning nap and an afternoon nap? My thinking is that currently, by the time it's bed time at night, he's overtired and not prepared to have a good night's sleep.

2. Keep in mind that at 6 months, babies brains are afire with development. It was at this age that my daughter went from being a fairly good sleeper to quite a poor sleeper. Once they go to sleep, their little heads are busy processing all that they worked on during the day and they wake frequently because of it. I think it's fair to expect 1-2 wakings per night at his age.

3. I highly recommend the book "The no-cry sleep solution". It's about conditioning your baby for sleep and deconditioning the need for external things to put the baby to sleep. We have used the methods for our daughter and at 17 months, she's a very good sleeper.

I think the best advice I can give is this: Set a sleep schedule that is appropriate for his age and personal needs and stick to it to a T. Follow the same routine every day for at least a couple of weeks, if not a month. This includes:
- Nap time(s)
- Start bedtime routine
- Go through all the bedtime routine items, in the same order every night: Bath, bottle/nurse, book, massage, etc.
- Wake up at the same time every morning. No sleeping in.

The goal is to set his internal clock to expect sleep at certain times. His body will expect sleep, accept it more willingly and stick with it through the night.

Hope this helps.
J.

Hi A.,

I've been reading up on this, because I don't do well without my sleep either.

From what I happen to be reading about this, you might want to consider what conditions your baby falls asleep with - i.e. binky, bottle, mom there, etc. If all that's gone when he wakes up (a natural thing for all of us, but especially a 6 month old to wake up several times during the night), he might be trying to figure out why the normal conditions of falling asleep are absent. To find out more about that, check out the sleep books by Dr. Ferber. He's useful, even though a little bit on the extreme for some.

I also read about a technique used by the "Baby Whisperer" which you can read about in her book - when the baby wakes up, she immediately lies him back down, with a pat or a rub, and then let's him try to learn how to fall back asleep. Usually, the first night, she said she had to do this many, many times, then considerably less each night, until the baby is sleeping through the night by the 3rd or 4th night.
Anyway, just some ideas. Best of luck to you.

Hi A.,
Is this a new thing or has this been an issue for a while? If he once was a good sleeper and now is not sleeping... he could be teething (esp. if he wants the binky back... my youngest would chew the heck out of it when she was teething) OR he could have an ear infection.
If this has been an issue for a while then I would check out the books listed by the other moms.
I also found that the more my girls napped during the day the better they slept at night.
Good luck...
MJ

My 13mo is still going down for 2 naps. Even when her last nap ends at 4 or 5pm, she still goes to sleep at 6:30. Babies need a lot of sleep.

An easy approach (in case it's just that he really wants his binky back) is to just put like 6 or 7 binkies in his crib. A friend of mine did that for her baby and it worked great. My baby is a thumb sucker, so I know that that can be very comforting when they wake at night.

You've received some good advice. Sift through and good luck!