My Six Month Old Will Only Sleep 3 Hours at Night

My two little ones are only 16 months apart and I have had the same problem. My daughter is 2 and she sleeps well through the night. I did not want to disturb her sleeping, so if my son made the smallest noise I would get up and comfort him until he went back to sleep. When we first started letting our son cry it out she would get up to tell me Eddy was crying. She then started sleeping through it. Eddy is now 8 months old, he still doesn't sleep through the night every night, but he has gotten much better. When I do have to get up for him, I usually don't have to sooth him for too long. And my daughter almost never gets up when he is crying. If you do find a miracle cure for not sleeping through the night, please pass it on to me.

J.

Hi Jaqcui,

Six months is the perfect time (you likely know this since you have a 2 yr old) to establish a bed time routine. You may already have done this. The key to getting our son to sleep after each night routine is allowing (getting) him to fall asleep on his own. Rather than pick him up and get him back to sleep, see if you can distract him while he is in his crib. Offer sips of water, or sips of his bottle. At six months they no longer need to have bottles in the middle of the night. If he settles down well enough in the crib, see if you can leave the room while he's still awake in his crib. It may take you going in and out 10, 20, or 30 times. Babies want to know you are there, and it may help you not having to pick him up everytime. My son is now 1 and falls asleep on his own, but we still have to pop in his room a few times before he falls asleep. He likes to sip on Propel water if he's fussy. Of course, the crib and he get a little wet, but it settles him enough for him to try falling asleep again. Hope this helps...best of luck!

When you find the answer, let me know. My 11 month old still wakes up in the night for nursing/bottle. The pediatrician said to let her scream it out until she finds a way to sooth herself back to sleep. We did this and it worked for awhile (2 weeks). Then she got a viral illness and was teething and now wakes every night again and SCREAMS to the point that we just go get her because she will wake the other 3 children. Make sure your little one has a full tummy before bed and is warm enough. We also put a fan in her room for white noise. good luck ~C.

I've been in the Early childhood Education field for 8 years and I've heard this problem before and i also have a 16 month old son so I can understand your situation. I would try to give him a bottle before bed and establish some kind of bed time routine and stick to it. Keep a small night light in his room and when he wakes up let him cry it out for about 20min, if he doesn't fall asleep...go in the room but don't turn on any lights and don't talk with him as this will arouse him even more. Just pat him on the back to let him know it's ok but try to avoid picking him up. After calming him for a few minutes, leave and let the next cry go for 30 minutes. Avoid giving the bottle to pacify him...only use it if it's true hunger. If you try this for a few days, hopefully he'll start sleeping longer after about a week. Also, try to keep a set shedule and have him nap at the same times or close to the same times every day. You may have a few rough nights at first, but hopefully it will be worth it in the long run. Good luck!

Hi J.~

My daughter went through the same thing, and there are days that she still doesn't sleep through!! (She is now 17 months) I live in an apartment and I didn't want to wake the neighbors, so I would run into her room as soon as I heard her make a peep. I found that this was the worst thing that I could do!! I also found that eventhough the Dr.'s say "Back to sleep" it was keeping her up because she would get startled when she was drifting off to sleep. We started to put her on her belly and she slept a little longer (4 hours or so at a time), and eventually we had to just let her "cry it out!!" It took about 3-4 nights and it was painful, but we knew that we were doing the very BEST for her by allowing her to fall asleep on her own and settle herself down. We set up a bedtime routine. She gets a bath @ 7:00 and we also use the Johnson and Johnson night time bath wash, shampoo, and lotion. Then we put P.J.'s on. She gets her hair then teeth brushed. A story and warm milk. We play the same CD for her everynight.(We turn it on when we take her into the room to get P.J.'s on, and leave it on repeat so if she does wake up she knows that it is still bedtime) The CD just gives her a cue that it is getting time to wind down for bed. Since we did the "cry it out" A.K.A "The nights of hell" and really stuck to this schedule she has slept almost EVERY night straight through, and it is FABULOUS!!! It is tough to listen to her cry, but just remember that you are doing what is BEST:) Hope this helps, sorry it is SO long and detailed!!

-L.

Hi J.,
I feel your pain, my daughter is the same way she was like that since she was born. There is nothing to really do about it. What I try and do with my daughter is try a wind down routine, I will give her a nice warm bath with night time bath wash, and than I use some of the Johnson and Johnson bed time lotion and than I would read her a night time bed story and rock her to sleep. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not work. There are time that I am up every hour with her and she is 9mos old! I think that they will hopefully grow out of it. Well that is all I can do with the advice I hope I helped. I wish you luck with it all. If you ever want to talk you can private email me.

A.=)

Crying it out doesn't mean to let him cry, and cry, and cry. That not only would disturb your daughters sleep, but it would break your heart, and your sons trust in you. I do not believe in letting a baby cry it out. Some babies just don't sleep well through the night. My now 8 year old daughter didn't sleep through the night until she was about 18 months. I never let her cry herself back to sleep. I think it's cruel, and leads children to not trust that you'll always be there for them. That said though, maybe he isn't getting enough to eat. If he's already on solids try adding another meal during the day. If he's not on solids yet he probably needs to start. It just sounds like he's hungry. Good luck. I know it's frustrating not getting enough sleep, but sometimes you just have to go through that with babies.

yep... sounds like CIO is all that is left. He just needs to learn how to fall back asleep on his own. Is there any way you could move your daughter to another part of the house at night for a few nights so that his crying doesn't wake her up?? and does he fall asleep on his own??? If he hasn't, start with that, don't rock him to sleep put him down still awake and let him go to sleep on his own for naps and bed.
hope this helped. I remember doing CIO with both of my kids and it was much harder on me than it was on them. good luck!