6 month old sleep.....

masked_rose86 · August 2012

Okay....so my twin girls are 6 1/2 months and still waking every 3 hours at night. We have even done "cry it out" sleep training since the beginning of June. They go down at bedtime (6:45/7pm) typically great (which is what the sleep training helped) but most nights they wake up between 10-11 crying for 5-45 minutes (usually 20. We have them "cry it out" before midnight (checking to make sure, of course, that nothing is wrong). Then they are up again usually 2x. Sometimes refusing to go back down after 4:30. I celebrate the days I get to "sleep in" till 6am! I have heard that early wake ups are a result of too late of a bedtime, but to my understanding the bedtime we have for the girls is very normal. I have no idea why they are having so much trouble with nighttime sleep even though we have done sleep training. Will they eventually grow out of this or do we need to do something? Both my husband and I are really out of ideas and have no idea what to do at this point. Self-soothing is such an important skill but no clue what to do when "cry it out" doesn't work.....

lmydogally · August 2012

Few question:

Are they formula or BF?

Did you do baby wise or Easy?

How much are they eating during the day?

I know you've posted before about the only being able to stay awake for a little over an hour at a time during the day. Is that still the case? How much awake time are they getting during the day?

masked_rose86 · August 2012

Still BF. Plan to introduce formula when they are 7-8 months when I go back to work. Get a bottle every day or two to practice....they are touch and go with that.

I sort of do babywise/EASY in the sense I try to do eat play sleep.....if they make it to 2 hours of awake time, I will often feed them again (so eat, play, eat, sleep). Because they tend to eat every 2-3 hours. The 3 hours has happened a little more often recently, but is still unpredictable.

They handle closer to 1.5 hours average of awake time. Closer to 2 hours in the morning when they wake up. They might go longer 3ish hours) in the afternoon too if I try to keep them awake (that is super painful....). They take 3-4 naps a day. One crib nap in the morning which is 1-2 hours. Then they seem to need another late morning nap which I usually try to do with them in the stroller walking or running errands. Then they take a second crib nap in the afternoon about 1-1.5 hours. And often, they need an evening nap (30-60 min) to make it to their 6:30/7pm bedtime. Even if it runs to 6pm, they are still ready for bed at normal time.

lmydogally · August 2012

One thing in Babywise that I really liked. Was the idea, that you pick the time you want the day to start. So with us, if either baby wakes before 5:30, it's try paci first and if that doesn't work, bottle in the dark nursery and right back to bed. Then at the time of the morning, you want to be the start of the day, you go in and open the curtain and say"morning babies"! And give them the cue, that it's time to start the day.

Also, you might want to try letting them drop that last nap in the evening and just goto bed a little earlier. Most nights my girls don't even make it till 6:30 pm. But they sleep till 5:30 am the next day.

Your first nap,two hours after they wake is perfect and I think if you can get more night sleep out of them you will be able to get more awake time during the day.

Since your going to start formula in just a month anyways,maybe go ahead a throw in a formula bottle in the late afternoon and see if the extra calories help.

I've never really had to do cry it out with my girls. The only time they have ever woken in the middle of the night or really early is during a growth URL so I'm no help with the CIO.

How are solids going? Are they eating twice a day yet?

masked_rose86 · August 2012

Solids....ugh.....we have been trying since they were 5 months, and they only manage 1-2 tbsp at best per night. We've tried rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, apples, prunes, bananas, and carrots so far. The best luck we've had is carrots. Apples made baby B constipated, and we're still dealing with constipation I think with both of them (their bms are now fairly pasty looking instead of loose BM stools).

We have no choice but to do cry it out with their temperaments. I have tried to put them back to bed when they wake at 4:30/5.....I feed them, and sometimes they will go back to bed, sometimes they just want to get up and play. They will cry and only occasionally will they fall asleep.....once it was way to long and I just gave up. I can't seem to be able to do the "choose the start of the day" since they do it for me. Even if I feed them and put them back down.

The issue with naps, is I have yet to see a pattern of whether skipping the nighttime nap helps or not. I'm scared to put them to bed any earlier than 6:30ish since they already get up so early....3:30/4am wake up time would be even worse than the 4:30/5 we get often.

What is so frustrating is I worry it is just a habit right now (waking up). There were a few times last week where they went longer. Once 6:30-5am!! Then 12:30 (just one wake up in which I nursed them) and then up at 6:20!!! I was in heaven. And no clue what was different about those days either that made them do that.

ETA: Thank you for replying and your suggestions! Baby sleep is SO frustrating to try and figure out.

lmydogally · August 2012

Ah man, sorry Im not more help. We had a little constipation issues with one of the girls too. She and oatmeal don't get along. I give yogurt and the other oatmeal. Even though my girls sleep well, I feel like I'm always tweaking things to fit their different needs and ever changing nap schedules.

I hope they start sleeping longer for you.

mirnb · August 2012

I agree with above poster....we did a dream feed around 10:30-11pm until the boys were about 8 months....and they sleep until between 7:30-8am.....I would keep pushing the solids because I think that extra food really keeps them going throughout the day to stay awake for longer periods! If you could get them down to a morning and afternoon nap even if you had to put them down a bit earlier you might be surprised that they sleep longer! Baby sleep is so frustrating and even more so when you are trying to figure out 2 babies! I'm assuming you already have a night time routine...I know that is key for my boys knowing its bedtime....we have dinner (fruit and veggies with meat) at 5pm baths at 6:15 followed by bottles at 6:45 then bed by 7 and sleep till 7-8am (but at your girls age we still did the dream feed)! Hope something works for you...I'm sure you are exhausted!

MrsLnt · August 2012

There's a lot of developmental stuff going on around 6 months that could mess up sleep. However, I'm thinking that they may be overtired from daytime sleep.

At 6 months, we were up around 7, nap from 9-11, nap from 1-3, catnap around 5-5:30, bed at 7. 2 hours of wake time was still a stretch. When you say you do eat-play-eat-sleep, are you counting that second meal in your wake time? Because they may be overtired when they go down for their naps. Also, I'd stick to naps in cribs. HSHHC calls motion sleep "junk sleep". I tend to agree. Mine would seem to nap fine in the car but I paid for it with nighttime sleep.

ColleenS629 · August 2012

I could be off base, but here's what I'm thinking. You might be encouraging them to snack rather than take in full meals by feeding them the way you do. I was guilty of that for a while, too (I EBF also). I was trying to give them full bellies so they wouldn't wake up early from their naps from hunger but instead, I was encouraging them to snack. Unless their schedule has gotten messed up for some reason, I stopped feeding them again before their nap, even if they've been up for 2 hours. I'd start putting them in their cribs for all naps and night. I'd also drop the last nap and start putting them to bed at 6pm and see if that helps... that's bedtime here. I think Weissbluth even says you can put them to bed as early as 5pm for a while so that they can catch up from being chronically overtired.

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6 month old sleep.....

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