Sleep Help

LittleNugget93 · March 2014

My daughter will be 6 months old this Saturday. She still wakes every 2-3 hours at night. She eats every 3-4 hours during the day and when she wakes at night it is only for a few seconds. It is honestly such a short amount of time that I'm not entirely sure how it even happens. I can never remember if she is fussing or just tossing and turning. But I always plop my boob in her mouth and fall back asleep. We bed share (just me and her) and she sleeps longer if I'm in bed with her but I can't help but wonder if I'm also waking her up.

It isn't affecting me too much during the day or at night. I am more concerned that she should be sleeping a little bit longer. I am aware that it's normal to wake up to nurse, but I keep hearing everyone telling me that it isn't okay how much she wakes up. I'm going to ask her pediatrician if this is continuing in two weeks (when her check up is) but I figured I would ask some experienced mama's if they have any advice or similar situations.

xoexpat · March 2014

It sounds normal to me! If it isn't bothering you too much, then great! Check with your pedi but if she's on track with everything I'd say it's fine.

coffeeandbooks · March 2014

we bed shared till 9 months.and my LO didn't STTN until he was in his own crib and in his own room. With that said, I wouldn't give up the co-sleeping just for night wakings, my guess is most co-sleepers have multiple night wakings.
We transitioned because LO literally squeezed me out of the bed because he was sleeping side ways and I was also definitely waking him up.
If you are enjoying it and it is working for you...just keep doing it, when its time to transition, I think you will know.

vvvvvfee · March 2014

have you tried just gently patting and shushing your LO (or using white noise) if she wakes up fussing instead of immediately BFing? you could try that for some of the wake-ups even if you want to feed her once or twice during the night.

night waking is totally normal, though! there are also developmental phases when babies are more prone to night waking, and of course teething or being sick can also contribute.

blu-eyedwife · March 2014

I posted this here right after it was probably long before you were posting here.

I'm an attorney. One of my cases deals with a child and we were deposing (interviewing) her pediatrician. There were four attorneys present, 3 of us are parents. When going over the child's 6-month well visit, an attorney asked if there was anything unusual about the visit. The doctor looked over her notes, and said something along the lines of "Well, it says here the child was waking multiple times at night. That's unusual for a 6 month old." And every single one of us at the table who was a parent made eye contact and tried not to laugh. Afterwards we discussed the fact that all our children were still waking multiple times at 6 months.

It's totally normal. I think there are several reasons why people believe it isn't.
1) They don't remember. The farther you get from it, the more the dates kind of blur together. When did he get his first tooth? When was she sleeping through the night?
2) The stigma. For some reason, many people believe that a child's sleep is a reflection of parenting skill. So if your child isn't sleeping, you must be doing something wrong. So you are much more likely to hear people brag about what a great sleeper they have, rather than how their child doesn't sleep.

Don't get me wrong - some kids are fantastic sleepers from the start. But they are more the exception than the rule.

Emerald27 · March 2014

Absolutely 100% normal. Breastmilk metabolizes quickly and nursing in their sleep is very comforting.

What you might try is pretending to sleep while she stirs to see if she settles herself or begins to fuss for the boob. If she wants it, at 6 months, she needs it, so nurse that baby.

bubble520 · March 2014

My guy is 14 months and we have the exact same story.... my pedi has always said its "normal" and if hes happy and gets a good chunk of hours in a 24 hour period all is well... and if you are feeling well rested... if it works for your family and baby is developing well for then I wouldnt change it

Linnea503 · March 2014

Totally normal to be waking that often. You could try not breastfeeding to see if she falls back to sleep anyway, but I agree it's often easier to just nurse and fall back asleep right away which is fine in my experience.

TiffanyBerry · March 2014

Pretty normal. Babies don't sleep like adults (and even most adults don't sleep deeply throughout the night - they wake, but only barely, and get back to sleep easily, so they don't remember).

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