Discovery Home & Health

Hi
my baby boy Charlie has never slept through the night and now that he is 6 months of age I'm despairing that he ever will. My older boy (who is nearly 4) slept through from about 9 weeks so I suppose I am comparing the 2.

We do everything by the book - solid bedtime routine (asleep at 7pm), put down awake ( he falls asleep no problem) but come about 12.30am and he wakes up and can be awake for anything up to 2-3 hours.

At first he thinks it's playtime, but eventually when we refuse to talk to him, give him any eye contact, or food he begins to rev up and we spend an hour or so putting his dummy back in and calming him down.

We've tried pu/pd which works to a certain degree, but it often winds him up even more. I started back to work last week (I'm a teacher) so having my nights broken is really taking it's toll.

We just cannot understand why he keeps waking up. We've done everything - extra blankets/less blankets; darkened room/blacked out room; less sleep/more sleep during the day - we know he's full as he has 3 good meals a day + formula.

Any suggestions would be greatly recieved. I know he 'will' sleep through one day....I'd just like it to be tonight

TIA

Lou

Hi Lou,
Funny, my middle name is "LOU", so maybe that's why I decided to reply; or because I'm a nurse; or because I've been there in your shoes twice. But, I've never had one of my children stay up all night past 9 weeks. Now I'm talking about putting them to bed with last bottle at around 10 pm and then they would wake up at 5 or 6 am. One thing that you did not mention that may be playing a huge part in your issue---how much does the child sleep during the daytime??? The age he/she is now at 6 months, he should probably be only taking a nap in the afternoon, but not allowing him to sleep too long or late...and possibly a short one in the morning around 9 or 10. How long is he/she sleeping during the daytime could really be the problem with your night time issue. Either that or he/she is going to bed with an empty stomach...but I believe you stated that he/she was taking a bottle before bedtime. I was making what I'd call a "slush" bottle by this age..using a cross-cut nipple on the bottle...putting half or 3/4 milk and adding the leftover fruit purees from the day to the bottle, shake it up and make it a thick consistency but thin enough to be able to suck out of the bottle. I remember I used to take a knife and make the "x" of the cross-cut nipple a little larger. Just be careful as always for choking. This was their "bedtime"/last bottle before bedtime, sometimes some rice cereal was added as a thickener also...this filled their little tummies and they slept at least 7-8 hours. He/she is 6 months old, so they should be able to and old enough to tolerate this at bedtime and sleep soundly. Let me know how it works out. If it's not the bedtime snack, then it's sleeping too much in the daytime, I'd say, hun. GoodLuck.from B.Lou........new orleans lady

hi
Dont want to alarm you or anything,but my son has only just started sleeping through and hes 14 months.The way we did it was to be tough,id put him down awake and then when i go to bed a couple of hours later id close his bedroom door.If he cries in the night i dont go to him any more,and he only cries for a very short while.Thankfully, theses days he doesnt cry often and i get from 7pm 'till 6am from him!I was very suprised how quick it worked too,it only took a couple of nights,now i dont dread going to bed.I know it may be a bit different in your house because youve got another child to think of,but perhaps you could give it a go at the weekend. good luck.