6 months old, still wakes every 3 hours

[Wugz22]

I do NOT expect my baby to sleep through the night at 6 months. I'm not interested in sleep training or letting her cry or any of that - just wanted to hear your experience. My baby girl will wake every 2 or 3 hours on the dot all night. She won't settle for anything other than a little snack. If I try rocking, patting - she just gets angry. But a couple ounces of milk (she'll never take more than that) and she is back to sleep easily.


I know it's normal, I'm just hoping to hear some positive stories about when your baby thought "hey - maybe I'll sleep a little longer than 3 hours at a time tonight?!"

THANKS!

 

[Septie]

Same here, with my almost 6 months old. Up every 2 to 3 hours at night. Actually, he ends up feeding/sucking for hours after 4am. Then his freshly changed diaper leaks and he wakes up for the day while we change him yet again. I think he takes in most of his food at night these days...

 

[MindUtopia]

At 6 months, I'm pretty sure mine was still mostly waking every 3 hours. Actually, at 6 months, she was teething and just starting solids which caused a lot of disrupted sleep and she was pretty much waking hourly, eating a small amount, and falling back to sleep to wake in another hour. But apart from that spell of teething/tummy issues, I'm pretty sure she was waking for a feed still at around 11pm, 1am and 4am, though sometimes going longer, 4-5 hours. She dropped all her night feeds at 9 months. She just stopped really taking much during the night (maybe 1-2 oz per feed), so I decided to see if just soothing her back to sleep first without immediately offering a feed would work, and it did. After that, she continued to still wake several times a night, but if wasn't for a feed. It's just because babies and toddlers wake during the night. Once she did drop the feeds, the night wakings actually were a lot easier to cope with, not having to fully wake up, get a bottle, sit up and feed her (we co-slept), meant when she drifted back to sleep, I did much more easily too. I literally didn't even sit up, just stayed lying down in bed, gave her a cuddle, held her hand, back to sleep. She's 3 years old now and still wakes usually twice a night, but it's much more manageable. I don't know if it's just because it's usually not for long and then we get back to sleep, or if I've just adjusted and am used to it, but it's not a big deal anymore. Definitely by a year though I was getting a lot more sleep most nights.

 

[Button#]

Mine still wakes for a feed every 3 hours, occasionally a longer stint. My DS was down to one feed a night by about 14 months and then he dropped his night feed at 16 months. He then slept through once a week or so until 21 months (with a blip at 18 months when he would wake up for a few hours in the night) when he started sleeping through consistently.

 

[Teri7489]

My friends little boy is 6 months and has only slept through once. He still wakes every 3 hours for either a feed or his dummy. He's getting better now at just wanting his dummy instead of feed. There is hope and your LO should go longer stretches without a feed soon enough. Enjoy those snuggles! Xxx

 

[Zeri]

Mine was doing that at 6 months and after. He just started sleeping longer stretches (4-5 hrs) at 15 months. :-/

 

[d_b]

Yes DD has been waking every 1-3 hours, she's almost 8 months. DS1 was the same but suddenly started STTN at 9 or 10 months so my fingers are crossed that DD will be the same!

 

[JumpingIn]

My son is nearly 8 months and wakes every half hour

 

[hanni]

My 10 month old has only recently just started sleeping a lot better, he now only wakes twice per night for his dummy. Before that he was up anywhere from 6-12 times a night. You're definitly not alone and it will hopefully get better soon.

 

[LittleLala]

Big hugs! sleep deprivation is awful and I just want you to know that I'm thinking of you!

My son is 5 and a half months old and I was lucky in that he is a good sleeper. Honestly, I don't think it had much to do with what I did, he just knew day/night from the beginning and has always liked his nighttime sleep. Babies are all born differently, and what works for some babies doesn't work for others
But this is how it worked for me: after the first two weeks of waking him each 4 hours for feeds, he would continuously wake at 3am.
I started giving him a dream feed at 11pm for a few weeks.
Then, I moved the dream feed to 10pm.
About a month after that, I dropped the dream feed and instead I kept him awake after his dinner feed (he usually goes to sleep 2 hours after his food anyway) and gave him a top up bottle about 1.5 hours after his "last" feed of the night. Then I bounce him to sleep. Sometimes for hi top up feed he only drinks 40mls, sometimes he drinks 100mls, it just depends. Then he sleeps through. He sleeps through to anywhere between 6.30am to 8am.
The downside isssss that I cannot get him to sleep anymore unless I bounce him (long gone are the days when I used to put him down when he was drowsy and he would self soothe lol).

Hopefully this helps you at all. Good luck with whatever you choose.

Ps- isn't 6 months just the CUTEST age???

 

[Bevziibubble]

My daughter was the same and still is at almost four years old.
I'm hoping my son will be a better sleeper!

 

[Maggs]

We have this here now too. We bed share and bf and he's awake every 2-3 hrs, sometimes hourly. I try to sit up and give him a proper feed and that way he's not awake again in an hour. But after 5 months of sleep deprivation, it's all I can do to keep my eyes open long enough.

 

[Aelyana]

Hugs that sucks. I should know because same haha. My six month is up every 1-3 hours. We are ebf and I feel like that may be why? he loooves his boob ☺️.

In one way I don't mind it, I guess I am just resigned to the fact. But tbh atm it is pretty hard. My 2 yr old and I have one of those awful everything aches cold/flu type things, the last four weeks has been us going from one cold to the next. My husband and I both have busy jobs etc

Anyway you are not alone. I hope it gets better soon!!