https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:04:40 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2410422 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 16:47:58 +0000 brownepiano 2410422@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Maybe this is terrible, but when my DS woke up whining a lot, we'd set a timer for a certain amount of time and turn the monitor off then check again later to see if he'd gone back to sleep. But that's cause I rarely felt bad for him, I just got mad. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2410336 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 15:38:24 +0000 rpparker 2410336@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@brownepiano: Thanks. I do think similar to a growth spurt, she is so much more active and her little brain is so busy processing all of that. She went from just barely sitting alone to crawling in less than a month so it was like an explosion of activity!</p> <p>@SweetiePie: Thank you! In the light of day, we always agree that it is more just whining than crying and she's fine...but when it's 3 am it's harder to convince yourself to just leave her alone!</p> <p>@Ms.Badger: I appreciate your story. I do like the graduated approach that before/after a certain time you change how you handle a wakeup. I think I'm going to continue letting DH go in when it is a true wakeup and not the whining. It's a least giving him a taste of having to get out of bed in the MOTN! I bring her in the bed with us any wakeup after 4:30 or so, my DH gets up at 5:00 so not much sleep happens after that anyway! My DD is ready to go by 5:30-6:00 am. She slept until 6:30 the other morning and we were shocked!</p> <p>@Littlebit7: Yes to white noise and a video monitor!I have now gotten addicted to the white noise too! When she is doing her whining bit she is usually still on her stomach so we know that she is in that at least half asleep. If she sits up, it almost always take DH going in there to lay her back down.</p> <p>@ldh112: I would really like to move her bedtime later! She usually falls apart by 7 but I would like to work on naps so that we can maybe push it back a little. I also tried a dream fed before I went to bed a few times but it didn't have an effect either way. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2410274 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 14:58:04 +0000 ldh112 2410274@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I know babies have different times they go down for the night but my daughter is also 6 months and won't stay down until at least 830, eating for the last time around 730/8. She eats about 5-6 times a day. Not sure if that is part of it at all but 630 bedtime and sleeping through the night wouldn't work here for sure! Maybe try longer awake time for a bit with a later last nursing session and fitting in one more late afternoon nap? That's what is working for us. Good luck figuring it out! Sleep is a tough one. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2410209 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 14:06:19 +0000 Littlebit7 2410209@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This is random but I found that about at 6 months patting her back made her more angry. If she had escalated to the point (about 5-10 min of crying) that she wasn't going to settle down I'd go in a pick her up for 1 min and shush her, then back into the crib (on her belly). But we ALWAYS give her 5 min to cry. 85% of the time she goes back to sleep on her own.<br /> Do you have a video monitor? That might give you peace of mind to see that she's ok and not rush in. On ours we can visually see on a graph the noise she makes. I can take a look at it and say, eh, just a sleep cry. Or if it looks like her cries are lessening. Its the foscam app on my phone. It also doesn't make noise unless they reach a threshold of volume for their cry.</p> <p>You didn't mention it but you do have white noise, correct? If not the marpac dohm is the bomb. We never leave home without it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2410202 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 13:55:10 +0000 Ms.Badger 2410202@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This is all so baby specific so I'll tell you what worked for my son, maybe it will help you, maybe it won't.</p> <p>J was a good sleeper and started STTN just after 4 months (and since 7 weeks had only 1 wake-up around 3 am) so I knew he could go without the feedings and knew that he knew how to put himself to sleep. Just after 6 mo his sleep went way downhill for lots of reasons (learned to crawl and stand, we went out of town twice, he got sick, I got sick). To get his sleep back on track, we allowed him to cry 10 minutes before comforting. It does make him wake-up more if we go in, so if we think there's any chance he'll self-soothe, we stay out. My DH did the initial comforting while J was still in the crib, then I'd try comforting with rocking, without feeding and finally I would feed him. This whole production takes 1-1.5 hours. We would only do with with wake-ups before midnight. Wake-ups after midnight, i'd just bring him into bed with me because I'm lazy and need some sleep.</p> <p>It took about a week of this insanity but J seems to be mostly sleeping from 7:30/8 until 6 am, eats and sleeps for another 2ish hours - works for us. He still wakes up and makes noise and sometimes cries but goes back to sleep within our 10 minute wait. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2410195 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 13:49:27 +0000 SweetiePie 2410195@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I would agree with pp that maybe you don't need to go in and comfort of she's just whining. Babies can be noisy sleepers and she may just be in between sleep cycle and that's how she's settling back down. I would give it longer, you may be very happily surprised that she goes right back to sleep! The going in at every noise could start a habit you'll have to break later.<br /> And if your ped says it's OK to go all night without feeding, listen! I tend to believe doctors more than internet strangers :-) My ped encouraged me to do it at 4 months and trust me, my chunky boy is just fine at 16 months.<br /> Lastly, agree with @anagram that it could be chilly? We've always used a sleep sack though so I can't say for sure. </p> <p>Good luck! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2410188 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 13:41:56 +0000 brownepiano 2410188@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Babies can in theory make it that long but you also have to account for growth spurts. DS had a growth spurt around that time so I waited till I was sure he really didn't need that one night feeding before forcing dropping it.<br /> Then again, we probably waited too long. When we did drop the last feeding at night, we couldn't go in to calm him down because it didn't work. We just had to leave him alone to CIO. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2410127 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 12:52:49 +0000 Ash 2410127@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My dd is the same age and I'd never expect her to eat at 5pm and not again until I say she can. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2410064 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 12:12:55 +0000 rpparker 2410064@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrswin: Thanks, that may be the case for us to.</p> <p>@Anagram: I've actually thought about this and may try it. Thanks!</p> <p>@erinbaderin: We usually go in within the first 10 minutes to make sue she hasn't had a blowout or thrown up or something like that and then we will wait 20 minutes or so. I would say 8/10 times is stays just whining but sometimes she will wake herself up and it escalates into full on screaming. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2409891 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 10:19:41 +0000 erinbaderin 2409891@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>How long do you leave her whining before you go in and pat her? If you left her would she settle on her own, or would it escalate? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2409888 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 10:18:43 +0000 Anagram 2409888@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Could she be cold? Can you try a sleep sack (not a swaddle) over her pjs? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2409887 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 10:16:32 +0000 mrswin 2409887@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@rpparker: Honestly my DD does this a lot in her sleep even now at 8 months. We don't go in anymore because it only seemed to wake her up more. I figure maybe she is dreaming or just restless from all the things she is learning. Unless she is fully awake I wouldn't do anything about it </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/troubleshooting-6-mo-old-sleep#post-2409807 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 09:38:53 +0000 rpparker 2409807@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Oh sleep…how I miss you! I’m looking for some help and/or commiseration on our sweet six month old’s nighttime sleep. It’s a long story so have your coffee ready!</p> <p>Starting around 6 weeks old, we would almost always get a good 5 hour stretch between night feedings (nursing, on demand). Then the 4 month regression hit us hard, holiday travel, learning to sit up from laying down, crawling, etc., and we were up every 2-3 hours (10 pm, 2 am, 4 am, 6 am, almost exactly). Obviously, that was not going to work long term. At her 6 month ped appointment, her doctor assured me she could go longer at nights without a feeding so we decided that DH would comfort her any time before midnight and I would try to get down to one overnight feed over the course of a week. It went well but we soon realized it wasn’t really fair because DD didn’t know what time it was so it was a little sporadic (in her mind) if I would come feed her or not. So we dropped that single feed last week. The first few nights went surprisingly well with just some brief whining around midnight. It never escalated to full on crying so I felt ok about it. Those few nights were heaven and I thought we had reached a turning point. But the past three nights have been all over the place. She still goes to sleep ok but starts whining again around 8, 10, 12, 2, 4…just all hours. I say whining and not crying because she is rarely even fully awake. If we go in and pat her, she will settle and stop but will start back up after about 15 minutes. This went on for over an hour last night with checks. I really don’t want to backtrack and start feeding again but we are at a lost. Some other things to consider:<br /> • We have a pretty solid nighttime routine with bath, books, a few minutes of rocking. I did move nursing before bath to disassociate feeding with falling asleep. Typical night look like 5:00 pm nursing, 5:30 starting to “eat” some solids, 6:00 bath and pjs, and it the crib by 6:30. My DH doesn’t get home until 6:00 so I would hate to move it earlier but I know that it might need to happen.<br /> • She’s been in her room, in her crib since about 6 weeks old. She never liked being swaddled so she is just in footed pjs and has been for a while.<br /> • We nap trained around Thanksgiving and DD goes in her crib awake for naps. She falls asleep pretty easily but the self-soothing does not translate to night. We do an EASY schedule during the day so feeding and naps are spaced apart. I typically do an extra nursing session after that last nap and before dinner.<br /> • She has a lovey in the crib that she uses some of the time. She never took to a paci but there is one in there just in case!</p> <p>Anything I’m missing that might help her out? And any ideas about the whining – maybe that is her way to self soothe? We say she sounds like a motor trying to start!</p> <p>After writing all this out, I’m realizing the one thing we probably need to do is just be patient! She is a happy and healthy little girl and I know that is what is most important. </p>