6 month old still waking every 4 hours

[L'sMommy]

I go back to work in a month and the frequent night weaklings are not sustainable. DS1 started sleeping 12 hrs when he was 6 months. Here's our evening/night routine:

5 pm: bath
6 pm: dinner (3 tbs cereal plus a veggie)
6:30 pm: read book, nurse
7pm: put down in crib in own room. He is already asleep from nursing.

Between 10-11 pm: nurse plus top off with 1-2 oz formula (enfamil gentlease)
Between 2-3 am: 4 oz formula ( he won't take more formula)
5:30 am: nurse
7 am: up for the day

He's is a very restless sleeper after 5:30 am. The kicker is that during months 2 and 3 he was sleeping in 7 hour stretches!!! Pedi said to taper off or limit the 2 am feeding. What are your thoughts, how can I get him to sleep longer stretches? He naps 1 hr in the morning and 1-2 hrs in the afternoon.

[amom526]

This sounds like a pretty typical situation-if he is going right back to sleep after the feedings, idk if there is much you can do. You can try and slowly lessen the 2 am feeding, but I think it's definitely possible that he's hungry.

You may have just gotten lucky with number 1, some kids just take a lot longer to get to that place. I know how hard it is-my 2.5 month old just started sleeping through, and my 6 month old is up 2-5 times a night-often screaming.

Do you have someone who can help with the 10pm feed? That way you can go to bed earlier.

[ZeeBaby]

DD2 woke up for a 3/4 am feeding until she was 14 mos and I weaned her from it. I was back to work full time and I just couldn't get up anymore. I was hoping she would drop the feeding on her own but she never did.

[kaharris83]

Last night my 6 month old didn't even sleep 4 hours. :( Anyway my DS1 was waking once to eat at 6 months too. DS2 is a completely different sleep story. He still wakes every 3-4 hours to eat. It's exhausting. I feel your pain. Mine wont sleep in his crib and only sleeps when being held. Hoping this phase passes quickly.

[BabyBearsMom]

At 6 mos I started reducing the night feedings. So if you normally give 4oz, give 3 for a few days, then 2 for a few days. Once they were done with night feedings, I gave them a paci if they woke up at night and rocked them to help them sleep. At 7 mos with DD1, we did Ferber. DD2 never needed sleep training. I also gave both girls a big bottle at 10pm to help them make it through the night.

[PZMommy]

My DS2 woke up every three hours like clockwork until he was 14 months old. I had to go back to work when he was 8 weeks old, so it was very difficult!! He never could take more than 4 oz at a feeding, or he would projectile vomit everything. So he never had enough in his tummy to help him go for longer stretches. Finally around the 14 month mark he just started sleeping and getting into a routine. I didn't think that would ever happen!!

[TxCat]

We did Ferber at that age. We gradually reduced the 2 am feeding until we eliminated it completely - took a couple of days (followed the recs in Ferber). Then, we followed the Ferber guidelines for getting them to sleep through the night. It took about 5 nights, but then DD slept essentially through the night from that point on(we'd have to get up maybe once a night to replace the paci, and that was it).

[L'sMommy]

BabyBearsMom - how many oz did you offer at the 10 pm feeding? My DS can't take more than 4 oz per feeding which is part of the issue I believe.

Those that did Ferber - can u share the intervals that u went by to to in and soothe them? DH keeps pushing me to CIO but it breaks my heart. I can't let him cry for more than 5 min at a stretch.

[PZMommy]

BabyBearsMom - how many oz did you offer at the 10 pm feeding? My DS can't take more than 4 oz per feeding which is part of the issue I believe.

Those that did Ferber - can u share the intervals that u went by to to in and soothe them? DH keeps pushing me to CIO but it breaks my heart. I can't let him cry for more than 5 min at a stretch.

If he is only taking 4 oz, he probably can't go longer, as he is hungry. I wouldnt do Ferber either if he is truly hungry. This may be one thing you just have to ride out or awhile longer. I did CIO with my first, but I couldn't with DS2, because he wasn't able to stay "full" long enough and needed to eat several times during the night. I'm a teacher and it sucked having o go to work all day when I was up several times during the night, but he eventually outgrew it around 14 months.

[Philly Mom]

My DD never took more than 4 oz until she was a year and she drank cows milk. I made sure she ate plenty during the day.

Eta: she sttn even with only having 4oz before bed. Sometimes, she would not even drink that much.

[TxCat]

BabyBearsMom - how many oz did you offer at the 10 pm feeding? My DS can't take more than 4 oz per feeding which is part of the issue I believe.

Those that did Ferber - can u share the intervals that u went by to to in and soothe them? DH keeps pushing me to CIO but it breaks my heart. I can't let him cry for more than 5 min at a stretch.

I wouldn't be as concerned with the 4 oz. per feeding, but would look more at how many total oz. per day baby is getting - if it's within the general recommendations for age, cutting out a nighttime feeding should still be okay. With "dinner" are you still giving breast milk or formula? At that age, predominant calorie source should still be breast milk or formula, and solids only as "extra" not as the main meal.

For Ferber, you can pretty much use any interval that works for you. If necessary, you can do 2.5 minute intervals, 5 min intervals, etc. Do not do Ferber if something else is going on with baby - ie, sick, teething, or if baby is truly not getting enough ounces of milk/formula during the rest of the day and really and truly still needs that nighttime feed to fill up. I think we did 5 min, 7.5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 20 min, 30 min for Ferber intervals - or something close to that. Also, DH had an easier time with listening to the crying, so he did most of the Ferberizing - I retreated to a faraway room and watched TV with the volume up. It's hard, but it got easier after Day 3 (I think days 2&3 were the hardest), and after Day 5 we were set. I have no regrets about doing it at all, and I think for our family and our kid, it was a good decision.

[twowhat?]

At 6 months was when we implemented a "1 night feeding only" plan:) I would nurse at 1 or 2am, whenever the first twin woke up. But if one (or both) woke up at any other time I would just pat and soothe to sleep. We did sort of a modified Ferber for all other night wakenings.

If you are giving bottles, I think you could graduate reduce the volume of formula by an once each night for all feedings other than the one you want to keep (maybe the 1 am or 2am feeding).

Good luck! I hear ya on the sleep thing. The other option as PPs pointed out is to have someone else take one of the feedings so that you can get a longer stretch of sleep.

[edurnemk]

BabyBearsMom - how many oz did you offer at the 10 pm feeding? My DS can't take more than 4 oz per feeding which is part of the issue I believe.

Those that did Ferber - can u share the intervals that u went by to to in and soothe them? DH keeps pushing me to CIO but it breaks my heart. I can't let him cry for more than 5 min at a stretch.

I did it when they were older (Ds was 13 months, DD was 9 months), but my intervals were something like this:

Day 1: 1 minute, then 3 minutes, then 5 minutes for subsequent waits.
Day 2: 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 7 minutes
Day 3: 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 8 minutes

I never go for more than 8 minutes, I just can't. With DS it worked in 3 nights, with DD it hasn't worked as well. Every kid is different. DD used to be a great sleeper until 5 months. She wakes up at least twice (11pm-midnight and around 4 am). She can fall asleep on her own at bedtime, but in the middle of the night she really resists the CIO.

With DS I gradually reduced the night feedings (0.5 oz less every 2-3 days) until he just stopped waking when we got to about 1.5 oz. DD doesn't take a bottle so I haven't been able to do that.

To tell you the truth after a really bad week (I think she may be teething), I broke down last night and almost cried and told DH I can't do this anymore and I'm going to sleep with her again because she's clearly not ready right now and I can't function like this. Cosleeping is the less exhausting option for me right now. So as of last night we went back to her sleeping in her room for the first stretch of the night and then I bring her to our bed for the rest of the night. We both slept great, she didn't even wake up to nurse until 6 am.

I'll try Ferber again in a few weeks.