at my wits end! i have a daughter who used to be a phenomenal sleeper. from 2.5 months on, she would go to bed between 8:00 - 9:00 pm, wake up once around 3 or 4 am for a feed, go back to sleep, wake up for the day between 7 - 8 am. she slept soundly during those hours. she was not a great napper -- only would do 20 - 30 minutes maybe 2 or 3 times a day. since she seemed alert, happy and slept well at night, i didn't worry too much about the naps. i was also able to put her down while sleepy for either a nap or bed and she'd fall asleep with no problems at all. i used a swaddle when she would go to sleep at night.

suddenly, 3 days before she turned 6 months, it all changed. suddenly, she was waking up once or twice an hour -- sometimes even more (now that i've read "no cry solution," i realize that a lot of these were noises/movements in her sleep). i have been doing the "no cry solution" for 14 days now because there was no way i could ever let her cry it out. i see a tiny bit of improvement, but i am having some problems still that i don't know how to go about fixing...

she now goes to bed between 7 - 8 pm. she goes down very easily -- although i cannot put her down when she's drowsy yet. she pretty much needs to be totally asleep. i usually go into the room about 40 minutes after she dgoes down b/c she often starts to wake up around 45 minutes, so i'll pat her head and tummy and say the key phrase and she'll drift back to sleep.

here is my problem -- she now eats 2 times during the night. usually around 1:30 - 2:30 am and the next one around 4:30 - 5:30 am. every night i end up feeding her at those two slots because she wakes up completely -- eyes wide open suddenly and hard kicking up and down with her legs. i've done the getting up early to watch and catch her before she wakes up to sooth her back into sleep, but there is no stirring beforehand. just the suddenly eyes popping open. i always first try to soothe her with pats on the head and tummy & key word, but she won't calm downn and starts kicking harder and faster. then i pick her up, rock her -- still completely awake. then i give her a binky -- sometimes she'll drift off with this and i can do the ppo (pantley pull off) but as soon as her body touches the crib, she's wide awake again (i do the gentle putting down, rocking while she's going down into the crib -- all that stuff). then i'll pick her up again and feed her, she'll drift off, i'll ppo and once again, shen i put her in the crib -- awake! every night -- this goes on for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. i have the same problem with the 4:30 - 5:30 awake time as well.

then she's up between 6 am - 7 am.

her naps have been pretty bad as well. her first nap is at around 10 am -- ususally she goes down fast for this one with no problem. i put her in her crib and she doesn't stir. her naps are usually only about 30 - 45 minutes. i've tried going in early to catch her before she awakes, but it's the same as her sleeping/suddenly awake thing. then she'll want to nap again around 1 pm and 4 or 5 pm. i'm having a terrible time with those later naps -- same thing where she will not let me put her down to sleep -- in her crib or any other location. i can get her to fall asleep but she will not let me put her down. it'll take almost 30 minutes just to get her into her crib and then her naps last about 30 minutes from there. so of course, before her bedtime, she's a cranky mess.


by the way, she sleeps in a co-sleeper (my husband sleeps too soundly for us to consider co-sleeping) and i still swaddle her, even for her naps (before the 6 month change, i could put her down as soon as she was tired without the swaddle and she'd sleep with no problem).

she is teething on and off but the past 10 days, that doesn't seem to be a problem.

do you have any advice on what i can do to put her down to sleep without her waking up/crying?

also, has anyone else gone through this sudden sleep change at around 6 months? does it get better? is this permanent? yikes!

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