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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!! That is so hard when that happens, I've heard! I've got lots of friends who have babies who went from sleeping well to waking at about 6 months... it's pretty common, unfortunately! It's almost always because of teething... I'd say you have a good sleeper who is experiencing some discomfort and pain due to new teeth that will come in soon, and it's so great that you are responding to her by using the No Cry Sleep Solution book... this (if it's teething) could be one of those cases where there is a reason for the wakefulness... and if it IS teething, then once the teething stops, sounds like you have a sleeper and she will hopefully go back to that if you keep up the routine and sleep ideas in the book so that a gentle routine is established... the teething is a time of routine upheaval and is weird and scary for a little one, so it's wonderful for them to have this soothing routine they can rely on... if they are left to wakefulness with teething without trying to gently establish a routine, they can totally lose the initial ability they had to sleep during those first 6 months... so it's great you've started to use the book! The teething time lasted for 5 months straight of us using the NCSS book and following sleep plans, so it can take a while to get through the teething, but it's worth it! Our older son is 5, so you can't use "cry it out" on him! He's not going to sit in his bed and cry until he falls asleep! He's going to get up and come downstairs and make himself some cereal! That is the true problem of cio - it doesn't teach a child a sleep routine... But - because we chose this gentle sleep plan, he has learned to love sleep time, and his bedtime routine, and so even when he says he's "not tired" the routine lulls him, subconsciously, into a state where he falls asleep with the bath, books, songs... heck - it even makes US tired when we go through these steps with him!

Yeah, just read your message again... I'd say the completely awake thing is totally teething, especially when combined with not wanting you to put her down... it's possible this hurts and is weird to her so she doesn't want you to leave.

By the way, our older son almost always completely falls asleep with either his daddy or me, so I guess we never got past phase one either but we love the cuddle time, and know that soon he might not want this from us anymore... just the other day he showed me his first baby tooth is loose... I got tears in my eyes! Wow, this time went so fast and he's such a big boy now! I'm glad for any cuddle I can get... so I think I see that whole thing about not holding babies differently - and I'm glad I always have, because I cuddled him tons, and still do! I'm glad I did, too, because he's still a very cuddly little guy.

Napping is hard to get, too, especially with teething! Just make a mini bedtime routine with nap books and a song or two... I found this helps!

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zennifer thank you so much for your reply -- i just need to feel like there is some reason to all this. it's been really tough -- last night, she was up every single hour, wanting to eat, would not fall back asleep. i just felt like she needed the comfort last night, so i fed her all night long. my house is a wreck and i look like hell and i'm pooped. i noticed that there are a few days (maybe 1 or 2 x's a week) where she onlyh wakes up 2 or 3 times during the night an those seem to be the days when she doesn't have any teething symptoms. i can't wait for those teeth to pop in! i had to tell my hubby over and over again that cio does not work whe they are teething adn that it would just be terrible to not respond to her when she's crying for a reason. i'm so tired of hearing all these people telling me to just let her cry so that she'll learn to sleep!

hearing about your experience just makes me feel like it's just part of a normal thing and it makes it all so much more bearable!

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Hi,

My DD is 6 and half months old and she also was a good sleeper until 2 months old and she had a cold. Well from 4 months until a few days ago she used to wake up EVERY hour at night. We started doing the NCSS and things are improving, but she is also teething. We started putting night time orajel on her and for the first time in months(can't even remember) she gave us 2 3-hour stretches. Mind you, I am very excited because I can't remember the last time she gave us that. Well at 2 am she was wide awake and biting her lower lip and just wanted to nurse for like an hour. I'm assuming the orajel wore off and she was uncomfortable. Anyways, long story short, try Orjael