My almost 6-month-old baby has a sleep problem since she turned 4 and a half. What can I do and did I do something wrong?

Question

I am having a sleep problem with my almost 6-month-old baby. She used to wake up only once since she was 2 and half months old.

Since she turned 4 and half until now, she has been waking up more often. She goes to sleep around 8 or 8:30 pm always, then wakes up around 12:30 or 1 am. Keep in mind that she took 4 ounces of bottle before she went to sleep. I give her another 4 ounces when she wakes up, but she has a hard time sleeping after that. She wakes up every 1 or 2 hours twisting and turning, making sounds.

I don't know what I am doing wrong. Please help!

Answer 1

Babies' brains reorganize themselves a bit at about 4 months (or 4 months after due date, if yours was a bit early). This results in sleep habits that are less pleasing to parents, it's often called a sleep "regression", but it's more of a change. So the old sleep habits that you were used to, well, they were not likely to last, and you can see that they didn't.

Waking up a few times a night at this age is normal. Nothing's wrong, this is just the new normal for a while. Many babies can be night weaned at about 6 months, so you can try that...taper off how much you feed during the night, your baby should be capable of eating enough during the day to not need food at night.

If she's waking herself up, leave her alone for at least a few minutes. She might be able to soothe herself back to sleep without your interference.

Answer 2

Have you tried a solid food before bed? We are nursing our 6 mo old and starting with some solid (blended) food like avocados. We noticed that the solid food seems to fill his tummy longer during that first sleep.