u/rileymaeb

My 6 month old has always been a fussy nurser even though she’s great at it when she decides she wants to be. My problem is she MUST be almost dead asleep to eat or she is super fussy and will refuse to eat. Same with a bottle but I take it less personally. 😂

Any advice??? Do they grow out of this? It’s driving me bonkers and makes it so hard to ever leave the house. 😔

I have a 6 month old, she nurses well when are wants to buy our journey has had plenty of challenges. The latest is she just WILL NOT nurse (or take a bottle) before bed. She’s just not hungry yet, and wants to go to sleep. Three hours later she’s still sound asleep and my breasts are uncomfortably full. I’ve been using my haaka to relieve the pressure enough to go to sleep and they are still quite full when she nurses at some point in the middle of the night (between midnight and 3:00).

Help?! I really wish she’d eat before bed because when she does she sleeps until 4:00 or 5:00 am. But if she won’t should I be pumping???

Thanks!

Just curious what people’s thoughts are on this! Our baby goes down between 7:00-7:30 and sometimes wakes around 2:00 am to eat. No matter if she eats at 2:00 or sleeps through she always wakes up at 5:00 am to eat. She will go back to sleep if we rock her till 6:30 or 7:00, otherwise if left to her own devices she is WIDE AWAKE babbling and having a grand old time. She is capable of falling asleep independently at bedtime and other night wakings but 5:00 am is party time.

We are moving her to her own room this weekend and planning to give her more crib time in the morning to see if she will drift back to sleep on her own. What do you think ideal bedtimes and wake times are for a 6 month old? I know it’s important to get them up at the same time every day. Should we commit to being 5am people or is it possible to get another hour before we all seize the day?

Hi Everyone! I wanted to share our CIO success story here because being on this forum was really encouraging to me, especially reading about people who had positive experiences with sleep training. 

Before becoming a parent I thought we would NEVER do CIO, and I'm here to humbly admit that I was wrong. It has been such a positive thing for our baby and our family. 

Our baby is almost 6 months old. Prior to sleep training she was waking up every 1.5 -2 hours throughout the night wanting to briefly nurse for a few before falling asleep. She was so difficult to transfer, often needing to be held for a good 20-30 minutes before I could set her back down in the crib. All naps were contact naps. Also needed a pacifier to sleep. Because of life circumstances I am the only one who can do the night shift and I was really starting to lose it. We contacted our pediatrician and she said our baby was practically begging to be sleep trained. She also advocated for CIO and felt strongly that in most cases it's the kindest method since it tends to work the fastest. She also recommended letting her cry for at least an hour but not much longer than that and having that limit really helped us feel okay about giving it a try. I reminded myself that we had accidentaly done cry it out a few times in the car and we'd all survived it! :D

Your mileage may vary of course since all babies are different, but this is how it went for us in our first week. Every night our bedtime was around 7:30 and she wakes up between 7:30 and 8:00 for the day.

7/1 Night 1: Cried for 1 hour exactly, off and on. Just as we were about to go in she fell asleep. The crying never felt scary or out of control, mostly fussing with some short bursts of crying. She still woke up every two hours throughout the night and I held her/nursed until she fell asleep as usual. 

7/2 Night 2: Cried for 23 minutes (and not very hard), woke up a few hours later and fussed for 10 minutes before falling back asleep. Woke at 1:00 am, 3:00 am, 5:00 am to eat, able to self-settle after every feed (game changer). 

7/3 Night 3: Cried for 34 minutes, woke up a few hours later and fussed for 10 minutes before falling back asleep. Woke at 1:00 am, 3:00 am, 5:00 am to eat, able to self-settle after every feed. 

7/4 Night 4: NO TEARS (I couldn't believe it). Fell asleep after 10 minutes of rolling around in her crib. Woke up to eat at 1:00 am, 3:00 am, 5:00 am to eat. Self-settled after each feed. 

7/5 Night 5: Cried for 20 minutes HARD, reminding me that this is not a linear journey. I decided to try a dream feed when I came to bed at 10:00 and she slept till 3:30!!! Yay! Had a big meal then slept till 5:30, ate, then back to sleep till 8:00. 

7/6 Night 6: NO TEARS, rolled around and fell asleep after 10 minutes. Decided to skip the dream feed and just see what happens. Woke up at 1:00 am and 5:00 am to eat and both times was very hungry, so it seems like she’s only waking up for good reason now which is fine by me!

7/7 Night 7: (tonight) NO TEARS. Went to sleep immediately, practically before I uttered our goodnight phrase. To be fair she was very full and tired when we put her down but still, prior to sleep training she would have woken up once I set her down.

Ultimately I hope her 1:00 am and 5:00 am feeds consolidate when she starts eating solids in earnest but for now I’m so much happier with how nights are going than I was a week ago. She is also definitely happier and better rested during the day so win-win! I hope this post gives you hope if you’re in a similar situation and are considering CIO but feel nervous about it like I did.