6 month old sleep help! Desperate!

My 6 month old still prefers to sleep swaddled with her arms down and we have been struggling to teach her how to sleep without one! We’ve tried the one arm out at a time method but she likes to rub her face and wakes herself all the way up. She is starting to roll over so my pediatrician recommended not swaddling her anymore for safety reasons but not sure how to break the swaddle habit. Any ideas?

In addition she will only fall asleep if we are holding her/i bf her/ or if we walk her until she falls asleep and very gently put her in her bassinet. We have tried the “put her to bed drowsy but awake” but she just panics and wakes up all the way when she realizes shes in her bassinet and not being held. Desperately need to break this habit. She wakes up 4+ times in the night crying and looking for us and cant fall asleep unless I bf her or walk her back to sleep. How do we teach her how to fall asleep on her own? We do room share with her in the bassinet in the corner of our room so im not sure if sleep training would be an option or if there is a good method to try.

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We held both of our kids to sleep until they were ready to not be held (meaning they fought us holding them). 11mo for our daughter, about 8mo for our son.

As for the swaddle, we went cold turkey into a sleep sack. My daughter slept worse with 1 arm out so I skipped that step with my son.

We are currently struggling with getting our son to connect sleep cycles and he wakes about every hour at night. We feed and rock to sleep.

We really struggled with the swaddle transition. We tried every sleep wave transition. The one that seemed to work was the Love to Dream transition sleep sack. It has them swaddled but arms up. We have our son sometime getting used to arms up, then we unzipped one arm at a time to allow him to adjust to that. He very much still wakes himself up but it’s not as much as when we tried cold turkey and other methods.

Im sorry if this is bad advice, my baby didn't take to swaddling at all but perhaps it'd be better to go cold turkey & just brave a few nights from hell? For the being held my baby fought his sleep for an hour at each nap time & 2 hours at bedtime. For naps at first I kept him downstairs & turned up the tv after he fell asleep to help him be a heavier sleeper. I've transitioned him to napping in his room by using a naptime routine :nappy change, sleeping bag, teddy & cot music player. Were now at the point where I can put him down awake & he will sooth himself to sleep, I would see to him if he cried, I don't like CIO. For his bedtime we have a bath, massage, sleeping bag, book & bottle routine. He usually falls asleep while feeding

She is probably ready for some form of sleep training! Check out teensyweensysleepers on Instagram. She is great!

My LG never really cared for swaddling, and took to sleeping in the crib after just a month of bassinet. (Still slept in the same room though.) She did however wake up more on her back but once she started rolling over, she just completely stopped waking up through the night, unless a terrible nightmare or loud noise but was always easy to put back to sleep. Anyways she always sleeps with her hands tucked under her tummy. If she’s good at rolling over maybe try to see if she’s comfy sleeping on tummy without swaddle? I don’t know if this will help. But just pitching a thought.

I would say this is the perfect time to sleep train! It sounds like youre feeding mostly to sleep, so when shes in the crib she realizes "oh no im not with mom!" And wakes/calls for you. Id be happy to chat further, i use more gentle sleep training techniques and am a pediatric sleep consultant. Would love to have a prelim chat with you to discuss this :) feel free to message me!

100% convinced the “drowsy but awake” was invented to drive like 80% of us mad while the few 20% of moms have success because their babies are just born more independent!!

Babies want to be close and waking is a natural defense against SIDS. In addition there is a sleep regression at 6 months and a worse one close to 8 months. It’s a process and even with sleep training, baby has a possibility of regressing again at each stage.

It’s okay to rock baby to sleep! I do side laying nursing or rocking her to sleep. They will one day be able to sleep on their own, you won’t be rocking your little until their 18 - though having a great bond with your 18 yo wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen in the world.

Swaddling we cut cold turkey, but it took 2 weeks to get over. Ever since 4 month regression though we bedshare and having an arm holding me helps her sleep - if her arm slips she wakes up, but it’s not exactly the startle reflex, just wanting to make sure I’m close ❤️

I know the feeling very well my son whose also 6 months old will also do the same thing ur little girl does and if he isn't swaddled he will sleep crazy and sleep horizontal instead of diagonal 😩🤦🏻‍♀️ we are also trying to break the swaddle habit

From a safety point of view continuing to use the swaddle now that baby can roll is dangerous, you may need to just swap to a baby sleep bag and continue to support baby to sleep by rocking/feeding etc. Theres no need to sleep train, it’s biologically normal for baby to wake regularly, it’s protective against SIDS and sleep is developmental not linear. You might find these articles and links useful

https://sarahockwell-smith.com/2017/07/24/the-rollercoaster-of-real-baby-sleep/

https://sarahockwell-smith.com/2014/06/30/self-settling-what-really-happens-when-you-teach-a-baby-to-self-soothe-to-sleep/amp/

https://www.littlesparklers.org/normal-infant-sleep?fbclid=iwar35bswm3viz_nbc6pi74qktpkpgqzsg346cfiluwoiy5adunqaexeqjln0

https://instagram.com/lyndsey_hookway?utm_medium=copy_link

https://instagram.com/heysleepybaby?utm_medium=copy_link

https://instagram.com/rociozunini_newbornparents?utm_medium=copy_link

https://instagram.com/nurture_neuroscience_parenting?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

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