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It's been five years between kids, so I feel almost as if I'm starting out again with my second. The two girls are also totally different temperament wise. My first was rather high needs as an infant, and also was a TERRIBLE sleeper. We had to sleep train her, but once she learned how to self soothe she slept through the night and was predictable in her habits. She's what i would call a "steady betty". Our second is more mellow and was always a great sleeper and we never had to employ any sleep training methods. She often slept through the night. However, now at 6 months, she is having a sleep regression and is night-waking for food all of a sudden, even though she goes to bed on a full stomache. Any tips? Is this just a phase of sorts? Is she becoming a "trained night feeder"? She is fed whenever she is hungry during the day.
This seems to be very common for babies of this age. Could she be teething? Is she learning a new skill such as sitting, getting up on hands and knees, crawling, etc? Could she be going through a growth spurt? Any of these things could be contributing to more frequent night wakings as well as more frequent feedings.
My younger daughter was always an easier baby than my older one. She started waking up crying in the middle of the night and it went on quite a while before we figured out that my older daughter was waking her up and telling her to get out of the bedroom (even though she was in the crib).
Sounds like a growth spurt or teething to me, she's probably just hungry, so she's waking up. Also, though you didn't ask for any opinions on this, I think that age is way too young for "sleep training". Out of three kids, we only ever attempted to train one of them and it was not until she was 2. The others had their needs met even when they woke up in the middle of the night and both are good sleepers with few issues. Meeting an infants needs is not teaching them bad habits, it's taking care of them. When they are older and you know that their sleep issues are being driven by things besides basic needs, then you can try some training.
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