6 month old sleep gone haywire!

[Zamaz]

My 6 month old daughter's sleep has suddenly gone all wonky. I'd be really grateful for any tips, ideas or words of wisdom as its exhausting me!
She's pretty reliably had two 'ups' a night for a quick feed since she was tiny. In the last 2 weeks it's suddenly been 4/5 ups. I give her a very quick feed and she settles back to sleep.
She's never been the best day-time napper (life is too exciting to sleep apparently) but again in the last few weeks her naps (with the very odd exception) have been 30 mins to the minute. This means I'm having to work to get her to sleep 3 or 4 times a day.
Needless to say all this is pretty tiring! I had awful post-natal depression (thankfully now much better), but sleeping well myself really helped, so I'm keen to try and improve things for both our sakes!
Of note perhaps, we took away her Moses basket around 3 weeks ago; she's been in her own room since 4 months and is now in a cot (before that I had the Moses inside the cot).
Everyone around me seems to have been blessed with babies who sleep through and have huge 2/2.5/3 hr naps in the day, so talking to friends isn't really helping!
Any ideas / words of wisdom / reassurance very welcome please! I feel very alone in this, but my head tells me I can't t be!
Thanks in advance!

[Redhead79]

I cannot offer any advice but wanted to let you know that you are not alone!

My 6 month old does not 'sleep though' and the only reliable thing about her sleep patten is her waking up for the day at 5.30 am. She is also down to 30min naps and most of those are a battle.
I hope this is just a phase.....

[dinodiva]

I found that things really began to settle down around 7 months or so, our really bad period was 4-6.5 months and it's improved no end since then. There is hope! As soon as my DD could roll she started sleeping on her tummy and it was like a magic sleep switch had been flicked - before that I had coslept because I was up so much in the night.

If she's waking up that much could she be teething? Also I found with the early stages of weaning DD could be restless as her tummy got used to new things. There's so much development going on at the moment multiple wake ups are pretty common.

I worked really hard to start a napping routine around 6 months (particularly setting a morning nap) and to start with, this meant clocking up the miles as she slept really well in her buggy. Before that, I fed her to sleep on my lap and it would often be much later than she probably needed. Once she got into the routine of sleeping in the buggy about 2 hours after she woke up, we transferred into the cot relatively easily. (I do still feed to sleep for naps which is my next habit to break)

My advice would be to tackle it one bit at a time, but don't worry if your DD isn't quite there yet. Just do what works for you both.

[Cocolocos]

We're having a rough time too. 2 weeks of it so far, with 2 hour screamathons at about midnight. Nothing helps, tried feeding but as soon as put down she screams again. Am at my wits end! I'm hoping it's just another phase/growth spurt/leap, as I'm back to feeling as exhausted as when she was a newborn

[Rinceoir]

My DD slept through (well 11-7ish) from 8weeks to 6 months. We were so lucky! Never was much of a day time napper though. Then at 6 months she started waking every 45-90 mins. Lasted around 2 months, then suddenly dropped to one night waking. I don't know what caused it or what stopped it! She's 2 now and has been sleeping through reliably since she was 18 months (830-7/8).

With regards to the naps I think it's developmental. I drove myself mad trying to extend her naps which were 45mins on the dot. At about 11 months she suddenly dropped to one nap lasting 1.5-2 hours.