6 mo change in behaviour concerning naps

[AlfieBear87]

Hi all,

My ds is 6 months old. Until a couple of weeks ago he was sleeping in our room at night and waking up every couple of hours for his dummy/comforting. This had been going on for months and both DH and I were exhausted. One night we decided to leave ds in our room whilst we slept in the spare room. To our amazement he only woke once between 7pm and 6.30am. Since then we have stayed in the spare room and he has continued to wake only once or twice a night.

However, since his nightime sleep has improved his naps have become progressively worse. Previously I'd wait for sleep cues, put him in his cot and leave him whilst he wound down, then held his hands when he became whingey and he'd fall asleep. Now when I do this it ends up in massive hysterics that only abate when I feed him. He'll suck for 30 seconds, i'll swap my nipple for a dummy and he'll be asleep in seconds and I can transfer him to his cot. He's not hungry he just wants comforting.

The napping procedure is getting worse and worse so its taking me 30 mins to get him to sleep and he only sleeps for 45 mins. And now to top it off his nightime sleep is getting worse again and he wants to be held all night and screams the minute we transfer him back to his cot.

Is this a common sleep regression at 6 months due to development? Or has he learnt that if he cries enough Mummy will cuddle him? If its developmental I'll ride it out until he's through it but if its behavioural I want to nip it in the bud sooner rather than later.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! TIA

my DS dropped a couple of day naps completely at 6 months (morning one and one day one), just let them do what they want and their new pattern will emerge

we we nap free by 18 months BUT I didn't fight his nap dropping like some mum friends I know, the ones who persevered with naps did "win" and their 3YOs are still napping, but they are not as good at night as DS. Its hard when they drop naps, but since we have a good night sleeper I can't really complain!

I would say, facilitate day naps if they are happening, but don't try to "put him down" - it'll just wind you both up and it'll stop you from seeing his natural pattern

Sounds normal - babies sleep patterns change quite frequently.

I don't think cuddling to sleep is a bad thing , or that 6mo can have behavioural 'issues' for want of a better word - perhaps bad habits?

Could be developmental - have you considered teething? That really arses about sleep

Why are you and DH in the spare room? At 6mo DS could have that as a bedroom now and you can have your room back.

Hi monkeymoma thanks for the reply. When your son dropped his naps did all his sleep cues stop? My lo is still doing lots of eye/ear rubbing which is when I put him down for a nap. Maybe he is tired but not tired enough to nap? Is that possible?

Hi flisspaps - yes bad habits is more what I meant thanks! We are about to move house and DS will be going into his own room then so can't be bothered to move him into spare room here and then move him into new house in a couple of weeks (being lazy/irrational fear that a different room will make sleep even worse!).

It could be teething although he doesn't have any other symptoms at the moment. I don't mind cuddling to sleep too much except for the fact I can't move him back into his cot once he's asleep during the night, and it seems that cuddling him to sleep for naps seems to be making him worse during the night!

I know they change habits quickly, it just felt so good to finally get his nightime sleep going well, now its going downhill again so quickly its really disappointing!