Any ideas on how to make 6 month old have proper lunchtime nap?

[BEAUTlFUL]

My 6 month old is adorable, very happy and contented, but won't sleep for longer than 45 minutes during the day.

He sleeps in a darkened room, has same routine every day, but after 45 minutes he wakes up screaming every time. It often seems like he's screaming because he's woken up! (He might be hunfry though... It is passionate crying, like something is bothering him.) He is also starting to wake up several times at night too, having been fab sleeper.

Our routine is: Bottle at 7:30am

Brief nap from 8:30-9am (in car seat when taking DS1 to school/clubland)

Bottle and breakfast at 10:30am

In bed by 11:30am

Screaming awake by 12:30pm, max

Bottle at 1pm

Sometimes he'll then have another nap, of 45 minutes, if I put him back upstairs

He'll nod off about 3pm when I do school run

Milk at 4pm

Tea at 5pm

Bath 6pm

Bottle and bed at 7pm

Extra milk at 10:30pm, else he'll wake up at 4am

Does that sound all over the place?? Any ideas? I'm willing to try anything and won't be upset if you tell me I'm making mistakes!

Ideally I'd get him to have a long nap, say 2 hours, at lunchtime so I can get stuff done rather than just coo over his gorgeous little face all day!

Could he need more stimulation in the mornings, to tire him out? Fresh air?

???

I thought I'd give GF a go, so I just put him down for a nap at 9:45am, and he is still sleeping now... Could he be overtired for his lunchtime nap? Would that make him sleep longer?

As you can tell, I have no idea.

I'm going to wake him up now, to follow GF, then put him down at 12pm.

Maybe you could try tweaking his routine so its something like this and he may well be hungry and need something more substantial then a bottle at lunch time:

Bottle 7am

Breakfast 8am

Nap after school run 9am- 11.30am ish
But you would have to try keeping him awake until you got home

Lunch /bottle 12pm

Nap 1.30pm-3pm

Bottle 3pm

Tea 5pm

Bath 6pm

bottle and bed 7pm

Have you tried rocking him back to sleep for a few days. A babies sleep cycle is about 45 mins and I find some babies when coming into a light sleep stage can not get themselves back off to sleep.

You could also try giving breakfast when you get back from dropping older son off, then giving him some outdoor or playtime then a bottle closer to 12pm and then a nap. May take a few days trial and error to get it to work.

Thanks nannynz... Would his sleep cycle only affect his daytime sleep, though? He settles himself down at night if he wakes up.

...I think. Actually, I'm not sure about that now.

EllieB, that routine sounds great, I'd love it if he could follow that. Can a 6 m/o sleep that much during the day & still sleep at night?

I'm writing that routine out & sticking it up in the kitchen. Then I will show it to him and let him know what his new hours are.

He's still asleep now, despite my following Gina and opening the blackout curtains 15 mins ago.

???

LOL beautiful! I minded a baby from when she was 5mths old up until she was 1 year and that was her routine with me! (well until 4 pm anyway, her parents told me she went to bed around 7.30pmish she didn't always sleep through and they did go through a bit of a rough patch with her waking often in the early hours but it settled down, what baby does sleep through though?)

I found that keeping a routine that she was familiar with and being calm helped. Sometimes she didn't want to sleep that long or at that particular time, but that was fine I would just try her again later.

I havn't had my own yet (35 weeks preggers) so it will be interesting to see if mine will have a similar routine! It was great to have the time to do other things though!