Is it normal he can't fall asleep?

[Henachoko]

Hi mum's,

Wondering if anyone else has had experience of this.

6 month old was generally a pretty good sleeper. For the past week or so though, sleep has been challenging. There are several wakings in the night but not worried about this as he settles somewhat easily - it's the falling asleep initially that is the problem now. Particularly going down for the "big" sleep.

We're co sleeping at the moment, black-out blinds in the room - temperature is fine. We have a little bedtime routine - so there are cues. I put him down but he will not sleep for hours. We end up giving up, brining him back downstairs and trying again 30 mins to an hour later. His bedtime used to be 6- 7:30 pm. Now it's 9-10pm and that's only after a few very tiring attempts to get him down from 7:00pm.

When we try to put him down he is definitely tired and needing sleep. We know his cues by now so we're not leaving it too long but still he really struggles. He screams and thrashes about. I can see hes trying to soothe himself by turning his head, pulling on anything he can get (hair, clothes etc) and grabbing his feet. Our and his efforts have no affect though. I honestly think it's more exhaustion than anything that gets him to sleep when he finally goes off.

Does this sound like normal regression?

Both of mine did this each time they needed to drop a nap in the day- does he have a regular (ish) pattern that you could amend?

He has 2-3 naps in the day atm. Def not needing to drop one as he's a right cranky pants if awake too long 😅

Is he super alert and wanting to learn a new skill?
Hopefully it’s just a regression, and he will be back to normal.
My now 20 month old has always been this way she has always been very alert and hit milestones early (she has plenty of time to learn because she never goes to bed haha). I remember walking around in the pram at 10pm last summer trying to get her to sleep. I had to use the car at midnight over the Christmas holiday as she was wanting to stay up with the adults.

I heard six months and instantly thought teeth. He probably just needs extra help from you to settle.

Our most recent skill was sticking his tongue and blowing 😂
He generally is very alert and distractable. We've not been early with the milestones. Rolling over took a lot of help from us. Hopefully it's not permanent. Sounds like you had a tough time.

Will he go to sleep if you're holding him? Could be he's clocked on now when you put him down he's actually alone not on you and doesn't fancy that now that he realises.

Could try a dummy.

Could just try to ride it out and it might fix itself, using pick up put down method.

I do agree with what you're doing though in the sense that if you spend like 20-30 minutes trying to get him down and it's clearly not happening then it's best to reset and try again half an hour later like you are. That's definitely a less stressful and more fruitful approach than people who spend literal hours wrangling (not-tired-enough) babies to bed and everyone getting increasingly upset.

No he wont sleep if I hold him. We try everything, walking with him, singing, dummy, leg massage, hand holding (he likes this), a combo of all the above etc. That's why I'm wondering if it's normal - nothing helps him sleep except eventually exaughstion.