6 month old- normal behaviour or something "wrong"?

[SharyBobbins]

Hi all,
Just after some advice please! I fully accept that this might be totally usual or just a phase but just wanted to check with other parents who might have experienced similar. My nearly 6 month old has, for the past 2 weeks, been unsettled during the evenings after previously being fine. She has bath, bottle and then bed (she has to be held/rocked to sleep but goes in to her cot without much fuss) at roughly the same time each evening, in her gro bag (arms in) with her white noise on. But after about an hour or so she starts to cry and is lifting her legs in the air and sort of slamming them down/rolling on to her side with her eyes open. As soon as I pick her up she stops fussing and is literally asleep (sometimes even snoring!) in my arms within a minute. She wakes up again when I return her to the cot but settles after a bit more thrashing about and a bit of patting. It's been happening 3/4 times each evening and then maybe once or twice through the night but she seems to settle more quickly then.
Just for info she is bottle fed & having the maximum amount each day, we haven't started weaning yet, she naps 2/3 times a day & winds well.
As I say I fully accept this might be totally normal but just wanted to check I'm not missing something which might help her (and help us get our evenings back!)

@SharyBobbins
I’m sure kicking legs down can be self soothing technique and needing a little extra reassurance from you?
I’d be more worried about the snoring. Does she have her mouth open when she sleeps?xx

Nothing about her behaviour that sounds concerning to me. Their sleep changes all the time, so they might be really good and then suddenly needing resettling every half an hour. It's a roller coaster!

In case you're unaware, now that she can roll you shouldn't be swaddling her arms. Runs the risk that she could roll on to her front and not be able to move to free her face to be able to breathe because she doesn't have use of her arms.

Arms should be out from 10-12 weeks really. I was quite thoroughly told off by my midwife although she wasn’t rolling till 6 months.

Following as my 6 month old DS is the same! I think the wakening after an hour or so could possibly be a ‘false start’ but from reading about these there could be a hundred reasons why this would happen!

Thanks so much for the replies & for mentioning the swaddling, I didn't know that about the rolling. Luckily she only mastered this technique a few weeks back, it will be arms out from tonight.
@Lockdownbaby2021 she doesn't usually snore she just weirdly does it when she gets picked up after this evening waking & is held upright against me. I think she does sometimes sleep with her mouth open- is this an issue?
Thank you all again x

All normal. You might find as well that once her arms are out, she wakes less as she can position herself how she wants. But don't hold your breath!

Just to say with arms out it took my DD a while to adjust (we did it after passing the worst of the 4 month sleep regression!) so if it doesn't help it might be worth going one arm at a time first.

6 months is a strange old time. Around that point DD started doing this really concerning head rocking thing which used to freak the hell out of me. I managed to catch it on video and showed it to the HV, who pointed out the smile on her face and said 'she's just discovered she can do it and she's enjoying the sensation - she's learning about her body and what it can do'. She'd stopped in a couple of weeks but I think it's around now they start to really understand that they have control over their movements and sometimes it can cause them to get a bit unsettled.

One possibility with leg raising is trapped wind/tummy trouble but if as you say he winds well and I'm guessing no issues with changes to nappy contents then maybe not?

What do you mean by the maximum amount with regards to bottle feeding? If you're sticking to a set amount there is a chance they could be a little hungry. I'd maybe try an extra Oz in the bed time bottle to see if that helps.

The slamming legs down is def self-soothing. DD did it for a while (and her head too!). They do grow out of it!

Sounds perfectly normal to me

Arms should be out ones they can roll btw

Just wanted to recommend Lyndsey Hookway, I follow her on Instagram but she has a page on fb too called Feed Sleep Bond. Such a wonderful woman, she's really given me confidence in following my own instincts.

My two have both sort of slammed legs or bodies down hard as part of self soothing at this sort of age. We here all sorts of weird banging from upstairs. I'd let her get on with it and not interrupt.

Thank you again for all of the reassurance, advice & recommendations!
With regards to her milk intake she is still having 5 x 200ml bottles a day so to be honest I didn't really consider hunger to be an issue unless she just has a really big appetite! Hopefully she takes well to weaning!

Right arms are out and extra ounce given!

Good luck!!

Good luck! Mine is almost 9 months and is a leg slammer, sometimes to self soothe and sometimes when she's having a bit of a strop in bed!!

Thank you! She is currently awake and screaming at her Dad

@SharyBobbins mouth breathing/ snoring can be due to things like tongue tie, enlarged tonsils, nothing too serious but things that might need addressing that can affect sleep. Babies are nose breathers and if they are mouth sleeping then they are compensating for a reason.
I’ve only just come across a post about this so it’s new to me too. X

It is really hard for them when you first go arms out. Mine didn’t seem to mind (we did it with day naps first). But my friend took weeks to get hers used to it.

Thank you, I will keep an eye out for the open mouth, she definitely was mouth closed when napping earlier though.
Last night she pretty much screamed until 1.30am offered her a feed, winded her again, cuddles, rocking, patting but nothing worked. I'm hoping the arms out made the situation worse and that it'll pass after a few nights. We were planning to move her in to her own room and cot bed on the weekend!