6 month old terrible naps

[Smellz714]

Hi, my 6 month old will only nap (in her cot, pram, car, sling; anywhere but on me) for half an hour, unless she's been swimming and she'll sleep like a log. Most days she gets about an hour and a half daytime sleep in total. I've tried linking the sleep cycles with motion, comforting and all the other things that help her sleep in the first place. We do a nap routine, long wake windows, short wake windows, white noise, simple sleep associations, nothing works. 30 mins and she's wide awake, unless she's on me and she will sleep for ages +1hr most of the time. Should I let her sleep on me for every nap I'm around for? Is that going to create neg. sleep associations? I could put her down after 30 mins and wait for her to freak out that I've gone? She's looked after by others 3 days a week I think it'll be too much to ask them to sit with her on them for 1.5 hours. Her night time sleep is reasonable, she's able to link sleep cycles. Stirs in the early hours but usually gets back off with some cuddling (and a bit of co sleeping). She doesn't self settle and swings from needing to be rocked to sleep to just needing one of us to be in the room to go down. Teeth aren't a big problem right now, they were last week. She's treated for silent reflux and is super gassy. This is a caffeine fuelled post. I think I'm looking for some advice, new ideas, tough love, anything. Please help my baby sleep.

No advice, just solidarity, my DD is exactly the same at the moment. I could have written this almost word for word but we have equally shocking days and nights. She was fine two weeks ago and has gradually become a little gremlin who will not sleep unless in a car seat or on me. I haven’t had more than 3 consecutive hours sleep since before she was born now 😂

I should add that this has been the case for about 5-6 weeks. She would nap for a whole 45 mins ( ) at a time before the stupid sleep regression hit us.

I had no idea sorry but 6 months was the worst time for sleep for both my children. Remember everything is a phase.

Fern thanks for your reply! Are you at breaking point? Are you considering sleep training or anything similar?

Duracell hi, thanks, did your two just snap out of it or did you have to implement changes to give them a little nudge?

Bubba is 16 weeks old and communal 20-30 mins in basket but on me 1hour -2 hours . He used to go down and sleep ages in his basket but after he turned 12 weeks that changed.
Growth spurt, sleep regressions and leaps woohoo

I've been reading lots and don't want to do CIO methods so it's just waiting game.
No advise just solidarity. At least you get sleep at night my son is up every 2 hours

I’d probably do a cot nap (or pram if out) in the morning, 30 minutes for that is absolutely fine. Then let her contact nap to get a longer nap after lunch. If you feel she needs another sleep late afternoon to power through to bedtime then you wouldn’t want that to be more than a cat nap anyway so put her down in the cot/pram as convenient. Try the cot for the after lunch nap again in a few weeks, chances are she will get there eventually.

When you say she’s looked after by others, if you mean grandparents who don’t have other kids then I’m sure they won’t mind 1.5 hours of sitting on the sofa with a drink watching TV. If it’s a busy childminder then I get that’s trickier but they tend to have magic nap powers anyway so I wouldn’t stress it!

Hi Mixed thanks for your solidarity, honestly it helps to know others are going through similar. Everyone I speak to keeps telling me how good their little ones sleep and I want to poke them in their stupid smug faces. Hope your nights improve x

Hi random thanks for that, the morning nap was giving me a load of stress cos I thought it had to be an hour minimum, she's only ever done half an hour for that one, glad to know that's ok.

Yeah it's just grandparents, I guess I could sell it as a nice rest for them both.

She's just woken up, bang on 30 mins from a nap on my lap. Gutted.

Neither of mine did more than 30-45 minutes until they were around 1 and went to 1 nap.

sausage :( 6 more months might send me loopy.

Both of mine cat napped at that age and got longer naturally as they got older. Hang tight x

Definitely sell it as a nice rest for the GPs, I’m sure they’ll love the snuggles!! But honestly it really doesn’t sound bad. In fact it actually sounds like you’ve got the beginnings of a nice little nap routine going on. One sleep cycle of 40 mins-ish is standard for the first nap, you’re really not that far off that with the 30 minutes she’s having. Most of the time you can get her to do 1.5 hours after lunch most days, that’s really great too. Yes ideally it would be in the cot but in the greater scheme of things it really doesn’t matter that it’s on you and it won’t last forever. Cat nap if needed late afternoon, you wouldn’t want a long nap close to bedtime anyway so also pretty good. 6 months is at really tough age for sleep but don’t doubt yourself because it sounds like you’re doing really well!

My 8.5 month old still does 30 mins 9/10 times
It's annoying I know but it's so normal. Honestly they don't read the books.
My first never extended her naps and was still doing 30 min until she dropped them but but I have heard a lot do extend naturally as well

My ds was a terrible napper only sleeping 30 mins tops in car/pram until about 10 months, he then started sleeping in his cot for an hour. He's now 19 months and has one solid 2 hour nap in his cot. Your dc will snap out of it and start sleeping! Hang in there, it will get better 😊

If the night sleep is ok I wouldn't worry about the naps too much but its annoying as you don't get much of a rest. The best advice I heard re baby naps was don't do anything while they're sleeping that you can do while they're awake so don't use that precious rest time for house chores that you can do while she is in a carrier on you, or sitting in a bouncy chair.
Mine was a terrible sleeper (still is at night) but now I have to wake her from a 2h nap every day so hopefully the naps will increase as she gets older

I wouldn’t worry about naps too much if you’re nights are okay. Some babies need more sleep than others and some need less. If she’s in good form most of the day and sleeping well at night then it sounds like everything is largely working. Babies are robots and they won’t sleep for the exact same amount of time every day anyway. Put her down in her cot and if she wakes happy after 30 mins then continue with your day and if she wakes a bit grumpy she needs more sleep so try to do a contact nap on the sofa or a walk in the pram.

Thank you everyone, you've all been very kind and reassuring. I suppose I'm stressing because I'm back at work and have a much less flexible routine than before but must remember to follow her lead! My oh does most of the bedtimes because of my shifts (don't finish work til midnight), and I stress that poor day sleep will affect his time with her. If we put her to bed too early because she hasn't napped well/late enough then she's much more restless through the night which affects my (already dwindling) few hours of sleep. I know we have it pretty good really, so I'll stop feeling sorry for myself and crack on with it

None of these are negative sleep associations, 30-40 minute naps can be quite normal. Babies who nap longer are often consolidating into 2 naps max at this age (or they are up constantly in the night)

We are told a lot of made up rubbish about baby sleep. You can't realistically expect 12 hours at night plus several lengthy naps in the day at 6 months old yet there is a lot of money to be made by "sleep consultants" claiming this is the case and making you feel a faliure for not achieving it

Follow Lyndsey Hookway on SM, she is the only one that speaks any sense.

We’ve followed sleep training that up to now she’s been pretty good with. I really feel for you though, there’s a reason sleep deprivation is used in torture 😅
I used a lot of ideas from this blog www.weebeedreaming.com/blog she’s a sleep trainer in the US, it’s not controlled crying (not for me) but more focused on healthy sleeping habits and tackles regressions etc. There’s loads of ideas in there, might not be for you but worth having a flick through!

My DD was like this til she was about 1. At about 1 after doing slooow process of gradual retreat for bedtime I also then managed to put her down for naps in her bedroom in a travelcot (she still slept in our room overnight). She would sleep for 1-2.5 hrs at a time then. Same in the pram or car too even if the motion stopped earlier. So I imagine your baby will outgrow it.

DS is 4 months old and even worse, he hardly ever sleeps more than 20 mins at a time and that's the same even if you sit under him, he still wakes up. It's a nightmare as most of every day is spent trying to get an overtired, cranky baby to nap and there is no rest at all because he constantly needs motion to stop him crying and you don't even get to sit under him for long naps for a rest! Oh and he wakes up multiple times a night for feeds and/or 30min+ long rocking sessions so it's not like I get great sleep overnight either. Hoping he will grow out of it eventually...!

My boy is 8 months and has only literally today had two one hour naps and a half hour. Before this he was 30 mins and done. It's ruff as you spend lots of time settling them and getting them down and no sooner are they up. For the first 6 months he contact napped on me. When ever we tried to put him down he would wake up instantly🤦🏻‍♀️Then we started putting him in the cot as I could bounce the mattress to gently move him. Once he got that we went back to the next to me as he's still in with us. His sleep has been horrific the last few weeks. For two nights this week he was up every hour from 2am till 7am. Hoping we are coming to the end of this as im knackered😂😅