6 month old won’t sleep

[Merrijeank]

My baby is just turning 6 months and won’t let himself sleep until he physically can’t keep his eyes open anymore.

I got him into a nice routine around 3.5-4 month mark of waking up naturally at 10am, nap at 2, nap at 4 then bed at 8 and he wakes once usually during the night and that was my routine for a few weeks.

But since he’s learned to roll over, he has lost all semblance of a routine. He wakes up 10-11am and refuses to nap and cries if I try to put him down or comfort him to sleep with a bottle -(he’ll have it and just stay awake) and he just stays awake until he physically can’t keep his eyes open for any naps he has during the day and only naps 15-20 mins and the same at night- we bath him and give him baby porridge and a bottle to go to sleep on at 7-8 and they usually ends up just being a 30 min nap and then he’s wide awake until about 11pm.

I know he’s definitely overtired during the day but nothing I do or any amount of lullabies or rocking in a rocking chair will get him to sleep. Light or dark room, just being put in his cot and left until he is distressed (I grab him as soon as he cries), music, silence. Nothing helps him sleep. He just fights it as hard as he possibly can until he cannot go on. Any advice?

Will he sleep if you take him out for naps in the pushchair or car?

That’s a maybe. He does but it takes a good while

Have you tried giving him a few minutes when he cries? Might be worth seeing if he will settle off himself.

Overtiredness is definitely the main issue. It's so hard because of how easy it happens and then it becomes a cycle.

I think that sometimes but i never know how long to leave him... makes me feel terrible leaving him

Could it be that he doesn’t need that much sleep at nighttime which is having a knock-on effect on day sleep? If he’s waking up at 10/11am, you wouldn’t really expect him to go to sleep at 8pm as that would be 14-15hrs or nighttime sleep which is probably too much for a 6mo.

Perhaps you could try pull the timings back so that he is in bed by 7/8pm but also up by 7/8am. That might make daytime naps easier. Could be totally off that mark but that occurred to me reading your post!

yeah i have been thinking about that recently so i might give it a go over the next few days