6 month old — is this Normal?

[Ellax]

Will never fall asleep in buggy. I have to have them in carrier 95 percent of the time on the boob at the same time. Once they’re in deep enough sleep I can transfer to buggy but have to keep being on the move or they wake. Third nap/evening nap basically never happens as much as I try and there just overtired an hysterical by bedtime. I wakes up 100 times over night for boob. We cosleep so I’m still alive but just struggling so much.

orgerwise a very happy smiley baby. Really struggling. Please help. Have a 3.5 year old and doing this on my own. Help please.

Annoyingly sounds normal to me. Mine loved a carrier or contact nap, hated the buggy, first hated the car to the point we didn't drive more than thirty mins for over a year and woke a billion times in the night. But hang in there. Without doing anything both kids have started sleeping through without me doing anything. For naps, we only had three naps up until about five months, and went to one nap at about eight months. Not what everyone says but the other naps weren't happening.

Thanks. I appreciate your message. Felt so overwhelmed tonight. Reassuring to know it’s not just me! X

Sounds super tough.

I do have a couple of suggestions though.

Have you tried the No Cry Nap Solution? Sounds like that might be helpful for you.

And have you thought of moving them to their own room? Both of mine seemed to wake less once they were a bit further away from me.

My baby is the same age and was exactly the same. From the moment they were born refused to sleep in anything other than my arms! I had to contact nap and cosleep but at 4 months old baby would wake up every 40 minutes to feed back to sleep which was killing me.

I also have a toddler so I know how difficult it can be.

At 5.5 months I moved baby into their own room which made a massive difference. Also I introduced a comforter with my smell on which baby could nuzzle into.

You mention that baby doesn't have their third nap, but how many total hours do they average in the day? What time do they wake up and what time do they normally have bedtime?

You've got this. Take whatever naps you can get from them, and leave a boob permanently out at night. It will get better x

You’re not alone! My DD is almost 20 months now but for the 13/14 months of her life she would only contact nap if in the house and I only got her to sleep in the pram or car when she was about 6/7 months. She also woke allllllll the time for boob and we coslept until 14 months. It was so hard, but I don’t regret it. Stay strong and take baby steps to getting them to sleep alone, they’re still so tiny 💖

@MakeItToTheMoon thanks for your message. I just feel like the idea of moving him into his own room and having to be up a down the hallway is too much.

he wakes at 7. Has first nap at 9 after toddler’s nursery drop off. This can be anywhere from 30 mins -2 hours. Second nap around 1/2 for about an hour. Goes to sleep at around 7ish and wakes up a million times for boob or just fussing from then on till about 6:30-7am. I just refused to start the day any earlier than 7

its just sometimes he’ll wake from nap at 2pm and won’t nap again and is up till 7ish and then just impossible to get to sleep. Assuming that’s because he’s overly tired and hysterical. What do you think?

@thelma57 thank you x can I ask how you managed to stop cosleeping at 14months? If you don’t mind x

Can I just ask how many times you're feeding in the day? I found with DC2 that we could get distracted and if I offered a feed every 2 to 2.5 hours in the day then they were a little bit better at night.

And if you find getting up at night a bit overwhelming could you move them over to DH's side of the bed?

Of course! We moved her onto a floor bed in her own room, and at first I still fed to sleep for her comfort and then removed that, and would lay with her and if she had a bad night the floor bed meant I could stay with her. Honestly towards that time I think I was waking her up as she’s a VERY active sleeper so it seemed like the right time. We did try just before she turned 1 but she wasn’t ready so we swapped back to cosleeping for a few months 🙂
Floor beds are a game changer!

I believe 6month old babies need approximately 2.5hours day sleep. Try giving half an hour for the morning nap (9.30-10) and a longer afternoon nap (12.30-1.30ish). And then maybe a smaller nap at 4.30? I think a longer afternoon nap is supposed to be more restorative for them (I may be wrong).

Definitely try the pampers sleep coaching app, they give a free trial and I found this helped me take the guesswork out of it all and prevent over tiredness. Huckleberry is also supposed to be good.

I agree it's such a faff going up and down to settle the baby. Personally the first three days were hard but then it got easier. Your baby might surprise you and do really well in their own room.

The comforter really helped which I introduced at all feeds and contact naps before transitioning to their own room.

I feel for you because it's so hard when all you want is some time to yourself without the baby sleeping on you all day or feeding day all night! Even though you love them with all your heart.

Sounds like both my babies (2yo girl and 9mo old boy). Both love to fall asleep on the boob and contact only. With daughter I always lay her in the bed on her side and fed her to sleep. My boy loves the carrier until 8 mo and would fall alseep drinking from the boob. Now he also falls asleep while nursing, lying on his side. I believe babies are wired to want our contact and our modern society (for whataver reason... probably a money making thing) has this bizzare opinion that babies need to be fully independent by the age of 6 mo.
The best advice I can give is tune into your babies needs and just roll with it. My daughter stopped napping completely at 18 mo. Bedtime was then 17:30 and she slept until 7am. So she needed less day naps but slept longer at night (still waking 2 times or so but only quickly as we co-sleep and still nurse at night, even now at nearly 3yo). And why the heck not?? There's no fight, we all get sleep, everyone's peaceful and happy.
My son is 9 mo. and has reduced to 2 naps since a month. First nap 9/930, second napt 13/1330. Usually only naps 30-45 mins and then goes to bed at half 5. He wakes up at 5:30am too. Hard at first but now i'm used to it.
I cant speak for everyone as I get everyone has different limits and things they tolerate. But just trying my best to roll with their natural needs and cycles has proven (yes at times hard) but SO fruitful. Every night bedtime is so peaceful and easy with both. There's never tears. When they wake up in the night its a quick cuddle and feed and we're all asleep again.

Sometimes when we're out past dinnertime he does also get really hysterical. Definitely overtired then. Maybe your sons natural clock is up early, bed early?

That being said, not much in there thats really of help. I have found that transition to lesser naps is a bit like what you described. Does he still need 3 naps? With my daughter I found that she woke lots more at night when she had too much sleep in the daytime.