Why is his night time sleep getting worse?

[candr]

My DS is just 6m, he was ebf till we started BLW (still has breast milk). During the day he sleeps fine for his naps, around half to one hour but putting him down at night has become an hour and a half struggle now. He has dinner at 6 then bath and ready for bed, I feed him at 7.30 and he used to be asleep by 8 and sleep till 1 then 3 then come into bed with us at 6 to squeeze and extra hour out of him.

He now wakes after 20 min, sleeps for 20 and wakes again on and off till 9pm. Have tried letting him cry, shhhing, back rubbing, lying next to him in my bed, rocking etc but he keeps doing it. He then wakes every 2 hours at night and only occassionally goes back to sleep without feeding. I am so tired at night it is hard to stay awake during his feeds and he often fell asleep on me (we did co sleep to start with) but am trying hard to stay awake and put him in crib after feed.

What can I do to make him sleep for longer periods of time as feel like a zombie but don't want to give up bf?

Hi this sounds like my DS at that age and it was all caused by overtiredness. He was always in bed asleep by 7 at that age. Have you tried bringing bedtime earlier. When they are OT one of the most common signs is frequent wakings and early mornings too. Seems crazy but it's how they often react. How often does he nap in the day? I was a no routine kinda gal but at 7 months had him on strict naps every 3 hours and a 6.30 bedtime and he went from hourly wakings to sleeping through to 6. It was nothing short of miraculous!

Ps I still bf my ds at 18.5 months so dont worry about having to stop!

completely agree with vix206. For my LO, if we got repeated wakings in the early part of the night it was always down to overtiredness. I also notice you say your LO naps 30mins-1hr in the day, which for us was also a a sign of OT.

An earlier BT might help, but it may be that he needs more daytime sleep overall. Could you post your routine??? We might then be able to offer some more suggestions.

Omama thanks again btw. DS napping much better now and although he still wakes at 5.30am he's much more settled through the night now so I can cope better with early starts having had an uninterrupted night. X

Our (kind of) routine is
7.00 up and dressed
7.30 porridge and toast
8.00 bf
8.30-9.00 nap (30)
11.00 milk and nap (30-1h)
12.00 lunch
1.00 milk and 1.30 sleep (30-1h)
3.00 milk
5.00 nap (30-1h)
6.00 dinner
6.45 bath and ready for bed
7.30 milk and bed, used to be asleep by 8 and now is 9 or 10.
Have decided to try a bottle of formula at bedtime to see if this helps. I want to move his bedtime earlier but worry that my DH would never see him as he leaves 6am and is home at 7. I hate to think of him missing out as he really misses DS during the day but also need to do what is right for DS (and me having to do night shifts)

Hi there,

Totally agree with other posters - it was definitely a sign of over-tiredness in our house. I'd shoot for naps 2-3 hours max after up time and see if you get longer naps and then you might be able to get rid of the nap at 5pm and go for an earlier bedtime.

So you'd be looking at
7am up
9am/9.30 nap (you might get a longer one then up to 90 mins)
Nap again 3 hours after awake time
BT around 6.30 - 7.00

Try it and see how you go. I know it'll be difficult for your DH but as he gets older you'll be able to alter things a bit.

I agree with Meggymoodle. I think the troubles are because his first nap of the day is too early, he is only up 1.5hrs before he goes down for a nap & this is a pretty short amount of time awake for a 6 month old. As a result he isn't tired enough to sleep for very long. Because he only catnaps here, he cant manage to stay awake very long before he needs another nap & he catnaps again. When this happens all day, he will likely get overtired by bedtime. The other thing I notice is that he's napping at 5pm for 30mins-1hr. Around 6 months old is the time when the tea-time nap is usually dropped, so if he has too long a nap here its probably contributing to why he isn't settling at bedtime - he probably isn't ready & then because he fights it he gets overtired

I also think you need to try & get a good 2 nap routine established. The routine MM posted is good. By extending that period of time awake before his AM nap, it will hopefully give you a longer nap. This in turn will help you extend the period of time awake before the next nap (as MM says to around 3hrs) and get him onto a good 2 nap routine with naps at around 9am & 1pm.

I have to say I also think his current bedtime is too late, even at 8pm, and with MM's routine, provided you get a good 1.5hr nap, I would shoot for a 7pm BT and you should find he sleeps well.

It might take a couple of weeks to sort this out so hang in there, and if you get any days with short naps then I would recommend bringing his BT earlier.

Thanks guys, will try shifting things earlier by 15 min each day so it is not too much in one go. Should be fine till the bloody clocks change. Feel for DH though but need to do what is best for LO. Will see how earlier bed and formula go later.

Well did dinner at 5.45 then bath. Tried to do bottle at 6.30 but he cried and refused so bf. He then cried and fussed on and off (more on) before me giving him a top up and passing out at 9. DH away tonight so will try to get him back to sleep by rocking unless it has been longer than 3 hours without worrying about him waking DH (that is if I can stay awake and get out of bed rather than bring him into bed to feed and sleep)
Will try a bit of formula during the day to get him used to it.

Ah poor thing, sounds like a tough night. My DS would never take Formula, I tried a couple of times. Mainly because some people suggested he might sleep better. But the more people I spoke to the more I realised that it probably wouldn't have made any difference. Obviously you know best but if he really doesn't want it - it might be best to stick with breast milk for now and look at other ways of helping him sleep. It's just I remember getting myself and DS in a right state trying to get him to take the formula, and it wasn't fun at all

Hope tonight has been better for you so far