How do I stop 6 month old crying in sleep?

[pingulingo]

My ds is 6 months, never been a great sleeper but we now have a bedtime of 8.30 - 9pm and he sleeps until about 7.30am...

But he keeps crying in his sleep. Occasionally he will settle back to sleep in a few minutes so I try to wait before I go to him but before he ramps up. 90% of the time he eyes stay closed and I'm pretty sure he is not really awake.

When he doesn't self-settle I either pat him or have to pick him up and pat him back to sleep. I can't see any pattern in his crying, it's anything from a few times in the night to every 30mins until 2am and one last time about 4am.

The only thing I have found is that feeding him 7oz of milk will normally give me a 4 hour block, but I try to settle him first and resort to feeding if it doesn't work - usually about 2am. We have started weaning and I think he is getting enough in the day -He moved up centiles to 75th since Xmas.

We have a semi-routine, usually 2/3 naps of 45mins - 1 hour during the day. I know it's not a huge amount but he has never slept a lot.

Because he is crying in his sleep I'm not sure what to do or what is bothering him. I've tried varying room temp and last feed at night. We did have a prob with wind but giving him a bit more fruit / juice seems to hv fixed that and his constipation. Don't know what else to try & would be grateful for any suggestions - I got some good advice last time that did help move his bedtime to a more respectable time!

You said that he will go back to sleep after a bottle so maybe he is just hungry? Alot of babies start waking up again around this age. My DD is exactly the same. She used to sleep 11 every night but now also Wakes up crying (also with eyes closed) for a feed. Just a thought.

Or could it be teething?

What time are his naps pingulingo? That isn't a lot of day sleep for his age (average is around 3hrs) & his bedtime is actually quite late, so its my guess that the cries in his sleep are overtiredness. When my DS was younger & he was overtired he would often cry out & then immediately resettle, & it would happen most frequently in the first few hours after bedtime.

He's getting to an age where the 3rd nap is dropped & so you might find he sleeps better during the day & night if you work on establishing a good 2 nap routine with a much earlier bedtime (aiming for a 12hr day), so something more like:

Up: 6.30-7am
Nap: 9-10
Nap: 1-3
BT: 7pm

Of course, as PP says, it could also be partially related to teething. 6-9 months was a rough age for us.

What do you think?

I've tried calpol last thing at night which didnt seem to make a difference, although maybe it is teething - lots of drool and sometimes had red cheeks. But can it last 3 months? (You're going to tell me longer arent you :) )

That said, last night I had a 12-6am block of sleep... Am not going to tempt fate by making any comment on it though!

He does nap after being awake for 2-3 hours, so naps are roughly about 10.30am, 2pm and the 3rd nap doesnt always happen - it it does, then about 5pm. I've never been able to get him to take a dummy or resettle if the nap is too short, once he is awake that seems to be it.

We have moved his bedtime forward but an 8pm bedtime at the moment results in a DS that is wide awake at 5am and gets super grumpy by evening. But his bedtime is a lot better than the 11pm it was!

With regards to teething, I think you'd get the grizzliness during the day as well. It's not just a nighttime thing. But it can definitely affect their sleep, so you'll know better than anyone if it might be the teeth.

How long did you try moving bedtime to 8pm for? These changes can take a while to have any noticeable effect. The 5am wakeup could have been for any number of reasons and usually early wake ups are linked to overtiredness (not enough daytime sleep) or undertiredness (too much daytime sleep). It's often very difficult to know which one is to blame!

I agree with omama that he is not getting a huge amount of sleep over a 24hr period. 10.5 hours at night plus an average of 2 hours per day. That's 12.5 hours which is quite low for a 6 month old. I really think the regular waking is overtiredness. (Of course not all babies need a lot of sleep but those who are content on fewer hours will sleep well when they are asleep and be generally okay during the day).

I'm not sure how long it took to move his bedtime, he moved it to 9pm and I gradually moved it to 8ish, probably took just over a week to go from 9pm to 8pm.

I think it might be overtiredness. I'll have to try get some ideas from the sleep board on how to improve naps etc. he doesn't self settle and due to bad habits in the beginning he still has to be patted and rocked on my shoulder to sleep (he would only fall asleep upright thanks to a skull fracture and colic). He was feeding to sleep at bedtime but for the past week that has stopped working and is wide-awake!

I'm not sure how to make him nap better when the pram no longer works to get him to sleep and I don't have the car during the day. I try to put him down when he grizzles and then tap his back to get him off to sleep - but it doesn't always work!

Thanks for the suggestions and an idea of the routine you have got with a similar age baby, i'll try find some way of increasing his naps and reduce his overtiredness. Or failing that crack open the gin (for me!)