6MO wont sleep

[ArcticRain]

DD is 25 weeks, BF and still sleeps in our room .

During the day her naps are hit and miss . No schedule . She won't self settle . The only way I can get her to stay asleep is on me or the buggy .

At night we aim to get her down around 1930, but it can take an hour to get her off , generally I have to wait for her to fall asleep on me and transfer her into her basket .

She may stay asleep for 3 hours , and then feeds . From about 0100 she wakes every 1.5 - 2 hours . From around 0400 she refuses to sleep back in her basket and comes into our bed , but is extremely fidgety so I can't sleep . She wants to get up around 0600 - 0630 .

She physically fights her tiredness . She grabs at everything , kicks her legs around , her arms fly around and she arches her back .

When she wakes during the night I try to rub her back , but it often doesn't work, or I'm not doing it long enough . I end up feeding her , which means she just has short feeds little and often during the night and not long ones .

I'm still trying to get her down. She has had 30 mins nap since 1430 and keeps waking up every 5 minutes .

Any advise ? Fed up !

No, but if you substitute DS for DD you have my 6 month old described to a tee ( although he's in his cot in his room til 4am ish) so I feel your pain

That's what's going on here, exactly. 2hrs sleep at a time max and rubbish naps for the last 6 months. All I can do is empathise, it's effing annoying, I've come close to hitting him when it's over and over and over again in the night (have always put him down safely and gone elsewhere to cry) I hate breastfeeding now, and wish I'd never started. If I hadn't, other people would be able to help. They'd better be the healthiest most intelligent babies ever.
You're not alone!
Hopefully someone helpful will come along soon.

I think you need to tackle the naps in the day - I find my twins have to sleep a certain amount during the day or bedtime is a nightmare and it sounds like she could be over tired. At 6 months they had three naps a day totalling about 2 hours, sometimes 2 1/2. They won't nap in their cots (we're working on this!) But they do sleep in their bouncy chairs. I am a routine freak though so I guess it depends if you want to introduce a schedule or not?

Some days I don't think I should be driving because I don't feel with it . She has just gone down after I gave in and fed her for 2 mins . She has a dummy too but it doesn't work .

Wonder how long this goes on for .

Id like her to nap in the day , its just so hit and miss . If we have visitors , if my husband or stepsons are home ,or we're else where then she won't unless I go and sit on the bed with her.

Have you stolen my DD?

I know it's her naps plus she's had a massive growth spurt.

She's my second though so I'm not fussed about self settling yet.

She naps in her cot after I rock her to sleep - and put her on her tummy. She can nap up to 90 mins but hasn't recently.

I know her naps are up the creek but as she's bring dragged around taking her to things for her brother it's hard to impose a schedule. But if I could (and I'll be trying once she's on solids), it would be:

Wake 6/630
Nap 830 (45 mins)
Nap 1230 (90 mins)
Nap 3/330 (20 mins power nap)
Bedtime 630

But at the moment it's more like nap when she can.

I remember DS's sleep improved about 2 weeks into having solids although could have been coincidence (it went downhill again). But once he was down to three naps a day it became better, partly as he needed less day sleep

My 6 mo ds was a reasonably good napper (45mins self settled in cot) but awful at nightime (awake every 1-2 hours for dummy/cuddle/boob etc). When we put him in his own room, the nightime improved dramatically (only waking once or twice in 12 hours for food) but his naps have gone downhill (has to feed to sleep, fights it massively, takes ages to get him asleep and still only sleeps 45 mins).

So I guess I'm suggesting maybe put your lo in their own room and maybe they won't wake up so often? But let's face it as soon as one thing is sorted something else is bound to go to pot?!

This parenting malarky is bloomin hard!

Good luck!

I have to stay with ds while he naps, otherwise he only stays asleep 10mins. Sometimes I fall asleep, otherwise I catch up on recorded tv. Only just finished watching homeland.
He's starting solids in 2 weeks, and am hoping that will have a positive effect.
He stayed in bed with me last night as I couldn't get him transferred into his cot - he just wakes up instantly as he's put down and I gave up after five or six tries.
How was the rest of your night?

Total sympathy here, have 21 week dd who is exactly the same. Last night was first time I felt like crying. We're up every hour or two if I'm lucky through the night. She's rarely naps through the day, relies on boob to sleep, wakes herself up constantly by thrashing her arms and legs about and I'm at my wits end. I've just downloaded the no cry sleep solution by Elizabeth pantly so going to give that a go.

Ade, it was better . She went down around 2100, fed 0000. Up 0230 for dummy , fed 0430, bed with us at 0530, up at 0630. I made an effort not to fed at 0230, so she went over 4 hours without milk , so I know she can do it .

You ? On sofa at moment while she naps . Bit bored ! Think I may invest in a kindle .

Tree , let me know how it goes !

Not much progress so far! She's had one 20 min nap in her cot still full of beans. I used to let her sleep on me on the boob but the book says to remove gently before they are asleep completely and put them down. Theory is is that they go to sleep without the boob. I will keep trying and keep you posted.

That sounds good arctic! We went 7.30 - midnight in an unheard of stretch of sleep, fed then slept til 3, fed again but woke again at 4 and at 4.15 I brought him into our bed where, in another unheard of stretch, he slept until 8.20!!

So, all in all I was only up feeding 3 times

Still, good for us :)