6 month old naptimes

[alexis255]

I'm a single mum with ME/CFS. I adore my DS (6 months) but he has been quite a challenging baby (had colic all day from birth-3 months, acid reflux, eczema, barely slept for 2 months, etc) to the point of making me ill (migraines 4 times a week, nausea, fainting, etc).

Thankfully I've now got him in a good routine but naps are still a challenge, so I was looking for some advice.

Here's his routine:

4am-7am: Wakes several times, give him a dummy and try to get him back to sleep. Doesn't always work.
6.30/7.00 Feed
7.30 Play (45m)
8.15 Nap (1hr 45m)
10.00 Carry him while doing chores
10.30 Feed (45m)
11.15 Play (45m)
12.00 Nap (1hr 45m)
1.45 Carry him around doing chores
2.15 Feed (45m)
3.00 Play (45m)
3.45 Nap (1hr)
4.45 Bathtime
5.15 Feed (45m)
6.00 Stories and get ready for bed
6.45 6oz bottle of EBM (won't sleep without it)
7.00 Bed
Wakes frequently in the night if teething but sometimes sleeps through.

The problem is he hardly ever sleeps for the whole of his nap times and ends up crying lots. I go in and try to settle him at set periods (timed comforting) but it rarely helps. Giving him a dummy when he wakes helps him go back to sleep sometimes but other times he just loses it continutally and then cries because he wants it back.

I know the naps they are long for his age but he will only stay awake for 45 mins after a feed (hence why I have to try and keep him occupied a bit before the feed to lengthen the wake time) and the current 2 hrs wake time is stretch for him. Any longer and he becomes really unhappy.

I've tried splitting the morning nap so he has two short naps with a bit of playtime in between but he just gets really angry and screams for the whole of the second nap.

I don't know whether I should try feeding him when he wakes and then again just before the nap. He seems to sleep better with a full tummy. He always wants to feed and will go for 1hr 30m if I let him. I end up stopping him after 45m but maybe that's not enough and he's partly waking because he's hungry?

He's also a really light sleeper to the point where even opening the front door wakes him and I've had to move into the room next door. I'm worried when he starts nursery he just won't sleep there so I'm thinking of having a radio on low volume in the room and see if he gets used to it.

Any suggestions?

I take it you bf? his feeds sound very long for that age. has he been checked for tongue tie? is he gaining weight well? is it you that says the naps are 1hr45 or him?

PS you're doing amazingly. My brother has ME I know how tough it is x

Thanks for the reply.

The midwives said he has slight tongue tie. I wanted to treat it but they said there was no point because he was gaining weight well (in 9-12 month clothing at 6 months) and they didn't think it was bad enough to effect him. Even though I explained that feeding times are difficult they just made me feel bad for wanting it done and sent me away. Now I don't know if its too late.

The naptimes in my precious post are what I aim for but he rarely sleeps for that long. Then, because he's woken early, he finds it hard to stay awake long enough for the next nap. He starts to get overtired and unhappy if I don't put him down a bit early for his next nap.

Ideally his morning and afternoon naps should be shorter and have a 2 hour one around midday but he just can't stay awake for long enough between naps so they end up having to be fairly long

so if he's not asleep that whole nap time his wake time could be quite long. you could try leaving 2 hours from whenever he woke, which'd probably mean 4 naps a day. my dd did short naps and we were on 4 until v recently. she's 7m. it sounds stressful truing to resettle him for 2 huge naps a day.

alternatively you could cut the first nap to an hour, then awake time 2 hours, and the second nap might lengthen. that worked for us.

is he on solids yet? that'll reduce his milk feeds and hopefully you won't have to spend half the day feeding! that must be tough, my dd feeds in less than 10 mins so the opposite end of the scale...

I've tried some baby food but he just pushes it out of his mouth atm. Not sure if he's ready.

I'll see if I can rearrange his naps so he has 3 short ones and the long midday one. The only problem is he gets really unhappy (and won't sleep for the next nap) if you don't feed him when he wakes up, so might have to add another feed if there's another nap.

What length of time were your short naps?

30 minute naps, 2 hours awake. vvv annoying!
stick with the weaning I think that's normal with the tongue. dd did that for about 2 weeks

I had no feeding schedule just fed on demand