6 month old is just a rubbish sleeper

[iamelectrogirl]

My 6 month old DS really is a rubbish sleeper and I'm just too tired to parent the way I want to. He was never exactly good (has never slept through) but he's even worse now than he was at two or three months old.
-He will ONLY feed to sleep, though other people have managed to rock him to sleep. I'm a single parent though so I'm the only person who is there to put him down etc!
-He will go down but wake up ten minutes later for seemingly no reason, then I have to start the whole process again
-He will only sleep for a stretch longer than an hour if we cosleep in my bed, rather than him sleeping in his cosleeper cot
-He wakes up roughly four or five times a night and has to feed back to sleep

I'm happy to admit that some of this is my fault because I've created bad sleep associations but he's always been a bad sleeper. Even now, he will only sleep for the combined total of about 90 minutes in the daytime, though he does settle himself downstairs. Due to lack of space, we have to co sleep but I'm happy with this, I just need him to actually sleep!
Any advice, wise ladies of mumsnet?

What happens differently when he is downstairs and sleeps?

He's given a blanket to hold (not always the same one) and bounced slightly in his chair, usually while I eat lunch etc next to him

I assume he has a blanket to hold at night too?

Have you ever tried a dummy? Useful for babies who like to feed (suckle) to sleep.

If he is in a bouncer to sleep, could you get him more daytime naps that way? Could you put him in the bouncer to sleep much more frequently - say after 2 hours awake? And could you bounce back to sleep as soon as he stirs?

I suspect over-tiredness through not enough daytime sleep is your problem and is causing disturbed nights. At this age you want to be looking for 3-4 hours of daytime naps.

You need to be careful using the bouncer at this age, I would normally have started putting the bouncer away at 6 to 7 months old. But it is useful as a way to establish naps and lengthen naps. You should not leave unattended though because of the risk of baby tipping it over now.

I think overtiredness does place a big part in his sleep trouble- he probably sleeps every two hours during the day already but only for about twenty minutes at a time and he's been the same since he was a week or so old. It's an ongoing joke with my family that he only does cat naps!

He sleeps for longer in the daytime if I take him up to bed and let him nap next to me but I don't think that's helping the issue!

Cat naps are not unusual in the first 6 months, so don't beat yourself up. Pretty normal to have short, frequent naps. Soon the transition happens to fewer, longer naps.

In order to get there you could try lengthening his daytime naps as much as possible. Co-sleeping naps helps with this. Or bouncing back to sleep in his bouncer.

You say daytime co-sleeping isn't helping. I disagree. Once you have established longer daytime naps and more daytime sleep, he will be better able to maintain that himself. The trouble at the moment is that he hasn't established that.

Bouncy chair and co-sleeping in the daytime are great ways to teach baby to sleep through sleep cycles and for longer periods of time. Once established, he'll be able to maintain this himself. You just need to help him establish it.

Please don't feel you've created bad sleep associations. A good parent reads her child's needs and preferences and works with them. It's exhausting now but it won't always be like this.

Not sure if this will help, when. Y youngest was about 4 months old, he started bathing with his brother before bedtimes, & I use Radox sleep easy bubble bath for my 2 year old, since that first day of using it my youngest slept all night, so now every night without fail they both get bathed in the radox stuff & both have a decent sleep! My youngest is now 1 & sleeps 7pm till 7am (unless unwell) and that even with a nap or 2 during the day, & has done for months now, I swear by the stuff!!,
So I highly recommend baths with radox sleep easy for anyone having bother. I hope this helps & hope u both get a good sleep soon!

My dd was the same with naps till about two weeks ago. I started sleeping with her during the day and she slept for longer. Also the first grumble, eye rub or yawn I'm up and off to her bed!

Nights are hard. Do you have a bedtime routine? I've found that's helped.do you have someone who may have him for the night so you can see if he just wakes for you? I did that and have moved her into her own room. She sleeps much better now. I feel for you it's exhausting and you have no fight in you to try change it. You'll get there. It's still quite young