6mo won't sleep ever! we are slowly going crazy HELP!

[Nativitylobster]

Ds2 is about to turn 6mo and he doesn't sleep unless I drive him around or walk for miles with the pushchair (took an hours walk to get him to nod off today). If it's in the car he will wake as soon as I get him out. At night either me or dh will be up until 1 or 2 trying to get him to sleep. This has happened in the last 2 weeks (before that people told us we were blessed as he usually slept 10-7 every night. Lack of sleep is driving us crazy and making us snap at each other. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Hi there, just joined mumsnet this week. My DD will be 14 weeks tomorrow.
Had been reading this thread with a lot of interest as I'm having trouble with naps just now and the LO getting totally overtired during the day. Naps are a fight and only last 30 mins max, you could set your clock by them! Difficult (impossible) to get her back to sleep when she's awake and all this has a knock on effect for night sleeping. I've ordered the baby whisperer book and will see if there's anything that will help as had heard a lot of good things about it.
Just wanted to post to say hello to everyone and sympathies for the sleep deprived!

Well we started 4 hour feeds and shush-pat to sleep yday morning and last night he slept 9 til 2.15, fed then slept til 6am. I can't believe it! I think it was a fluke though as today he's screamed constantly. But I don't feel like dying as that's the most sleep I've had since his birth. Please God let us have a repeat tonight

How's it going, nativity?

hkt, how did the next night go? Did you have a repeat? Can I ask what feeding was like before, and how you moved onto a 4 hourly schedule?

Here, DD slept from 7.30 until 1, had a quick top up and then went through to 6.40 this morning, having had a little whimper at 6 but must have gone back to sleep. I genuinely can't believe it, but she's now in her cot having her first nap of the day. Since her cot is still in our bedroom, it means I'm in one of the spare rooms and my DH in the other , but we're both so shocked that were not even going to try to be clever just yet.

I have everything crossed that it's not a fluke, but that's the most peaceful night she's ever spent, so hopefully it's the start of a good new routine....

I've had 3 very different babies and what worked with all of them, regardless of what they were like before I did this (one was up 6-12 times every single night from birth) was to move them into their own room and get out immediately letting them have peace, quiet and their own space to learn to sleep. They will gripe a bit but unless it's full on crying don't go in. They need 10mins or so to settle themselves regardless and I promise you, they don't feel abandoned! All mine slept through and continue to do so (unless sick) from the second/third night of doing this. I now have 3 kids under 4 who go to bed and settle themselves waving me out the door because I never sat by their bed so they don't expect it. It's completely unnecessary and in my experience disruptive. My rule is to do whatever I want to get them to sleep/eat/whatever until it doesn't work for me/us/them/the family anymore but I'm not scared to implement a new rule and routine to break any habits I've allowed, many parents are (afraid baby/child will be upset or assume it will never work). So take an honest look at firstly what you want bedtime to look like each night, and implement the new plan without pandering or second guessing yourself. You'd be amazed how flexible and non-plussed kids actually are as long as you are consistent.

6months is tricky because they are only just coming into awareness but for that reason it's the perfect time to teach them how bedtime works.

People will say that parents of sleepers are just lucky but I can tell you for sure mine would still not be sleeping well if I had sat by their cots and/or gone into them at the first sign of crying through the night. If it's low level crying I listen on the monitor but 9 times out of 10 they stop witching 5 mins and go back, I actually think they were never awake but just going into a new sleep cycle so thank god I didn't go in and wake them up myself.