6 1/2 month old does not Sleep!!!

[Marchbabies2]

I am absolutely losing my mind. My little boy wakes up anywhere from every 30 minutes to every hour of the night.
I am absolutely exhausted and have a 19 month old too.
He gets up for the day anywhere between 4am and 5am... 5am been a very good day and goes to bed at 6pm... not my choice but he just cannot stay awake and has been the same since 3mo. To be quite honest I'm happy with this as he's exceptionally difficult in an evening.
He has been like this from birth and is difficult most of the day too and always has been.
I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice whatsoever. TIA.

Are you saying he doesn’t sleep in the day??! If so he is overtired which can cause that
Also have you tried co sleeping?

His naps are so hit and miss. I have tried EVERYTHING to get him to nap consistently but am at an absolute loss.
I try to put him down 2 hours after waking and he will sometimes sleep for nearly 2 hours but then will barely nap in the afternoon so is ridiculously over tired.
I've tried waking him after 30 minutes but it still makes no difference to his afternoon sleep.
The strange thing is he goes down awake for both bed and his first nap but wake ups and other naps he just fights.
I daren't co sleep as I am occasionally up with my 19 month old and I couldn't leave him in my bed to see to her if that makes sense as he's almost crawling and commando crawls everywhere.
His sleep did improve for about 2 weeks and all of a sudden he has regressed again.

Sounds like DS. Before he was born would wake me up at 4.30am and he woke that time every morning for years.

Is he hungry, is it noisy/light etc? Could toyr toddler be waking him up?

Have you tried cosleeping?

Does he eat well? Have you started weaning him yet?

I can cope with the early mornings it's just the constant night wake ups that are killing me.
He weaned early at 20 weeks and now has 3 good meals a day so I don't think it's hunger. I usually end up giving him 4oz in the night because I don't know what else to do but it only buys me an hour.
My toddler is usually a fab sleeper just occasional wake ups when ill or teething and I have white noise on for him and blackout curtains.
I eventually put him in bed with me at 3.20 this morning and he got up for the day at 4.50. Then had a 30 minute nap at 6.30... it was either nap or scream.
I have no idea what to do with his naps for the rest of the day.
Sorry for the long reply.

Hi

I have a six and a half month old too. His sleep is very variable - sometimes like you say and other times wakes just 3 times a night (1 feed 2 dummy replacements!). Is your little boy crying when he wakes? If mine isn't crying out and just shuffling around I leave him be although I am then awake!

I'm struggling with day sleeps too but have worked out he calms down and will sleep in the pram. So now after every 2 hours awake I go out with the pram - it's dull and my toddler is being dragged out all the time but it's easier than dealing with the overtired and cot nap battles!

I'm hoping six months is a hard age and things will settle down. When did your first sleep through? Mine was 14 months so I'm not going back to work yet.

Just wanted to sympathise as I'm finding it hard too but am just keeping going!! X

:)

With a young toddler and a baby, have you thought about putting baby into a s bouncy chair and just keep bouncing to get him to sleep? It means you can do that while also being with the toddler.

Yes that's exactly the same here. Last week we had about 3 nights of only 2 wake ups.
He sort of whinges at first and I leave him a couple of minutes but if he carries on I pop in to put his dummy in.
I do feel like his biggest problem is over tiredness but I just don't know how to fix it.

I've just done exactly that this morning. At 9am I popped them in the pram and he napped 9.20 to 10. It's sometimes easier than battling at home isn't it.

My first was a very different baby. She's such a happy little girl, very rarely cries and has slept through from around 10 weeks. She never napped well but it wasn't really w problem as she didn't get crabby and slept well at night.

He is too big for his bouncer 🙈. He was 9lb7 at birth and is around 23lb now. He is huge haha.

Hello OP!

Has he gone into a full-sized cot yet? I started struggling with my daughter's sleep at around this time, and it basically turned out that she was throwing her arms out or trying to roll over and banging into the sides of her half-crib and waking herself up.

Hi
Yes he's I a big cot in his own room now.
Yesterday he napped 6.20-7 9.20-10 and 1-1.50... He then had a cat nap at 3.40-4.
He only woke up 3 times which is good for him and actually got up for the day at 5.30.
I really don't know what to do with his naps though today. He napped at 7.45 and is just waking up at 8.45.

False alarm he's gone back over 🙈.

I have heard that you should restrict morning sleep to 1 hour but he gets up at the latest 5.30 so surely he will need more than that in a morning.
I am at a loss.