6 month old sleep fun (not so fun)

[dan220282]

Help pls fellow moms. Our little boy has been absolutely golden at everything until a few weeks ago. He goes to bed religiously and has done since 8 weeks at 7pm. Wakes for his bottle around 2am then goes back to sleep about half 6/7. He also has 3 naps during the day short morning one, and hour at lunchtime then a bit nap from about 2-4. We then have a routine of bath, cuddles, bottle, bed. He's now took it upon himself to decide he hardly has to sleep during the day ( yesterday he had 90 minutes all day) and wakes 5am and wont go back off. My fiancee is like a walking zombie when i come home from work and im just a little worried about her health and wellbeing. He's also teething, trying to crawl and is generally into everything. Which is also exhausting for her. Im sure this all sounds perfectly normal to lots of you but as first time parents...we are struggling a bit.

Thanks for any help in advance

Hi dan - unfortunately it does sound pretty normal! There will be lots of people that will tell you you're both quite lucky as your little boy is sleeping relatively well still! 6 months is a key age for developmental leaps and you've mentioned also he is trying to crawl, which probably has played a part in his reduction in sleep. They do also tend to drop from 3 naps to 2 around this age so it may be that he starts having a 45/60 minute morning nap and a 60/90 minute afternoon nap. Does he sleep through at night? What time does he go to bed? Is he teething?

Just continue to support your fiancée as best you can. It will probably settle down again soon!

Hi! Thankyou for your reply. He still wakes for one bottle as he is only just going onto solids. Goes to bed at half 6/7. We tried keeping hin awake but he gets cranky. Two little teeth came through last week. I guessed it would all sound normal. She's just exhausted. And i feel bad for going to work. But i know thetes not much we can do but try and ride it out. He's a little monkey.

My daughter has just turned 6 months and has really changed in the last few weeks. She finds everything really exciting and wants to play all the time and seems to go longer between naps. She’s never been a good sleeper at night but we are down to one wake up and no feeding. Weaning for the last 2 weeks has really helped with this, alongside lots of activity and stimulation to tire her out. I find the more she rolls around on the floor and plays, the longer and better she’ll sleep. That combined with lots of fresh air and solid food has really helped us. Also we now read to her at bedtime which seems to really help her to unwind to sleep. sounds like he’s been exceptionally good at sleeping up until now so I’m sure it’s just a phase or growth spurt, and won’t last long. When he wakes up is he just grumbling or really crying? He may be hungry, which weaning should resolve. Or if he’s just wanting attention and grumbling, go in and check all is ok, but leave lights out etc. Then put him back in his cot until his usual wake up time when you open curtains etc to make it clear that it’s now morning and time to wake up. He’ll prob fall back to sleep after a few mins of complaining, as long as he isn’t hungry, or his nappy needs changing etc.

All
Sounds normal to me! I’d say you’re lucky he ever slept that well!

Loads of developmental stuff going on here. It’s really normal but rough, best thing is to do whatever works to get through but for you AND for baby and come out the other side - good luck x