Help me find a better routine for my 6mo! Please

[RedPandaMama]

The last month we've regressed to constant night feeds and wriggliness and crying with teething. Please help me come up with a better routine for my 6 month old DD - I got 2 hours sleep last night. She's EBF.

Yesterday looked like this:-
08.30 wake up (in our bed, I brought her in about 2am as she was constantly crying in her room)
08.45 nappy change, get dressed, play on bedroom floor while I get ready
09.30 play together, sing songs, read a book etc.
10.30 feed in our bed, nap
11.15 wake up, cuddle in bed
11.30 go downstairs, I have some cheese and crackers and she has some cracker
12.00 watch some kids TV on netflix while sat in high chair with toys and snacks (rusk, cheese, bread)
12.40 jumperoo while I do some housework
13.00 take upstairs for nappy change, calpol (for teething), play with toys briefly
13.15 put down for nap
16.30 wake up from nap (unusual that she sleeps so long but her naps are all over the place)
17.00 play downstairs
17.30 evening 'meal' - big bowl of pureed veg
18.00 DP home so she has cuddles with dad and plays with him for a bit
18.30 feed and play
20.30 DP does bedtime - nappy change, calpol and teething gel, into sleepsuit and sleeping bag, story, rocked to sleep then placed in cot
21.00 wakes up, cries, feed back to sleep
21.30 wakes up again, DP rocks back to sleep
01.40 wakes up screaming, feed, cuddle, rock back to sleep, placed down, wakes up immediately, hide down side of cot with hand on her chest, cries, feed again, repeat process - no luck
03.45 give up and take her into our bed where she feeds on and off for the remainder of the night, cries and whimpers constantly, scratches my chest and I don't get a wink of sleep. Got up properly at 10am today.

Please help. Sorry this is so long but I just don't know what to do, there's so much conflicting information online! Be nice to me, I've not done this before.

I'm thinking maybe:-

• 3 shorter naps instead of 2
• earlier bedtime
• snacks throughout the day instead of a couple of bits and one 'meal' later in the evening

For reference she won't take a dummy, is a complete bottle and formula refuser (that's why DP does bedtime as I do all the night feeds).

Sorry I'm used to saying EBF - she's breastfed and also has one meal a day now with a couple of snacks.

My 6 month old was on 3 naps a day..and could only manage 2.5 awake time max your little one is going 4 hours from nap to bed. I’d definitely look at an earlier bed. His sleep schedule then was
7 wake (I woke him up if not awake )
9-9.45 sleep (again I woke him up after 45 months
12-1.45 sleep
4-4.30 nap
6.30/7 asleep

Might be worth a try? I did find I had to limit naps at this age to make sure it didn’t go above 3 hours total or 2 hours any one nap. Honestly an earlier bedtime made all the difference to us; later it was the worse the night waking.

That's so helpful thank you! I'll start making sure her naps are shorter and bedtime is earlier!

I can only see a couple of breastfeeds in the day, is that right? She might be making up for them at night.

Why aren't you giving her more food? Any medical reasons?

I'd be giving her breakfast once you are ready in the morning.

Lunch at a normal time too

Dinner- she's doesn't need purée and you could up her calories by adding meat, etc to her diet.

Will possibly help with waking up at night, she could well be hungry. Also ibuprofen is sometimes better than paracetamol for teething.

Marcine pretty much. I do try to BF her more but she's less interested now we've introduced food and doesn't seem hungry. She snacks all morning until she gets up properly, then usually has 2 during the day about 4 hours apart, then one an hour after she's gone to bed.

IfYouDontImagine no medical reasons, I'll start giving her more. The info I read on it (I think a free Cow and Gate info pack) said to start on one meal and introduce more per day, but I guess that's them trying to sell their puree pots. We do do BLW with snacks and she seems to enjoy it but doesn't actually get much food in her, most of it ends up on the floor or round her face so I give her the puree so I at least know she's eaten something substantial. I can try giving her more of our meals but it's difficult as we tend to batch cook and eat things like curries. I could make her a separate portion though!

Thanks for all your advice x

I think an early bedtime would definitely help, maybe also some finger foods before bed so she's full when she goes to sleep. Also her last nap time seems very long, I know you say she doesn't normally sleep that long but I had the same problem with dd, she used to sleep from 1 - 4.30 which was fine until she got to around 6-7 months and she stopped sleeping at night. I kept her awake until 1.30 and woke her up at 3.30 if not already awake then at 6ish we started evening routine of bath story bottle and bed and she was asleep by 7 and slept much better.

Sorry I just re read that you dd is breast fed. Mine was formula fed so it may be slightly different! Have no experience with breast feeding. Hope it gets better for you xx

Mine is a bit younger than yours but by 6 months I am aiming for
Bf at 6.30/7am
Breakfast at 8am
Nap 9am
Bf 10. 30am
Lunch 12pm
Nap 12.30
Bf 2.30pm
Catnap 4pm
Tea at 5pm
Bf 6.30pm
Bed at 7pm
Bottle 10.30pm

Just wanted to say thank you for the advice and things are going much better. Such a huge difference in such a short amount of time!

She didn't sleep through last night but only had one feed which has never happened before!
Gave her her evening meal at 6pm, bed at 7pm, woke up at 8 and was awake until 9.30pm then full BF, cuddle and put down drowsy but awake. She cried on and off for 20 minutes and then slept til 2am. Cried and wanted feeding but I cuddled her and rocked her for about 20 minutes and she went back to sleep, all the way through until 8.15am! Amazing. Although she was SO quiet I kept waking up to see if she was alright.

Have you done anything different during the day? Ds is 6.5mo and is sleep averse 😬

He’ll wake 6-7am, have 2/3 30-40min naps and in bed zonked by 5pm. Have introduced a bottle at lunch and bed time, but wants a bf every 2 hours during the day, and every 2-3 during the night 😴