6 month old - sort naps first or bedtime?

[Narya]

Im aware people have much worse sleep issues to contend with, but bear with me...

DS is 6 months and his sleep is a bit all over the place (not a regression as such, it hasnt been significantly better than this since he was tiny)

His night sleeping is not too bad, he goes to sleep 9-9.30 pm till about 7 am, waking 1-2 times to feed. He has resisted all attempts to get him down any earlier.

Naps are a nightmare, he can be awake in the day for hours on end (7 am - 2 pm is not unheard of) , he probably only get 1-2 naps and the timings are wildly inconsistent. They probably total about 1.5 hours of napping.

Thing is, he is very alert and rarely gets grumpy with tiredness, but I'm getting nothing done in the day. I also feel like this probably isn't enough sleep in total.

He will only settle by feeding to sleep, or in the car, but I don't have access to the car everyday so can't rely on it as a settling technique.

In a perfect world I'd like a bit of predictability on the napping (and a little bit more of it) and a slightly earlier bedtime for DS. If I put him in his cot awake, he doesn't really cry, but neither does he show any interest in dropping off to sleep. He is seemingly immune to music, white noise, shushing, patting, rocking etc.

Where do I start, wise MN?? Or is this a 'suck it up' situation at this stage?

Bump

I would tackle the going to sleep without a feed first. Ds1 was an absolute nightmare sleeper and it took a great deal of determination to teach him to go to sleep by himself. We bought the book ‘teach your child to sleep’. It had a suggested routine and some suggestions for strategies to tackle the getting to sleep and staying asleep. We chose the gradual withdrawal/ gradual retreat methods. We were not keen on letting him cry alone and I did not want to night wean so we did the strategy for a slightly younger child. This involved sitting with him on our laps rocking and singing until he slept - at first he was not impressed but we persevered and eventually he accepted this. Over time we gave him less support to go to sleep. At night we gradually extended the time between feeds but he was only sleeping for 1-2hours so that was essential!

Thanks - that make a lot of sense as if he wasn't feeding to sleep then both bedtime and naptime could get a bit easier.
for surviving 1-2 hour night wakings!

Hey op

Just wanted to throw it out there, Your not alone! My lb is the same, so alert and I found could go hours and hours without sleeping! I was really stressing! Although his general night time is 7pm to 6am... I could be up every hour as he is unsettled looking a dummy... this happened last night so I’m a zombie today. Although he has a pattern of 3 naps per day these can vary from 30 mins to 3 hours and I never know which it is going to be. For naps I have had to let him cry it out sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t!
I even stupidly paid for the little ones program but it was useless as he has his own routines lol!
If you get the magic solution please please pass it on!!! Xx

Thanks Springflower, nice to know I'm not alone, I keep reading and hearing about all these babies that only have a 2 hour 'awake time' between naps, DS frequently goes 4 or 5 hours without even looking drowsy. He almost never has 3 naps, either one longish one or maybe 2 naps some days. I'm trying to write down when he sleeps in the vague hope that there's a pattern I can work with!

My 6 month old DS has absolutely no sleep routine! He can sleep through the night (no night feeds for a couple of weeks) but sometimes he chooses not to. Often he will have a little whinge then go back to sleep. Other times he will scream at me for hours on end, like last night.

Naps are totally unpredictable. Sometimes he will be ready for a nap an hour after waking, other times 3hrs later. Sometimes he will nap for hours on end, but usually around 30-45 minutes. Some days he will nap twice, other days five times. He does not nap at all if I leave the house.

I feel your pain.

By 'if I leave the house', I mean we, obviously.

I ended up getting a sleep consultant when DD was 11 Months and I was back at work trying to get by on four hours sleep a night! She was never a good mapper but consultant said get bedtime sorted and everything else will fall into place...and she was right! Naps are now long and regular, and I'm getting more never enough! sleep.
Good luck, it will improve it just takes time!

Hi DoZy,

What did they mean by bed time sorted?

Narya does your lo sleep in his own room or still with you??

I'm a single mum with 2 under 3 and found with both of them that getting naps sorted helped with bedtime. Apparently the more sleep they get the more they want. I'd try getting your baby down for one big nap in the middle of the day, say 11-1.30 ish. You'll likely be able to get him down easier and earliet at night if he's tired but not exhausted.

My LO now has a jumperoo which she loves! It tires her out then i put her down for a nap.

Even without that, i put her in her cot with dummy and blanket (our routine) and she settles herself

Thanks once again for responses, all really helpful.

@Springflower3, DS is in a cot in his own room as of about 3 weeks ago. Hasn't made any noticeable difference to his sleep pattern. He won't settle in there if I put him down awake, but then he never did in the bedside crib in our room either.

We have a jumperoo as well, DS did once doze off in it

Springflower we were in a pattern of DD falling asleep on me (even after weaning on to bottles) and therefore every time she woke at night she needed me to fall back asleep. As all the baby ok tell you, baby needs to learn how to fall asleep on her own so that when they wake in the night they can settle themselves back to sleep.
We had to break the cycle so on the consultants advice DH took over bedtime. After a week and r two she was falling asleep on her own and starting to sleep through the night. After a month or so of that her naps also fell into more of a routine and by about three months later she was doing solid two hour naps.