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6 month old messy routine and disturbed sleep

3 replies

Arianna1 · 11/11/2018 19:00

My 6.5 month old son has always been a disturbed sleeper, never slept through yet. I’m trying to establish a routine but don’t know how to do it. Firstly, different books say different things about the amount of daily sleep a baby should have at this age ; and the night bedtime - some day 7pm, some say it’s 10 pm.. so which one is it? My son wakes around 5-6.30am, then for a nap every 1.5 -2.5h, naps are never more than 1.5h each. At lunch napnhe religiously wakes up after 30 min and it takes me a lot of effort to make him sleep for longer because books say a 2h lunch nap is critically important. Then he falls asleep around 7-7.30pm and wakes frequently from 10-11pm onwards; or moves around a lot so I feel pity that he’s not resting and end up helping him to fall asleep ; other than that it’s bf to sleep but this brings an issue or my breasts becoming overfull with milk at night due to too much sucking.
The routine and bad sleep has gone worse since past 3 months
So my questions are:

  • what’s the right amount of daytime sleep at this age if there is such thing
  • what’s the optimum bedtime if there is such thing
  • how long naps should be ideally
  • why is he waking after 30 min only during his lunch nap and how to make him sleep for 2h st lunch
  • why is he waking frequently at night after first 2-4h of sleep
  • how to tackle 5am wake

Any tips, advice, experience on any of the above would be highly appreciated

OP posts:
mossyroundhill · 11/11/2018 19:12

At 6 months DD was having three naps a day of about an hour each. One at around 9am, one after lunch and one at around 4:30. Bed was at 6:30/7.
Can he stay up a bit longer between naps? Maybe this is why he's not sleeping so long at night?
DD did have a few months of waking up at 5 and I just went with it until she got bigger, dropped a nap and started sleeping longer at night.

Arianna1 · 11/11/2018 19:18

He can’t stay awake for more than 2.5 h, he just gets tired, cranky and so there’s no way I could extend it, for now

OP posts:
0310Star · 12/11/2018 05:27

I think you're massively over thinking it (I did the same, don't worry!) my baby is 16 weeks but has been in a routine since 5 weeks to which I followed my friends who all have good sleepers.

She needs a lot of sleep it seems so naps every 1.5- 2 hours or so, but those naps vary in time and I never force them to last longer. As soon as she shows any tired signs I rock her to nap, and the nap may last 2 hours or 20 minutes, it really varies! The only nap that is an absolute must I have found is the 2 hours after waking nap, if this doesn't happen then it ruins the routine for the whole day!

Bedtime routine is- bath at 5.30, bed at about 6, one feed in the middle of the night and then up at 5-6 (although the clock change and 4 month regression has turned it to 4am! 🤦‍♀️ so may try moving bedtime to 7 and see if that helps) she was sleeping through from about 8 weeks but again the regression has scuppered this a bit. We've never once caved, at times it's been hard with her up constantly for a few weeks but we've never removed her from our room when this happens and the routine has always stayed the same no matter what. I really do believe that consistency is key!

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