6 month sleep regression?!

[ijustneedasleep]

Can anyone please help me, I'm on the brink of a breakdown here.
DS is 6 months old today, he's always been a terrible sleeper, fights naps during the day, then always unsettled at night but recently it's been a nightmare and I'm not coping anymore.
He goes down at about 8pm and will sleep fine until 11, from then he wakes up constantly during the night needing resettled/ dummy put in/sheep put back on etc. Sometimes he goes back over fine but other times he lies there chatting and blowing raspberries and it happens every 20/30 minutes until he wakes up for good at about 5:30 😞 this has been going on for about 10 days and I'm exhausted and it's making my post natal depression so much worse. I'm constantly fighting suicidal thoughts and I'm truly too tired anymore. Can anyone help? I've tried changing the temperature/feeding him more/changing time of bedtime and nothing has helped
I don't know how to do this

I'm so sorry to hear that you are going through this 💔
Is it safe for you to co sleep? Co sleeping is saving my sanity with my dd if she wakes up I just put my boob in her mouth and fall asleep with her till the next time. Knowing she will get boob immediately has actually improved her sleep time. Can you also sleep 8pm-11pm too?
Sending a lot of sympathy

Awwwwwww 😢 That sounds awful! My little boy is 6 months too. He's also a poor sleeper, he'll wake anywhere between every half hour up to 2hrs all night. 2hrs and I'm thrilled 😂
How do you feed him? Bottle or breast & Have you started weaning?
I've been researching sleep constantly and have found that getting daytime naps right has helped a lot, an overtired baby is an awful baby! So I set my alarm for 7everyday to help get him in a routine. At 6 months we've found a morning & afternoon nap of about 1.5hrs each, and a short 30min nap later about 4.30 is perfect for naps, we then aim for bedtime about 7-7.30.
A good bedtime routine of bath and story, a blackout blind and PINK Noise (all night!!!) are invaluable. - research babies sleep associations!

I'd ask your partner to do a night shift over a weekend. Go into a spare room and ask partner to do all the night feeds. It's only happened once in our house but sounds it's just what you need.

If that's not an option then I'd also second co-sleeping if your breastfeeding and able to follow the safe seven.
I nap during the day too when baby naps as I'm so tired and it helps. A walk outside in the afternoon might boost your mood and help set babies day/night rhythm.
I'd also give the health visitors a ring and ask them for some advice - please also tell them about the thoughts. Sleep deprivation is the worst thing, it's like torture.

Hope that helps! Keep me posted as I'm also desperately trying to get my little one to sleep more xxx

Remember you're not in this alone 😘 and you sound like you're doing a fab job! Xxxxx

Feel your pain. My baby is also 6 months, it’s 2.30am he’s been awake 4 times since going down at 7.15, with 3 feeds and spent the last 1.5hrs crying, picking up, settling, put in crib, crying etc etc it’s exhausting

My baby is the same age and sleeping in the same way. She's apparently currently going through a developmental leap where this sort of sleep issue is common according to the Wonderweeks app and other people's anecdotes about their babies at this age. I switch between believe in wonderweeks and finding it to not be accurate.
She was sleeping bang on 43 minutes a nap during the day, but now that she's almost 6 months it has dropped back to 20-30 minutes, nothing I have tried fixes it. I've just had to accept this is how it is going to be for a while. She has always woken about 6-7 times a night with the exception of a few good days which I count as 2-3 wake ups. It can be so disheartening when other babies are starting to sleep through and napping properly etc but there's nothing you can really do, you can't swap who your baby is.
Do try and seek help for you suicidal thoughts, I have dipped down into some dark depressive places dealing with how hard this all is so I feel your pain and hope your little ones sleep improves soon.

My LO is 6 months old and for around 2 months was waking every 1 to 2 hours from 11pm which was awful.

Thr last week he has been sleeping from 7.30pm ish to 7am ish with just 1 or 2 wake ups. It is too early to say this is a permanent change but we made a lot of changes to his routine the week which may have helped:

1. He moved to his own room, previously was cosleeping with me. He has white noise on in there. I think he sleeps better without me as the light from my phone may have been disturbing him.

1. I do the bedtime routine but at the end my husband puts him down awake. I was previously breastfeeding him before putting him down.

1. He is having a lot more solids during the day. I started weaning at 5.5 months and he eats lots now - porridge for breakfast, toast and veg for lunch, veg for dinner plus lots of breastfeeds

1. I cut his naps from 5 to 3 during the day and they have lenghtened. I am trying to do naps at around 9am, 12pm and 3pm but it doesn't always work. Sometimes he needs a short nap at 5pm ish and I push back his bedtime to 8pm.

I hope sleep starts to improve for you too. If your LO is happy when he wakes during the night I would leave him to try to settle himself. I found this a lot easier when mine was in his own room. I adjusted the baby monitor to only pick up any crying and I sleep through any chatter or stirring.
Also rather than give him a sheep that needs turning back on could you try a white noise machine that will stay on constantly plus a comforter?

Hi OP. I hope you are OK, it does sound very very hard. I am sure there is a helpline called PANDAS (0808 1961 776) it's free and they will have also for sure some advice on how to make the baby sleep a bit more.

I agree with the above, co-sleeping helps me too (when he wakes up every 2 hours the morning wake-ups I just let him sleep on our bed and he seems happier/sleeps longer). It's not great sleep for me, but its better than him being up and chatting babbling away at 4:30am with eyes wide open and happy to roll on through the day.

Some things you can try (although I am a newbie and have close to zero experience):

• white noise
• bottle (if BF) maybe he can get more food in and will sleep longer?

Also not sure how he spends his day. I found that keeping the baby entertained during the day (but not at home, more like taking him places so he has things to look at, listen to, process) makes him sleep better at night (by better I mean he sleeps for 2 hours, eats and sleeps on - all night so till about 6-7am).

I hope you get some help, it's hard work being a mum and you are doing a great job.

Sorry it's taken so long to reply, but thank you for all your messages and support. It is hard and I think I do expect too much of myself sometimes so even just a wee word of encouragement means a lot

He is bottle fed, and we've tried co sleeping but when we take him in bedside us he just kicks up a fuss, he's not a particularly cuddly baby so I guess maybe he just prefers his own space.
I've thought about getting continuous white noise, or one that starts when it detects the baby waking so I'll look into that more.

We did have an easier night last night actually after raising the head of the next to me, still up a bit and woke up for good at 4:45 but it did help, so hopefully we're on our way to cracking it.

Again though, thank you for your messages, they've definitely made me feel less alone ❤️

Thought I'd update this incase anyone was looking in future!
We put him straight into his big cot in his own room last week and it's been amazing.
Sleeps right through from 8-6ish, it was 7 for a few days which was amazing but I can cope with 6 when I've had a better sleep 😊

I had Intense guilt at first because I enjoyed having our bedroom back but it's getting better now!