What am i doing wrong?

[rosielrh2]

My ds is 6.5months old and is an awful nighttime sleeper and always has been. I don’t think he’s ever slept longer than 3 hours.
He weirdly is an AMAZING napper. 3 a day, perfectly spaced out, in his cot if we’re at home but can also put himself to sleep if we’re out and it’s the right time. I didn’t push any of this-it just happened!
At night, I can put him down drowsy (with a dummy in his hand which he puts in if he wants it) and he’ll get himself to sleep. Sometimes he needs a little tapping etc but never picked up and rocked.
This is when he changes. Any wake up he has after the initial bedtime he SCREAMS and SOBS. He’s inconsolable. The only thing that stops it is being picked up, cuddle and down again. Simply putting the dummy in doesn’t work so I don’t think he’s waking because of that. On average this every 2 hours. Last night it was every hour. He moved in to his own room last week, it has had no impact good or bad.
He’s ebf, I try to feed him every other wake and he seems to drink a lot so I worry about doing it less incase it’s genuine hunger. I personally don’t think he is but I do it in the desperate hope that it’ll make him sleep longer. I’ve cut out dairy. He’s doing really well on solids.
What am I doing wrong?!
Thanks for getting to the end
One exhausted mother x

@rosielrh2 - I didn’t want to read and run but any chance he’s overtired? Or going through a growth spurt? Has it always been like this?
I was reading that some children cry in between sleep cycles.
Sorry, I don’t have answers but I thought I could suggest a few things to see if it helps!

Thank you for your reply
He’s always been like it! I was beginning to wonder if he just does cry between sleep cycles and that’s him but can’t bring myself to leave him when he’s screaming!

@rosielrh2 - no of course not, I’d not be able to either!
The only thing I can think of is if he’s not getting enough night time sleep he might be waking up and too tired to self soothe so getting overtired and crying? How much sleep does he get from his naps?

@rosielrh2 what time does he nap? How long for?

What is your nighttime routine like?

Teething and a 6 month sleep regression can kick in at this age.

Wonder weeks really helped me through that first year. My DD is now nearly 2.

🍫big hugs you are doing great!

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, it really does help!
Thinking about the overtiredness- his ‘best’ night recently followed a 5 o’clock ‘danger nap’ so maybe he is going down too tired.
We’re also a bit rubbish with the nighttime routine because he’s never ever a problem to get down so I’ve never thought he needs a strict one. We started winding down earlier tonight and we’ll see.
He’s so good in many ways which is why I can’t understand the wakings!

Could be barking up the wrong tree here but is he hungry? I know a lot of advice says not to feed to sleep when they wake but I’ve found the opposite - my 4-month old is surprisingly hungry right now and sleeps for much longer stints if I feed him up when he wakes. If he doesn’t fill up he finds it hard to settle and wakes frequently at night, whereas if he’s full he can do five hour stretches.

@rosielrh2 - I’d say if he’s a bit fractious at bedtime too it’s over tiredness and you might need to redress the nap/night balance as he might be napping loads through the day to make up for being overtired at bed and therefore only having light sleep?
Agree with pp though, they’re only little so feed them at night! I try to settle mine and if he’s still not happy after 5-10 mins I feed. He usually drains the bottle!