6 month old sleep help please!

[Laur89]

Hey everyone, so my second DS is nearly 6 months old. We’re having real issues with his sleep! He wakes hourly from about 11/12am, until he gets up for the day at 6ish. He is breastfed, has 1 bottle of formula before bed. We’ve tried so many things to help with his digestion and trapped wind which he suffered a lot with when he was younger, but that seems better now. He’s been to a cranial osteopath, we’ve tried him in his own room, co sleeping with me, light/dark room, and a bunch of other stuff but no success! He naps 3 times a day, never for longer than 45 mins to an hour. Anyone have an suggests on how to what else we can try please?? One desperate and tired mumma here!

Have you tried cosleeping?

@Thatwentbadly yeah we have but he still wakes up frequently and wriggles a lot so I get disturbed too 😫

Has this being going on for a long time? Both my DD2 were at the worst for sleeping at 6 months, there are huge developmental and sleep changes going on. It maybe the case of just reminding yourself it’s a phase and trying to cut back on other areas of your life to get more sleep.

While remembering it’s just a phase and things will get better.

Thank you for replying @Thatwentbadly , unfortunately it's been like this since he was born, I actually think though he slept better as a newborn! 🤦‍♀️

Frequent night waking is often linked to being over tired. I would try to get more daytime sleep by reducing your awake time, so more naps per day.

@FATEdestiny I've been reading your comments on other posts, you seem to have a lot of good advice! Have you got any tips for me please? 😆

Hi @Laur89

I would say there are two primary things to focus on - more daytime sleep and the way you get baby to go to sleep.

Three naps of 45 minutes must mean way too long awake between naps. I wouldn't want more than 2h awake time and if naps are 45 minutes then I'd expect 90 mins awake time between naps. That would result in mire maps per day, so less exhausted and over tired by night time leading to more restful night time sleep.

You don't mention how you get baby to go to sleep, but I suspect this may also be a problem too.

The key thing to work on is baby goes to sleep where they stay asleep, so once asleep don't move baby at all.

6 month regression aka a phase, I think you just gave to ride it out

@FATEdestiny thank you. I don't think his naps are long enough, but I don't know how to get him to nap longer? If he needs a nap when we're out in the pram he will happily sleep in there, or in the car. At home he will sleep in his next to me, usually after a bit of fussing and me having to pat him a bit and shhhh him. He did have a dummy but I think it wasn't helping at night as was always falling out. The frustrating thing is at his bedtime at 7 he will just go straight to sleep and self settle no issues, I just don't know why he can't do that over night?! 🤦‍♀️

I don't know how to get him to nap longer? If he needs a nap when we're out in the pram he will happily sleep in there, or in the car

Movement helps.

In order to help baby learn to link sleep cycles (which is needed for naps over 90 mins, which is what you need) then naps in something that moves helps, because it allows you to resettle back to sleep between sleep cycles.

Do at home, how about naps in a bouncy chair? Or pushing a pushchair back and forth on the spot?

A dummy also helps...

He did have a dummy but I think it wasn't helping at night as was always falling out.

Dummy is meant to fall out. That's no indication it's a problem. Your baby's sleep would be better with a dummy than without, dummies are BRILLIANT. Bring the dumny back.

The purpose of a dummy is to help baby go from awake to light sleep to deep sleep. Once in a deep sleep all of the muscles in the body relax, including the jaw/mouth muscles. So dummy drops out of the mouth. It is meant to.

Once in a deep sleep dummy has served it's purpose and drops. In a baby getting good sleep that might mean dummy is only on the mouth for 10 mins.

If baby is then waking frequently, that's a different issue. The dumny will help baby get back to sleep. Baby waking frequently is not to do with the dummy. It is likely to do with over tiredness (not enough sleep in the last 24/48 hours).

The dummy will help you overcome that over tiredness. It will not cause it.

Thank you @FATEdestiny. Is rocking to sleep creating a rod for my own back, will he always need that to go to in the future? Also do you think him being in completely dark room is better as opposed to having a nightlight on? What are your thoughts on white noise - do you think that would help?
Sorry for the questions!

Is rocking to sleep creating a rod for my own back

Yes, most likely.

Rocking in your arms is a very difficult thing to transition out of. You are But only having to transition out if movement, also physical closeness as being held by you (rocking to sleep often leads into cosleeping because of this) and also the fact that baby has to stay asleep in your arms for quality sleep - so the opposite of independant sleep.

Three things to move away from when rocking to sleep. It's hard and often very, very distressing (or takes a very, very long time) to go from rocking to sleep to independant sleep.

I'd go for blackout and pitch black through the baby years. Nightlights become needed in the toddler years when being scared of the dark becomes a thing.

White noise is good in my experience, it blocks out background noise so only useful if on all through the night. I'd use an actual thing rather than an app or speaker. I favour a bedside fan, I think the air movement is also relaxing and conductive to sleep. But not pointed directly at baby.

"You are not only having to..." (autocorrect)