Nap help for six month old!

[naphelpplease]

How do people manage naps for a six month old? Ideally I'd like to get my baby into a routine but her naps are so unpredictable. Some days he'll do nearly two hours in his cot at lunchtime, and other days he'll do less than 30 mins and wake up overtired. I know he's tired but sometimes I just can't get him to sleep - I follow the recommended awake windows and look out for tired signs but he just screams and screams. I'm at my wit's end, I can't plan anything because every day is different and he's clearly tired. Any suggestions welcome! He sleeps ok at night but when he doesn't nap it's more likely that he'll wake upset a few times at night. I aim to get him 2-3hrs day sleep a day but achieving that can be a real challenge.

Always try to resettle baby at the end of the nap, to lengthen sleep time. This is best done when initially stirring but before actually waking up. Use the method you use to get baby to sleep to resettle, ideally this should be an in-cot method so you don't need to disturb baby by moving him.

If the resettle is unsuccessful, reduce awake window accordingly to add extra sleep into your day. Don't be afraid of 4 naps per day, or more, if they are needed. It's important not to get into an over tiredness spiral.

Thanks @FATEdestiny

We put him in the cot to settle himself, so I thought he could self settle. But at nap time it seems he only can sometimes, other times he wakes up upset. Do you think that's because he's overtired? Should I be putting him down earlier?

What do you do on occasions he can't settle himself?

You need layers of help given, so sometimes one or two extra layers of help are needed. For example hand on chest to go to sleep, adding the extra layer of patting with that hand if needed. Sometimes no extra help is needed and sometimes multiple extra layers of help are needed.

Resetting (and all the multitude of other reasons baby might be harder than normal to settle) is a time when extra layers of help are usually needed.

He does sound over tired.

Awake window wants to be around double previous nap length. And never more than 2h awake unless napping consistantly over 90 minutes. So following a 30 minute nap, next nap he wants to be asleep within an hour of waking up.

2-3h is very much on the low side for this stage. But as I said, focus isn't on total sleep at this age, it's on time awake between one nap and the next.

At 6 months my DD would wake around 8am, and then I’d aim for naps at 10, 1 and 4 (woke by 4:30).. she’d often only sleep for 30 minutes but I’d always try resettle by either rocking or giving her dummy.. it took time but it worked and by 7.5 months she started napping reliably for 90+ minutes which was when I dropped the 3rd nap.

Thanks @FATEdestiny - I don't really know what to do to resettle him though. A hand or pat seems to make him more angry - in fact anything I do seems to wake and disturb him rather than settle him. So I'm at a loss!

Thanks @Vicky1989x . What did you do if naps were only 30 mins? Would you still make your baby wait til the next fixed nap time? We would like a more fixed routine but don't know how to make it happen.

@naphelpplease Yes I did, or as close to as I could without making her super overtired. I found fixed times after 6 months worked better for us. Now at 12 months she naps at 9:30 and 2:30.

I don't really know what to do to resettle him though.

I would keep naps in something that moves (bouncy chair or pram) for exactly this purpose. You can rock the surface to resettle, without actually touching the baby at all.

Its a great way to teach baby to link daytime sleep cycles. Only once having naps over 90 minutes would I move them into the cot.

Thanks @Vicky1989x - that's what I'm hoping to get to.

@FATEdestiny that's interesting. He's always slept in his cot, not in a bouncy chair as I thought that was better for them to learn to self settle. He does sleep in the pram but not as soundly, he seems more rested in the cot. So ideally I'd like him to stay there but I see what you mean about getting to longer naps first. It is the inconsistency that bothers me right now - sometimes he naps for ages but other times it's really short.