6 month old who will not sleep, night or day!!

[babur]

Help

my son is six months old and has never slept through the night.  He does suffer from relux and has been on medication for this for the last three weeks but I am still having trouble getting him to sleep. 

I have followed the pick up/put down, shushing and patting routine for around a month now and although he is much better he is still taking a long time to go down and stay down.  He fights sleep constantly and if left to his own he probably would not sleep all day.   The routine has allowed me to get him on a four hourly feed instead of three so have seen some positives.

Also he has just started teething (I do use gel) and has found his mobility.

Any help would be great as he seems to be getting less and less sleep each day, many thanks Helen

[Jaime]

hi,

i think it would help if you could post a typical day for us, including naps & feed times.  we might be able to more easily spot something then.

[babur]

7.00 -          go downstairs for breakfast - give baby rice and breast feed
9.00 - 9.30 - first nap - usually the best nap of the day, sleeps for anything from 20 minutes to 1 1/2 hours but will need pu/pd in          between, as with all naps in the day
11.00          feed - apple / pear then breast feed.
12.00 - 12.30 second nap - takes up to 20 minutes to put down and sleeps anything from 20 minutes to two hours
3.00            feed breast milk
4.00 - 4.30   try to get him to have a nap around now but unless in the car unlikely
6.00             bath, music wind down in bedroom, breast feed and do pu/pd shush pat, sleeps from 7.00 / 7.30.
11.00          dream feed - formula 6oz

He may wake up any time from 7.00 up until the dreamfeed and he is always awake for the dreamfeed.

12.00      This is when all hell breaks loose, he could be up for another two hours and not settle until 3.00 doing pu/pd for the whole time, he sleeps on his side but as soon as he rolls onto his back he starts crying.  I am confused as to whether he has habitual wakings from the reflux or whether this is still giving him pains.  He also wants to wake up at 4.00 to play, do pu/pd, he may sleep for another hour and then awake again.  I let him play in the cot from 6.00 but he really amuses himself for only about 10 minutes at a time.

Sorry for the long reply, I realise that this may just be a case of a few things happening at the same time, (teething / weaning) and I just need to be patient, however, I would really like to stop any AP as well
Many thanks Helen 

[Jaime]

okay, that helps!

i think you do have a couple issues here, so here's what i can make of your day:

* the first nap should be no more than 2 hrs after he first wakes up.  at 6 months... let's aim for a 1.5hr nap.  (say 9-10:30)
* his 2nd nap then should be around 12:30ish.. and aiming for 1.5-2 hrs. 
* while you are sorting out his day sleep, that catnap can start anywhere betwn 4-5 - and it's really okay to do whatever you need to get him to sleep at that time (honest - didn't beleive it either but it's true!).  once you have him taking 2 good daytime naps, it will be easier to phase it out.
* there is sometimes a 6-month growth spurt.  maybe try cluster feeding at 3pm, 5pm, & then 7pm??  that can get tricky cause you don't want him to fall asleep eating, but he could be hungry. 

here's a link to a thread specifically about extending naps:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=34567.0

and here's a link to a sleep interview with tracy.  it's amazing, and full of lots of details & good tips:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=451.0

anyhow, that should help you with the finer points of pu/pd (though we do have a board dedicated to that if you have questions about technique).  the main thing to remember is that once you decide on a plan, you must also decide to commit to it and see it through every single time. 

hope this helps a little! 

[babur]

Thanks for coming back to me so quickly.

Have just put him down for his 9.00 nap, started pu/pd at 8.45 and he went off at 9.10 so will persevere and be consistent today and hopefully this will sort his night wakings out.  I will also try the cluster feed tonight which is something I have not tried before.

This is my first time on the website so thank you very much for your advise.

Helen