Sudden short naps and frequent wakings during early bedtime hours...HELP!

[fosterfam889]

Hello,

Ever since my LO turned 6 months (about 2 weeks ago) he has gone back to 30-40 min naps and has recently started waking sometimes every hour from after his bedtime until about 11 PM. He has also in the last few days started to wake up around 7 grumpy and crying, where as he used to wake happy and talking to himself. He even continues fussing and crying once I am in the room which never has happened until recently. I have had him on EASY since he was two months old and have always done a wind down/watched his cues and put him to bed. He used to only on occasion fuss a little before falling off to sleep. Now it is every nap, every bedtime, he screams and it can take anywhere from 5-20 min to get him to settle. It is awful, and I am emotionally exhausted from all of the PU/PD it takes to get him to sleep and keep him to sleep.

I started introducing solids gradually to him at 5 months and since 6 months he is only solids three times a day.

Here is schedule:

7-7:30 wake (he used to just wake and talk to himself and sometimes sleep until 7:45 but now he is crying at almost 7:00 on the dot every morning) BF
8:30- breakfast
9:00 nap (when he was taking "longer" naps, he would often wake at 1 hr 20 happy so we would get up and do low key A until 11. Sometimes he takes a 2hr but recently he takes anywhere from 40-1hr 10 and wakes up crying so I do PUPD)
11:00 BF
12:30 Lunch
1:00 Nap (this nap used to be the longer of the two, sometimes he would take 1hr 45, however lately this one is the worst, even if he has had a good morning nap, he will wake anywhere between 30-40 min and most of the time will not settle back down with PUPD)
3:00 BF
4:45/5:00- catnap (usually only thirty minutes- very rarely does he go 45 and lately I'm lucky if he goes for 25)
6:15/6:30 bath
7:00 BF/Bed

Just a side note, I tried extending his A's by 10 min to see if he is possibly undertired. He fussed ALOT to keep him up those extra 10 but then he did take a 2hr morning nap. However when we went to extend by 10 min again for the afternoon, he was having a meltdown, making it hard to get him down. He was up within 30 minutes and NEVER settled back down with PUPD. Finally at 2:45 I gave up because he was screaming at the top of his lungs.

What am I doing wrong?

I miss my sweet baby that used to drift to sleep and stay asleep or atleast only need one or two PUPD to resettle if he did wake up in the middle of a nap...HELP!!

[fosterfam889]

Forgot to put in his DF is at 11, I use a bottle this feed and he usually takes anywhere from 7-9 ounces

[Charjanemom]

Hugs

My daughter is 7 months tomorrow and we have had a rough go on and off the whole time she was 6 months. Like you we have always been on easy. When he wakes in the night is he happy?
We have had a huge increase in A time and dropped the cat nap. We are still struggling a little but I'm hoping as the new A time pans out things will get better. I would increase A. He probably wasn't ready for the afternoon one. Maybe it was too much. Can you increase just the morning for a few days till he gets used to it? That 2 hr nap might push your day along so that you can drop the cat nap and give an early bed time until the afternoon nap gets longer. It really seems like there are a lot of ppl with babies the same age struggling. I think there are lots of developmental changes going on to. Also you should google wonder weeks. It's based on his due date so at 6 months leap 5 takes place. My daughter was a month early so we are just at the end of the wonder week and its a rough one so that could also be part of why he seems different. In less than a month my daughter has gone from 2.5 hrs of A to we are now trying out 3.5 hrs! It's crazy! Good luck. You might want to try posting under the night wakings section too. Good luck.

[fosterfam889]

Thank you so much for your quick response! I am new to the forum and have the oldest baby among my friends so it can start to feel like I'm doing this all by myself. It's nice to know someone else completely relates! I extended the A by 10 min this morning and I got a 2hr nap! (at which point, he was still sleeping....I gave him ten extra minutes to wake on his own but he never did so I got him up...do you think I should have done this or let him sleep?)
I then did NOT extend the afternoon wake time (kept it at 2 hrs) I did a longer wind down (as he was fussy about an hour into his awake time) He ended up going down a lot easier and we shall see if he sleeps longer!

I too have been wondering if the catnap should go. Oftentimes, it takes 15-20 minutes of intense PUPD to get him to take it and then he barely makes it 30 minutes and always wakes up grumpy.

When he wakes at night, it's early in the night like 8,9 or 10. He does not wake happy. However sometimes he will settle himself other times we have to go in and do PUPD. DH and I have nicknamed him thumper because he has recently started this thing where he lifts his little legs high in the air and slams them on the mattress when he is in a lighter sleep.

How did you extend your A's for your daughter? I have read 10 min every three days, does that sound about right?

[Charjanemom]

I'm not an expert...a new mom around here too. Just relaying what I have been told. Looking at your routine it seems like the A time before the catnap offered for bed is really long. Normally wake ups early in the night are from over tired. I would work on getting a better afternoon nap. If you get a short one I tend to offer another one about 2 - 2.5 hrs later then bedtime another 2 after that.
We have been doing what you said and waiting a few days before increasing again. It can take them a bit to get used to the new timing of things. In the last 2 weeks we have increased 45 mins!! How did the afternoon nap go?

[fosterfam889]

Thank you! Things are getting much better. We have worked on our wind down time (extending it a bit) and it has helped get him down for naps and bedtime easier. We are up to 2 1/2 hour wake times and it seems to be helping with the naps! It seems as like you said,  6 months is just a huge developmental time full of lots of changes!