6mo sleep training

[haribo89]

Hi all, our DS is now 6 months and we have decided that his sleep habits need a bit (a lot!) of work.
DS has cmpa and reflux which is somewhat under control. He's always been rocked to sleep and has slept in arms 90% of day and night. At night time he's also been in a swaddle wrap.
2 nights ago after him breaking out of his swaddle and waking for the 25th time I decided enough was enough and started teaching him to self settle the following night.
Our plan is - give dummy and blanket, 1 cuddle/Rock and song, then down in cot awake and stand over cot with hand on chest, shh if needed, repluging dummy and giving blanket when wanted. If he gets to upset then pick him up and put him down when calm. So far it's gone rather well, however his naps are getting shorter and shorter. This is what's happened so far -

Put down 9pm
Sleep 11pm
Wake 4am bottle
Wake 6am unsettled until
Wake 8.45

Nap 11.15am - 45min
Nap 2.30pm - 45min , tried to resettle for 1hr
Nap 6pm - 45min

Pd 8.50pm
Sleep 9.30pm
Wake 5.15am bottle
Wake 6.45am unsettled until
Wake 7.50

Nap 10.20am -35min
Nap 1.15pm - 55min

I know it's a huge change for him, he's gone from swaddled, rocked and sleeping in arms to no swaddle, no rocking and sleeping in his cot. He's gone from waking 25 times a night to the above in a short space of time, I'm very proud of him :-)
I'm unsure how long to try resettle him when he short naps? How long A time to give after a short nap? And if there's any way to help him learn what to do with his arms, he just thrashes them about making it hard for him to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Any advice on routine, sleep training method and these short naps would be appressiated!
TIA

[jessmum46]

Bumping for you hun, sorry I can't do a proper reply right this minute but will be back later on if nobody else manages to jump in xxx

[haribo89]

Here's how it's panned out from the last post-
Nap 5.40 - 35 min

Pd 8.20
Sleep 8.40
Nw 1.25 bottle
Nw 3
Nw 3.50 - 5.10 
Wake 7.55

Nap 10.55 - 30min
Nap 1.25- 1hr 3min
Nap 5.40 - 35min

[jessmum46]

Wow you've made amazing progress already!

I'm not sure I'd be doing too much in the way of routine changes right now while the sleep training is still so new.  Hard to interpret the meaning of short naps yk?  Could be the routine but could well be learning to sleep differently, or could be OT build-up (somewhat inevitable I would say).  For comparison though what was his routine like beforehand?  Just looking at what you've posted, there was a pretty short first A the first two days of 2.5h, I'm guessing even if he woke from overall OT/failing to transition he'd have been hard to resettle as the A wouldn't have been long enough.  In general I could resettle OT naps from a long A, but never an UT nap or an OT nap resulting from built-up OT rather than the A itself (does that make sense?).  My feeling would be still as close to usual A times as you can, even after a rough night or short nap as I think over-shortening causes problems in itself.  With regards to how long to attempt it, to be honest I feel like if it doesn't happen in 5-10 mins it probably won't, so I'd personally just get up and move on with the day after that.  It depends a little on how much time you have to devote to it, whether there are other siblings around etc who need attention, but I found endless attempts at resettling just made us both grumpy and we missed the best part of the day attempting sleep.  Not fun!!

Hope that's helpful   Did today go well?

[haribo89]

That makes perfect sence!
His routine before was 2.5hr wake time, usually with two 1-1.5hr naps and one 30-45 catnap, or at least that's what we would aim for. He turned 6mo last week so still on the young end of it, what A time would be average now?
He's been hit and miss since my last post, I tried a 3hr A and got a 2hr 15 nap! Never has he done that, but then from then a 3hr A produced 30-45min naps, so hard to tell what A time is right for him at the moment, there doesn't appear to be a pattern and he's constantly asking to go to sleep (he's always rubbed his head into you when he wants to go to sleep)

He's now going down wide awake and falling to sleep with me sat next to his cot, I'm not sure if/when to start GW? All in all its a big improvemen, we just need to try lengthen the naps, get some routine and hopefully reduced the Nw, they are on average 4-5 a night. Tonight I don't know what's wrong but he's been wide eyed for nearly 2 hours. He now lives his dummy for sleep which I think might become an issue but with everything changing so much for him I feel like he needs comfort from something.

[jessmum46]

You've done so well!  I'd get going with GW, just a step away, then a step further tomorrow etc . At 6 months average A is about the 3h mark (Average A times- BOOKMARK ME! ).  I'd try to work towards about the 3h mark and a 2 nap routine, and you may just need to throw in a catnap now and again if naps don't go quite so well x

[oofy2016]

Hi,

I just wanted to say a massive well done! I am really really impressed with your progress, we are having similar issues with our 6 month old, cows milk and soy allergies and possible reflux with extremely frequent night wakings.
It's inspiringly to see your progress in such a short time!

J x

Ps what is GW?

[jessmum46]

Gradual withdrawal it's a way of sleep training by taking baby steps from where you are to independent sleep x