Turned 6mths Old - Now Won't Sleep in Day

[Burmese3]

Our daughter has just turned 6 months old.  Approx. 1 week ago, everything seemed to suddenly change, and it's now extremely difficult to get her to sleep during the day.  On average, only getting around 2 hrs sleep, when before she use to have 2 sleeps during the day of 1.5 - 2hrs plus a cat nap late afternoon. 

At the same time - also have been trying to get her to sleep without being swaddled.  Have had some success, but not sleeping very long.  Sometimes end up wrapping her again (which doesn't necessarily work either).

Now, when I put her to bed - she screams.  She also grizzles when she's on the change table now.  Shush/pat use to work well, but doesn't seem to work anymore.  Today she was put to bed and slept for 25 mins, and it took another 25 mins of shush/pat to put her to sleep again where she slept for 50 minutes.  Tried this afternoon to put her to sleep after 2.5 hrs of up time, but its now nearly 4pm and she won't go to sleep.

She's only just started on solids as well, but this sleep issue started a few days prior to introducing solids.

Can anyone help???

[Mom to M&M]

Can you post your routine and we'll take a look for you?

[Burmese3]

Before the "won't go to sleep" situation, her schedule very roughly is as follows:

E/Up - 7am (lately, it's been  all over the place, this morning it was 5.20am!) - b/feed
A - 2 - 2.5 hrs
S - 9 am

E/Up - 10.30 am - b/feed
E - 11.30 am solids (have only just started to experiment with solids this week)
A - 2.5 - 3 hrs
S - 1pm

E/Up - 2.30 pm - b/feed
A - 1.5 hrs
S - catnap 4.45pm (occassionally catnap, if gets up too late in afternoon, don't bother)

E - 5pm (cluster feed) - b/feed
A - 2 hrs

E - 6.55 pm (small amount of formula, and b/feed before bed)
S - 7pmish or so

Dream Feed (b/feed) - around 10.45pm

Now, she often has difficulty going to sleep in the afternoons, and can sometimes be up for 4-5 hrs.  I'm now going to continue swaddling her, as she seems to still have difficulty sleeping with her arms out (they just go all over the place, and if she does manage to go to sleep, she doesn't always stay sleeping long enough).

[Burmese3]

Can anyone help with this?

[*Natasha*]

Sounds like my DD at 5months when we extended her awake time and dropped the cat nap. Do you think she could handle a longer awake time?

[Mom to M&M]

How is her night sleep? Trying to decide if she's overtired or needs more A time. How is she eating?

[Burmese3]

Hi

She's been having more awake time now, as I haven't been giving her a catnap for about a week or so now (I doubt she will go to sleep now in late afternoon).

Today, for the first time in about 2 weeks, she went down for an afternoon sleep without crying!  But woke up 1 hour later.  She's definitely more mobile now, turning over both ways in activity time and so active!  She's ypically now up for around 2 hours in the morning, and around 3 hours lunchtime/early afternoon with 2 naps of approx. 1 1/4 hrs in the morning, and around 1 hr or so in the afternoon.  In the late afternoons she is normally up for around 3 or 4 hours until bed time (I now aim to have in bed by 7pm and asleep 7.15pmish, but sometimes its a little later).

She's eating fine at the moment, and has been on solids (small amounts) for around 1.5 weeks or so. 

So, I'm not really sure if she's overtired or needs more A time!  (cues get harder!!!)

[Burmese3]

Oh yeah - night sleep.  Lately not sleeping through (occassionally does).  This morning up at 5am! 2 nights ago, up around 3.30am and 3.50am!

[Burmese3]

OK - so it's now the 2nd day, and she seems to be going to sleep much easier now.  Due to nap time at almost the same time as the next feed, I've had to feed her, then put her to bed (so she doesn't wake up early due to being hungry).  Have been doing this both afternoons.  Not ideal I know, but until she gets more solids into her (only her 2nd week on solids), I suppose I may have to keep doing this.  I think extending out the A time has helped her to settle better before sleep.  ie. she's now not screaming the place down for 1/2 an hour before going to sleep!

Question now is.... how do I get her to wake up later in the mornings? Lately it's been around 5-6am, and I don't think she's that hungry, just awake.  I've fed her, and put her back to bed, then get her up again around 7am ish (but it just buggers up her routine/feeds when I do this).

Would trying to extend her nap times during the day help??  They are both around an hr or so at the moment.  How do I do that?

Would appreciate any help.