Help with night wakings and naps

[sportie7]

Firstly, Thanks for all the help from reading the posts and FAQ. I have managed to get my LO only waking up once now instead of every 2 hours.

I am desperately in need of more help/pointers on the following which are most probably evident, but I am struggling to grasp through my sleep depraved mind at the moment so all help gratefully appreciated.

1.   My LO wakes every night at around 3:30am wanting a feed/drink. At the moment I give him some water and then try to put him down using PU/PD. This normally takes around 30 minutes sometimes longer. How can I eliminate this night time waking? Should I be BF him?
2.   He then wakes at 5:30/6am and wants to get out of his cot. I have tried unsuccessfully with PU/PD to get him back to sleep before 7am.
3.   During the day my LO only naps for 45 minutes. I have tried PU/PD, but that almost always lasts until his A time and is becoming a battle now which I really don’t like. I have tried W2S but that does not seem to be working (I wake him up per W2S, but he still wakes up after 45 min). I have tried holding him through the jolt, but the jolt never comes and I am just greeted with his eyes opening wide and a smile and him wanting to play. Usually then at the 5pm bf he falls asleep on the breast, which means I have an impossibly sleepy baby for feeding time, so I have to put him down for a nap which then impacts on bed time. Is it better for me just to accept that my LO only sleeps for 45 minutes and leave it at that or persevere? Do I need to change my schedule?

I currently have my 6 month DS on the following EASY schedule:

E-7:00am wake & bf
A-8:00am solids
S-9:00am nap
E-11:00am bf 
A-11:45am solids
S-1:00pm nap
E-3:00pm bf
S-4:00pm catnap  - if needed
E-5:00pm bf
A-5:45pm solids
A-6:15pm bath
S-7:00pm bedtime following bf top-up
E – 11:00pm dream feed

I would be very grateful for any help/pointers.

Many thanks
Shirley

[becj86]

Hi Shirley, Welcome

At 6 months, your baby should be having longer awake times than that, more like 2hr45-3hr and be working on dropping that catnap. I'd say he's not sleeping more than 45min at naptime because he's not tired enough to take a good long nap.

At this age, its quite normal to have a night feed still. I'd try a BF at that 3am waking and see if he'll go to sleep a bit more easily and maybe even sleep a little longer in the morning.

Here's a suggested routine for a 6-month old:
7 - wake
10 - nap
11:30/12 -  wake
2:30/3 - nap
4/4:30 - wake
7 - bedtime

I would suggest extending A times by 10-15min every few days though, rather than jumping straight to 3hr A time. If he's had an 11hr night, you can't really expect him to go back to sleep in the morning at this age. At 3 months, sure but at 6 months, an 11hr night is plenty, though 12hr is ideal, especially if he's at the younger end of 6 months and you're extending his A times.

[sportie7]

Thank you so much!

I will try feeding him at the 3am waking and slowly start increasing his A time.

Thanks again for the advice.