6 1/2 months old is giving me a hard time with NW

[RENI]

I am tired as we are having random NWs.Sometimes only 2 minutes of patting to get him to sleep sometimes 2 hours.We have also successfully transitioned from 2 to 3 naps
his routine is
7wake feed
8 breakfast
9:30 BED (ANYTHING FROM 1 HOUR TO 2)
11 milk
12 lunch
1:30 bed (ANYTHING FROM 1 HOUR TO 2)
3 milk
6 milk dinner bath
bed 7
Please help me!!!!

[DrTonya]

My little guy, also 6.5 months, was having same problem. We fixed the problem, though he is waking early right now because he got sick.

1. Make sure it's not hunger, if not then try these things

2. Looks like the baby is up too long at night before bed. So for the next few nights put the baby to bed 2 hours after up from last nap to overcome any over tiredness. So if baby wakes at 3 from last nap put to bed at 5 or 5:30. Sounds strange but our little guy actually only woke once the first night we did this.
3. Give a quick nap at night before bed to prevent over tiredness. If you want to keep bedtime at 7 then a 30 min nap at 4:30 is good.

We had to put out little guy to bed at 5 for 2 nights while doing the other settling method, and even though he is waking a little earlier, which we are trying to extend longer again, he is sleeping thru night, which makes a big diff for mommy and daddy sleep!

[Erin M]

 A few questions for you --
Have you noticed any correlation between the length of his naps during the day and the night wakings? 
Is there any possibility of discomfort (teeth, new foods, etc)?
What part of the night are the wakings happening in?

I also notice that his A times are really inconsistent -- you've got a relatively short one first thing, possibly a longer one second (depending on that first nap length) and a really long one last.  You've probably got some OTness building up because of that.

[RENI]

I agree that his a time in the morning is too short but he just doesn't make it and strarts screaming to go to sleep.Re in activity time in the afternoon he refuses flat out to have a catnap so yes he is way overtired but I really don't know what to do. any suggestions please.CO is not an option for us.

[*Kara*]

As for your current routine, I do agree that we need to give just a little nudge to your first A time hun.. max 15 mins might be enough.  I used to do things like walk LO around the house and look at pictures on the wall, things outside the window etc to help keep LO calm and get through that last 15-20 mins of A time.

Give it a go and see what happens for a few days.  If LO wakes after an hour, try to resettle with a bit of shush pat...

[Erin M]

Totally agree with Kara on extending the A time -- with ds, we'd generally end up on the floor of his room at the end of his A time with the lights already off, just playing quietly with some toys -- gave us some extra minutes without any extra stimulation. 

[RENI]

cool thank you! what's the ideal routine for a 6 1/2 months old please?
because say I keep him up till 10 am and he needs to wake up around 11 for milk is that enough?

[*Kara*]

Don't wake him to eat at this age.. he will wake if he is hungry

There are some sample routines in the EASY forum under FAQs.

[RENI]

hi Kara, I never wake him to eat in the night

[Erin M]

Here's the link that Kara mentioned -- the 6 month ones are at the bottom of this thread:
chronological EASY samples, 4-6 months
and the 7 month ones here:
chronological EASY samples, 7-9 months

You can look at both since you're right at 6.5 months, which is between the two -- it comes down to where you can get to with A time.  And I think Kara was saying not to wake him up from naps to feed -- it's ok if you end up with more like 4.5  hours between feeds if he's napping longer. 

[*Kara*]

And I think Kara was saying not to wake him up from naps to feed -- it's ok if you end up with more like 4.5  hours between feeds if he's napping longer. 

  Erin is right.

[RENI]

oh I see!! sorry i did not understand Kara.We are not doing well at all.should I try with a paci? it's doing my head in and I really don't know what to do.he wakes up from his naps constantly ,it takes me forever to get him back to sleep and I have a toddler as well so I cannot spend ages doing shush pat or PU/PD.I am getting really down because I am not too sure how to tackle all this.His easy seems to be okish but we are still having short naps unless I intervene and he hands up falling asleep on me because he gets really worked up.Sorry to sound so down but I am really really struggling with him.

[Erin M]

he wakes up from his naps constantly

Sweetie, he really seems to need some more A time -- even if it is hard to get him there it will certainly pay off with longer naps and better nights.  As you can see from this link: Average A times and "Is my baby ready to increase A time?" average A time at his age is from 2 hours 45 minutes to 3 hours.  If he's short napping because he's undertired, there's really no way to extend it -- I used to just get my ds up and go on about my day, as I have 2 older ones and I was never able to put them time into extending naps.  ((hugs)) it's really hard when you're not getting any sleep.