6 months and easy not going to plan!

[sheaton]

Hi, just been reading through all the posts for some ideas on what I might be doing wrong... for about a week (maybe more) my 6 month old has been a nightmare to put down for naps and the last three nights has been1-2hours to get down at bedtime. Add in multiple night wakings and early starts and we are stuck in an ovetired vicious cycle... again! (Went through something similar at 4months).
Or perhaps he is undertired... as you can see I am struggling to make BW work for us just now!
He is such a laidback little fellow who takes everything in his stride - except sleeping. Which he fights and fights!
Our easy is like this -
6.30am up and bf
7am breakfast - toast or porridge (blw so doesnt eat much yet)
8.30/9am nap (1hr 20 usually)
11am bf
12pm lunch (veg fingers)
1pm nap (1hr- 1hr 20)
3pm bf
Between 4 and 5 we do a 40min cat nap.
5pm tea
Then he gets really tired looking so bath massage and straight upstairs
6pm bf
Now he is so tired and drowsy but when I try to put him down he fusses and then cries for up to 2hrs before he finally falls asleep! I feel that I am distracting him - pupd, shh pat, holding quietly, sitting by his cot... nothing works!
Then he wakes at least once or twice through the night and can take up to an hour to resettle.

He is possibly undertired at 6 so fights it and becomes overtired... but he is clearly tired as even to tea time he starts to rub his eyes and is yawning by the time we are getting jammies on.

Time to drop the cat nap and bring bedtime back to 5? Or keep him up a bit longer before puttong him down for the night?

ermmm. Not sure what else to add that might help you help me!!

Thanks in advance ♡

[stuckunderhere]

is he possibly going through wonder week 26? Which can last very long from what I"ve read... we are there too. Sucky week!

[sheaton]

Thanks! I wandered about it being a leap but as he was two weeks late, he technically already had that wonder week! I have the app! Lol... totally obsessing over this babys sleep needs here, I have an app for everything! Ditched them and tried to follow his lead but he is such a chilled guy, we ended up super tired by bedtime - no change there then. Watching the clock doesnt help either as he changes the amount of A time he can handle daily!

[Ima shel Alon]

Hun, he is defiantly ready for more A time and dropping the CN. He is giving you all the signs that he is ready. There is very good information about the transition here: All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months. In order for him to manage the transition his A time would need to be more like 3h which is quite far from the 2h he is doing right now. The A times need to be upped gradually or he will end up OT. Usually I would say to increase by 10-15min every 3-4 days but since you are far from what he needs to do as A time and 15min increments will just take you too long and his sleep will get worse and worse, I suggest you up by 20min every 3 days. He will seem extremely tired, especially on the first day you are increasing the A, but you will just have to be consistent in order for it to work.
Good luck!

[sheaton]

Thanks, will try extending his A time tomorrow... feel relieved about that as dropping the cat nap will be one less nap to dread!! Although, saying that, he took all his naps well today but none were longer than an hour 20 so reckon undertired is the reason for sure!  I suppose he just confuses me by acting tired at 2hours and often before! 

Anyway, we kept him up a bit longer at bedtime tonight and although he was falling asleep feeding, he went down well and has been down ever since... not a peep! fingers crossed he makes it through the night!

Thanks again!

[Ima shel Alon]

When you increase A time LO often looks really tired and ready to go down at the old time. I remember I had to hold DS in my arms for the last 30min of his A time because he was so tired, but if I put him down when I thought he was ready for his nap then I always got an Ut nap.

[sheaton]

Hi, think we are still getting UT naps here - 1hr 20 after 2 hours of A time.  But reckon that will sort itself out soon enough... we are on day 3.  Bed time has gone crazy now though... with his naps being stretched out across the day he is not taking his cat nap and so he is wrecked by 5pm and falls asleep feeding around 6pm.  I swap sides, burp him, put him into his sleeping bag and he is so asleep he only really flickers his eyes when I put him in his cot! now this is a nightmare as he used to be great at going down awake and staying down! But the last two nights (after no cat nap and a stupidly early bedtime of 6pm) he was up within 20 mins and would not resettle for almost 2 hours! currently in the middle of resettling him now! So he ends up going down between 8 and 9pm overtired and gets up between 5 and 6!

what should I do? ride it out and hope he sorts out soon enough or should I be treating his S at 6pm as a nap and get him up for a bit and try bedtime a bit later?

Thanks!

[Ima shel Alon]

Like I said before his A time should be more like 3h by now, not 2h. I would work on increasing the A time in the next few days that it's more age appropriate. We usually recommend to increase by 10-15min every 3 days but because he is doing an hour less of what he should be doing I would rather say increase by 20min every 3-4 days till you get better naps (1.5-2h) and are closer to 3h. The higher A will be the only thing that can help with no CN (and he is really too old for it now) and with BT as well.

[sheaton]

Sorry that was a typo... we have been pushing him every few days so is now on 2hrs 20/30mins.

[Ima shel Alon]

Great, then you are in the right direction .

[sheaton]

Few wee queries... when he has a short 1st nap of 30mins and is clearly not going to go back down do i just carry on with extending his awake time and put him down at 2hrs 40 or do a short A time to 'catch up'? He went 20mins yesterday but seemed tired again after an hour so i pushed him til 1.5 and put him back down. He had a fantastic 2hr nap but i know that was a one off!!

And if when he gets up from 2nd nap around 3.30 should i skip cat nap all together and put him down 6/6.30 or push everything back a bit - cat nap 5 bed time 8ish?

Thanks its all going so well with extending awake time, so far! I can see light at the end of the overtired tunnel!!

[Ima shel Alon]

I am glad you can see progress!

Most babies do better with a shorter A time after a short nap, like 20min shorter A time, and it sounds like it worked well for you yesterday.
My little guy always had to have a full A time after a short nap or I'd get an UT nap .
If second nap finishes at 15:30 approx. then I'd go for a bit earlier BT than a CN, we are trying to get rid of it for good, yk?

[sheaton]

Thanks so much! He has been having great naps since extending his awake time.

Bedtime is still a bit tricky with OT being the main issue but we also have wind and griping since starting food so bed is creeping to 7.30pm some nights! He is sooo tired by 6/6.30 so is wrecked by 7.30!

Anyway, once he is down that's usually him until morning (6.30ish) so cant complain really!

[Ima shel Alon]

Wow, that's great!
If solids are a bit of an issue and cause wind you can try and skip supper for a while and when his stomach is more used to it go back to it.