Author Topic: 6 months, nights all over the place!  (Read 1154 times)

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Offline JDeMelo

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6 months, nights all over the place!
« on: December 01, 2014, 15:19:41 pm »
My son is just over 6 months old. He has always been an excellent napper, but his nights have been inconsistent since day one. Our latest difficulty is a regular waking three hours after settling to sleep (usually just needs to be picked up for a minute and then goes back to sleep when I lay him down again) and then at least one long night waking (1.5-2 hours sometimes) later on. The timing of this one isn't as regular - anywhere from 2 to 5am. I know he no longer needs a feed in the night and he doesn't wake up acting hungry, just awake and looking to have someone hold him. He is a tummy sleeper and doesn't roll from back to front yet, so he often flips himself on his back and gets "stuck", and needs us to come and flip him back over. Sometimes it's a pretty lengthy process! Sometimes I do end up nursing him because it seems to satisfy and help him settle back down, even though I know he can go without it. I thought maybe he was UT, getting too much daytime sleep, but last week there were a couple of days when he didn't get much daytime sleep in at all and he still had these wakings. I now wonder if it's OT? I think he's pretty high sleep needs.

His wake up time varies from day to day, I think because of the funny wake times in the night. Usually between 7 and 7:30 though.

He is on a 4 hour easy and usually has between 2 and 2.5 hours of A time. I have tried to stretch it closer to 3, but then we seem to get OT short naps. Sometimes I can stretch his second A time, but he is consistently ready for his morning nap after 2 hours of A time. I think we're in the middle of the 3-2 nap transition, and so most days there is a very long A time between his afternoon nap and bedtime. Bedtime is usually at 7pm. Do you think I should pull bedtime back to 6pm on his 2 nap days? Does this sound like OT behaviour to you?

Offline jessmum46

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Re: 6 months, nights all over the place!
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2014, 18:50:36 pm »
Hi, I'm jumping on this that in solidarity as my 6mo DS is also having not great nights ::). Three and a half hours after BT is our usual silly spot....

I think if his A time is 2-2.5h then the NWs are probably related to UT because he is not having enough A time at one time to be tired enough to sleep well at night.  This can happen even if LO is overtired from short naps - certainly I've noticed that on the whole our nights seem to be better when we manage a two nap day as we (like you) tend to have a long A time before bed.  Yes I would try to bring BT early on two nap days but I would also probably work on stretching his A times early in the day in order to have his sleep a little better distributed.  Even just an extra 5 mins every 2-3 days could help him to get used to being awake a bit longer.

I hate the 3-2!!  So you are not alone x

Offline JDeMelo

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Re: 6 months, nights all over the place!
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2014, 19:19:43 pm »
Thanks for your thoughts. I get the whole UT and OT mixed up all over the place. I put him down for his second nap after 2.5 hours A time because he was acting really sleepy. Next time I will try pushing him another 5 minutes. It's tricky with having the toddler at home, we aren't usually that precise with our A times - more watching for signs and getting him down when I can.

How long are your little one's A times?

Offline jessmum46

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Re: 6 months, nights all over the place!
« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2014, 12:06:11 pm »
Well we are trying a bit of a non-standard routine to fit round my DD and other commitments, but I think around 3h if well-rested, but with a shorter first A.