6 month old waking every 20-30 minutes

[Mads.mama]

I'm hoping someone can help us with our 6 month old! I'm so exhausted!

Our 6 month old used to be able to sleep for a few hours before waking up for a nursing. Now when i put him down to sleep, he sleeps for a little bit then wakes up in 20-30 minutes! I do shush/pat over my shoulder and he falls asleep again very quickly. 30 minutes go by and he's awake again so I do shush pat again, he falls asleep quickly, then 30 minutes go by and he's awake again! The night goes on like this until he's so tired that at around 1am he finally sleeps 3 hours, wakes for a nursing then sleeps another 2 hours. We have yet to sleep train our LO. He's still co-sleeping with us at night time.

Last night i finally just held LO and that's the only way he slept for several hours. 

His naps are pretty good so far. He's been able to sleep 1.5-2 hours and if he wakes early, shush pat usually gets him back to sleep for the rest of his nap.

Our LO has 2 teeth so I know he's teething, could this be teething pain or sleep regression? If it is either of them, how long will these night wakings last?

This is our modified EASY routine, we're slowly working on eliminating the E before the S:

A 7:00 - wake
E 7:30 - nurse
A 8:00 - solids
E 9:45 - nurse
S 10:00 - nap for 1 1/2-2 hours
E 12:00 - nurse
A 12:45 - solids
E 3:20 - nurse
S 3:45 - nap for 1 1/2-2 hours
E 5:45 - nurse
A 6:15 - solids
S 7:45-8:00pm nurse and bedtime

[lily_layne]

It could be teething pain. Have you tried medicating before BT?

Has he always like a short last A time? I'm wondering if he's maybe not tired enough to get into a deep sleep.

[Mads.mama]

Hi lily_layne thanks for replying. I haven't medicated LO yet for teething before bedtime. Last night he slept for 2 hours then woke then slept for another 2 hours and woke then slept for 1 hour then woke then slept for 45 minutes then woke. His sleep times got shorter and shorter as the night progressed.

Yea, his last A time is the shortest because I'm trying to get him to sleep before 8pm, but maybe I'll cut his last nap to 1 1/2 hours so he will have 3 hours of A time at the end of the day and be fully tired for night time sleep.

[trimbler]

Hey there, just wanted to say don't be afraid of pain meds, they really can help, especially ibuprofen. Unless of course you've been told to avoid them for a medical reason??

The other thing that jumped out at me is that the second A time seems quite long - and he's had a bit of a jump in A times recently too, hasn't he? I noticed on your naps post that he's waking early more during naps and wondered if he might just be a bit OT? Could you try maybe pulling back on that second A time again and see whether he's more settled for that second nap? Then hopefully you could lengthen that last A time to BT again without pushing BT too late.

[lily_layne]

Hey there, just wanted to say don't be afraid of pain meds, they really can help, especially ibuprofen.

^This for sure. My doctor says we often under-medicate babies for pain because we are afraid of over-medicating. She always tells me that if you suspect discomfort, give some Tylenol or ibuprofen.

I also agree with Trimbler's suggestion of pulling back the second nap. I was going to suggest the same.

[Mads.mama]

Thank you for the advice. I am definitely a little nervous about medicating my LO for teething pain. He didn't have such bad NT sleep when his first tooth came in so I'm hoping to see if fixing the routine does it.

Thank you Trimbler for noticing my second A time was long. I am new to the EASY routine and trying to figure it all out. I went back and looked at some other easy routines and noticed a lot of the 6 month old routines  are doing 2.5 hour A times with a catnap. My LO will be 6 months and 7 days old tomorrow. Are his other A times ok at 3 hours? The reason why I'm doing 3 hours is because he was not interested in taking a nap yet and if he did fall asleep he would wake up before his nap time was over and it would take a good 40 min to an hour to get him to go back to sleep and by the time he fell asleep again, nap time was over. I was given the advice to give him more A time so he would be fully tired and sleep through his naps. It worked for a while, but now he's been waking early from his naps again. At least this time it's been easier to shush pat him back to sleep.

Today I'm trying to give my LO a shorter second A time of just 2 hours then a nap to see if his NT sleep gets better.

[trimbler]

Really, don't worry about pain meds, they're fine and can make our LOs so much more comfortable. It may be that the first tooth didn't seem to bother him so much, but another tooth might be more uncomfortable for him. Also, if the routine needs tweaking and he's waking at night for that reason, having that teething pain could be making it harder for him to resettle.

I haven't looked thoroughly over your other posts, but it sounds like 3h may be good for him, it certainly works for many other 6mo LOs, although it would be too long for others. If the first nap is short then you may need to reduce the second A a bit, but that routine you posted above had a 3h 45min A time after the first nap, which is much longer than average for that age. I don't think I'd go right down to 2h though, even after a short first nap. Could you post what's actually happened the last couple of days or so?

[lily_layne]

Could you post what's actually happened the last couple of days or so?

This would be helpful.

Just so you can compare, this is what my DS did at 6 months, just after dropping the CN.
WU: 7
S: 930-11
S: 1:30-3/3:30
BT: 6:30