Waking every hour! Send help :(

[xjambix]

My little 6 month old cherub is waking every hour most nights and i知 At the end of my tether, i値l Tell you or nap and bedtime routine and if anyone has any suggestions - please help!

We usually wake up around 6 and we do naps every 2 hours through the day, he still naps on me. I致e tried putting him down for naps, but i値l spend half an hour putting him down for him only to sleep 10 mins. Whereas I can spend 5 mins rocking, where he値l sleep for 30 mins usually on me. He naps in his stroller as well. The last nap usually ends between 3/3.30.

We start the bedtime routine at 6; bath usually with daddy, then boob with me obviously then bed. He sometimes falls asleep at the boob but I try not let him do this, if he doesn稚 fall asleep I値l do shushing and patting until he is asleep. I値l sometimes give him a wee shoogle to wake him up slightly before putting him in his crib if he has fallen asleep at the boob. He sleeps in a bedside crib on our room. Then sometimes he値l wake 40 mins after we put him down, other times it値l be 2-2.5 hours and then from then on it痴 every hour until 6am. I feed him at all these wake ups which I know I shouldn稚, but I知 not sure what else to do?

[creations]

Hello and welcome to BW forums

Looking at the times you've given I think it could be that your LO is UT (under tired) for naps as most LOs this age will go 3hrs between naps, putting LO to sleep too early can result on poor naps, short naps or nap refusal.  But then in the evening you are giving a very long A time of Well over 3hrs...I can't see what time your LO goes to sleep for BT but if the last nap end at around 3pm and you don't start the bath and bed time routine until 6pm then this is results in an A of over 3hrs which will result in OT (over tiredness) especially if the 3+ hrs is after a short nap and LO wasn't fully rested.  OT at BT can result in lots of NWs (night wakings).

I would suggest increasing the time between naps first to 2hr 15 for a couple of days then to 2hr 30 for a couple of days then to 2hr 45.  If the naps get easier (ie less refusal for the cot, longer naps) then you could stay at 2hr45, if not then increase to 3hrs A time.
In the evenings though I'd suggest reducing the A time aiming for no longer than 2hr 30 after a short nap and no longer than 3hrs after a long nap (1hr 30 to 2hrs for a long nap).  This might mean putting in another nap before the bath and BT routine or it could mean a very early bed time (or both whilst the routine is under change).

Feeding every hour is quite a lot at night but for now I would suggest you continue to do so until you have the rest of the routine a bit more suitable for age, and settled.  Then you might see the nights getting better without any need to wean night feeds.  It's totally normal to have a couple of night feeds anyway.

Hope this helps, let us know how you get on.

[xjambix]

Thanks for your reply, I値l try and increase his time between naps and see how we get on. I値l let you know!

[Katet]

I agree with Creations, that the awake time is probably too short.

Also I don't think he is able to link sleep cycles. Which may be because of only having short Awake times, but also because of his sleep associations in falling asleep.

Essentially babies have sleep cycles around 30-40mins, (& don't get into deep sleep until about 10mins)  & when they move through the "light" stage of a cycle, they expect conditions to be identical to what they were when they fell asleep.  So he needs the rocking or the feeding to replicated the sleep patterns.  So it is important that where he is & what is happening as he drifts off to sleep doesn't need your involvement, but while he needs you involved, he'll keep waking in those light stages expecting you to be doing the same & because he sleeps on you when he moves from early sleep to heavier sleep around 10mins, he's expecting to hear your heart beat too.