I can't take this anymore! Short naps for 6 months!!!!!!!!

[Superman'sMom]

Okay I am soo tired of my 6 1/2 month old ds taking short naps. I can count on one hand the number of good naps he was had. His schedule is going crazy now. For two days he has been overtired all day. I can'ttake it anymore.

Aiden wakes up at 7 (ish). He is in bed by 6:45. He will wake once usually to eat and he usually goes back down. For the past two days he has gotten up at 6 and the 5:30. 5:30 was this morning and he played in his bed until 7! So I hope he stops that! But he was already tired when I got him up. So I can't every try to fix his naps. I have been just going with "the flow" only we aren't flowing.

His naps have been 45 minutes forever! I think it is a matter of activity time. He was doing 2 hours and his naps weren't too bad, about 1 hour or so. But he was waking up fine. Then around the same time that his naps started to shorten he dropped his cat nap. I thought it was too early for this? He absolutely refuses to take a catnap. Yesterday he had two 45 minute naps and he woke up from the last one about 5 1/2 hours before bedtime. I tried for an hour to get him to nap, then I gave up and walked him around in the stroller for a half an hour. That didn't even work. So if we don't get two good naps we are up the creek. 

So basically I guess I need to tweak his activity time. I am thinking 2 1/2 hours. 3 hours we have tried and that is too long, he is overtired. I had laid him down after 2 1/2 hours before he started the waking up tired because I partied all night thing. He slept for 1 hour and 20 minutes! The next nap he didn't. So I am just not sure what to do anymore. I just need somebody to help me sort through all this. Could there be anything else I need to change. He has a good winddown and he sleeps independently.

I just can't take it anymore. I am so tired. I noticed you (Cole'sMom) had told somebody else that 6-7 months is too early to be up for 4 hours. SO what can I do?

[Superman'sMom]

Okay he actually slept till 8 today, I think he was exhausted from the past two days. But I put him down at 2 1/2 hours for both naps and he still woke up after 45 minutes (not in tooo bad a mood) and 30- screaming his brains out. I tried to get him back to sleep for 20 minutes and gave up. I still have no clue what to do. But he was exhausted and wouldn't take a catnap again.

[Colin Macs Mom]

Hi Chelsea,

I have been seeing a similar thing with my ds, a little younger than yours. He refuses to catnap anymore too, which essentially means that he ends up being awake for 3+ hours before bedtime.    Could this maybe be a developmental thing with this age? Part of the shift to being awake longer periods?

[Superman'sMom]

Yes I agree that it is a devolpmental thing. I think he is ready to drop the catnap. But when he takes two short naps (at the most he sleeps 1 1/2 hours a day) he is cranky and difficult. So if I could just put him down for 3 short naps instead of two long ones that would be okay. Not ideal and not what I am trying to do. But if I need to I can't. All of the ladies on the June/July thread are having the same issues. Mine have been going on since.....he was born. He slept good for about a month. Then his routione went to  .  So I just don't know how to fix it. I am having to walk around with him all night because he is just so tired he is incapable of doing anything. I am guessing the only thing I can do is to adjust his awake time. But his night wakings and early mornings are devestating. If I just put him down when he gets tired (1 1/2 hours-2 after a bad night) he will be done with is last nap by 12 or earlier. Then what do I do with him? Drive him around until he passes out? I would if gas prices weren't so high!

[Colin Macs Mom]

OMG, me too. Colin has had a tough time with sleeping since he was born too, he did AWESOME for nearly a month, and then what do you know it all went you know where and has been there ever since. It's a great night if he only wakes 3 times (meaning needs resettling or what not). I have tried everything, and I know that since he's 200% spirited it will take longer, but I am SO TIRED!

I don't recommend the car thing though Chelsea, we've tried that and it totally backfired. Maybe he needs a couple days to adjust to a new routine?

[Superman'sMom]

I was joking about the car thing. He really hasn't had a new routine. It would be nice if I could keep one though. I never know what is going to happen. I definalty think his spirited side is shining through. I remember a lot of people told me at 6 months it gets easier. They obviously don't have spirited/ touchy children!

[teezee]

just wanted to say {{{{{{Hugs}}}}}} to you chelsea - hope tonight brings u some well deserved rest...!

[GraceKellysmom]

Chelsea,

One thing I noticed with my kids is they did the early morning wakings usually for one of three things: getting ready to do something developmental (crawling, sitting up, etc), getting ready to be sick, or teething and in pain. I usually didn't know which to pick until after the fact. The whole hindsight 20/20 thing.

The other thing I wanted to say is that my kiddos never did the same thing every time. And if I hoped/expected them to do the same thing every day, I'd be disappointed. And any time I tried to change something (like awake time) I had to give them about a week to see what the true results were going to be. There were just too many variables to see results same day/next day.

I agree that tweaking awake time is a good way to get him on a better schedule. I do want to mention that my day care baby was never a good sleeper. He did 45 min naps from 4 months until now he is 14 months and still often doing it. He sleeps 10-11 hrs at night and that is all the sleep he seems willing to do or requires. It's pretty crazy!

Grace was my spirited one and she was hard to get to nap too. Turns out she thrived on routine but I didn't find the right one until she was about 8-9 months old. When day time naps improved, night time got a lot better shortly after. On her tough days, when she was exhausted but wouldn't nap, I tossed her in the sling and took a walk. I walked a LOT, lost all the baby weight. It was hard to see other moms with "better" babies, easier babies, looking at me like "what is wrong with her?" But we survived and she is a pretty easy toddler and then came her wonderful textbook brother.

{hugs} and hopefully something I've said will help.

[kim&savannah]

I have to agree with Stacey--try not to count on anything so you won't be so dissapointed --I'm still trying to learn this--I have a 19 month old spirited dd who still doesn't sleep great, but naps and even night have gotten better for us, so don't give up.  It was around 1 year that her naps became more regular (1-2.5 hours--still not totally consistant, but at that point I considered anything over 1 hour great!).  But in the meantime, we did struggle a lot with making it to bedtime when she dropped the catnap--she also was an early waker for a LONG time (finally seems to have picked 6:30 to be her wake time most mornings, but that just happened in the last few weeks).  We just put her down early if she'd had two short naps.  And it seldom meant she'd wake up any earlier--if anything, she slept later those days, which then helped the next day. 

It is frustrating when they aren't consistant.  I really think I could have handled the short naps and even the 2-3 night wakings every night if I just knew when they were coming!  Good luck!

~Kim

[Superman'sMom]

Thanks guys. It really does help.

One thing I noticed with my kids is they did the early morning wakings usually for one of three things: getting ready to do something developmental (crawling, sitting up, etc), getting ready to be sick, or teething and in pain. I usually didn't know which to pick until after the fact. The whole hindsight 20/20 thing.

Wow you were right, he started pulling up! That is pretty cool, not the earlier part!

I really have learned to not expect him to do anything. It sounds like I do but I just can't seem to adjust his schedule because he is so crazy. Last night he was up all night. So he was already cranky. I guess I am just going to try to do a 2 1/2 hour awake time. I am not sure if I should try to keep him up till it is time? I guess he will just always be overtired. And take short naps.

We do walk a lot. When the weather is warm we are outside a lot! I wish I could say the same about the losing the weight part....

Does anyone happen to remember about how long your lo's activity time was at this age? (The touchy/spirited babies)

Thanks a lot guys. I just get tired of everything being so crazy all the time. I have been tweaking and fixing for 6 months straight. I just hoped it would have gotten better by now.

[teezee]

chelsea - A times for alecks range from 2 - 3 hours depending on her demeanor.  i try to push it a little to the longer side so she naps better and it seems to work (as long as she doesn't become overtired).  she is a little bit older than aiden but was 3 weeks early so her adjusted age is about the same.  maybe u want to try giving him a little bit of water before naps to make sure he is not waking up out of hunger??  just a thought.

[GraceKellysmom]

Even when I thought I had it figured it, they go and change on me. Tweaking is kinda the story of a kid's life?

On the activity time, one more thought to try. Sometimes when they are overtired, they need to catch up and go down early. So if he is tired at 1.5 hrs awake, put him down. If he only sleeps 45 min, so be it. He gets 3 45 min naps. If he needs an earlier bed time, then he gets it. Aim for 11-13 hrs per night.

Grace varied on her awake time at that point because she was coming to work with me. I think she was lucky to get 2 hrs, it was more often like 1.5. She was a pistol!!! Screamed herself to sleep every time, in my arms or not. White noise helped her a ton.