u/InformationStation14

My LO just turned 6 months. We have officially transitioned from 3 naps to 2. Honestly the transition went great. I thought it was going to be tough, but she did good. However we are getting a lot of 4-5am wake ups. She’s on 3/3.5/3.5, DWT is 7am and bed is 7:30pm. We have been experimenting with nap length and total daytime sleep. We’ve gone from 2.5 hours total, to 3 hours, to 2, and everything seems to give the same result. Some days she won’t have any EMW and others will. I noticed when I go in and give her the pacifier and just falls back to sleep & other times I have to actually rock her back to sleep after about 10 minutes and she’s out till 7am.

All naps she goes down independently. I go in, put her in her sleep sack, give her the pacifier and lovey and leave. She is just fine.

Bedtime we do bath, bottle & story, and then some cuddles/ rocking and bed. Again she is put down awake.

Not sure if this is just a transitional thing and maybe she will grow out of it. But her crying at 4am is pretty hysterical not just fussing or talking to herself. Which is why I always go in. I’m not against the CIO but we’ve never sleep trained and 4am doesn’t seem like the time to start.

Any advice?

6 month old schedule is currently: 2/2.5/2.5/3
DWT: 7am
Bedtime: 7:30pm

I feel like she is 1. Able to lengthen the first window, even by 15 minutes & 2. The last nap is getting tougher to take. She isn’t necessarily fighting it, but with her other naps she’s down in 1-2 minutes this one takes like 5-10

If I lengthen the first window it throws all the naps off, she can’t nap more than 2.5 hours MAX, and I prefer they are more than 30 minutes for more restorative sleep. The only way to get that is to switch to 3/3.5/3.5. I’m also nervous about that 3.5 window at the end of the day.

The schedule I would like is:
7:00
10-11am
2:30-4
4-7:30

I’m not sure if maybe I just bite the bullet and try it and see, but if I do the day will be off with that first window extending. And I really don’t want to have to do bedtime any earlier than 7.

What should I do?

My now 6 month old was sleeping amazing up until 5.5 months old and something clicked and it all just went to crap. She started waking up throughout the night (used to sleep 12-12.5 hours overnight, 7:30-7/7:30). Then it turned into night wakings and early mornings and now I’m lost. My husband works 5am-5pm so he’s pretty much useless at night because I let him sleep, plus he would literally never wake up. He sleeps hard.

I keep trying to understand what happened, did I do something to change how she is, did I mess up a schedule, etc. well I’ve now changed her schedule probably a million times because everyone on the internet says to. And I listen. Don’t know which is worse.

I’ve learned that she can stay up a bit more between naps now, so we were on 2/2.5/2.5/2.75-3. Well she was up at 5:40 and I let her sleep and she didn’t wake up again until 7:30am. Well that’s going to throw everything off now. I CANNOT WIN NO MATTER WHAT I DO.

But I’m mostly here to complain about the fact that nobody told me as a FTM that 95% of the day would be spent doing math to calculate naps, WATCHING the clock, glued to my house, and slowly spiraling into what I would consider slight depression. And it sucks. I would have never become a mom if I knew it would be like this. I assume the people who love being a mom have children that just sleep when they put them down and don’t get back up. Or just “go with the flow” I hate that fucking saying. Sorry Susan I really can’t just go with the flow when I have no idea what flow it is. Because really at this point I’m probably messing my kid up more trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

Some people tell me let her sleep, some people tell me “too much daytime sleep, cap it to 2 hours, “not enough time awake”, it’s like a cycle that can’t be broken. One persons saying contradicts another. And then people say, “you are her mom you know best.” I really don’t. I have no fucking clue what I’m doing. I thought being a mom was going to be easy as far as, sleep, eat, poop. Nope. Throw in, learning to roll around in crib and wake up, lose pacifier wake up, room too hot or too cold wake up, people talking outside wake up, like where does it get better?

I will never tell a new mom who asks “so how is it?” “Does it get better?” Nope it doesn’t. And honestly not a walk in the park or enjoyable what so ever.

Looking for someone who can just help me understand. My 6 month old started having 1-2 night wakings and has never done it before. We’re going on 2 weeks now of this happening.

We just changed schedules to: 2/2.5/2.5/3 and I am capping naps at 2.5 hours.

However I did the math and last night she only got 10 hours and 20 minutes with the 2 night wakings. They usually don’t last more than 5-10 minutes. She took naps equalling 2 hours and 45 minutes across 3 naps. So total sleep for the day was 13ish. I know they are between 12-14. Is the night wakings due to overtired or under? Does she need more daytime sleep? I can do 3 hours of day? But I am wanting to eliminate the night wakes & aiming for at least 11-11.5 of total night sleep.

Help!!

Since 5.5 months my baby’s night sleep has declined in the worst way. We used to have a full sleep through the night since 8 weeks. 7:30pm-7:30am. A few weeks ago it started with a random night wake and I would go in and rock her and she would sleep till the morning. Then it increased to 2 and now we are anywhere from 2-5. I haven’t fed her in the night since being a newborn and I’m not starting now. I also doubt it’s hunger, she eats 4, 6 oz bottles a day with 3 solid meals. I’ve tried increasing formula and she won’t finish the bottle. So no go there. She has learned to roll back to tummy but can’t get back. Thinking the pacifier might be adding to it also, she stops as soon as I put it back in for her in the middle of night. She can’t do it on her own yet. I’m just so lost. Thought maybe it was her sleep sack or room being too warm but we’ve definitely slept different places at different temperatures and that never seemed to be an issue. Our house is older so it does tend to run colder but she is always warm so I can’t bundle her up either.

Current schedule:
2/2.5/2.5/3
With naps capped at 2.5 (wondering if she needs 3 hours instead? Or will this make nights worse?) mostly have the naps capped because I can’t seem to work 3 hours into that schedule with trying to keep bedtime at 7:30pm. Want to add her naps are currently 1, 1, 30 min. I feel like she could keep sleeping if I let her. So this is why I’m wondering if she needs more. Or if I need to try to drop to 2 longer naps. But then I can’t make it to bedtime.

Bedtime is:
Bath-7
715-pjs
7:20-bottle & book
I rock for a little bit she isn’t fully asleep and I set her down in her crib. I do this for all naps and night sleep. We sing a song and then I lay her down.

I’m hoping someone can just help me and show me the way lol. I’m desperate at this point.

I’m a FTM, and I just want to get some input and advice on my baby’s sleep schedule.

Background:

She has been sleeping through the night (7:30-7:30) since she was 8 weeks old. She is currently 5.5 months. We have figured out we can roll back to tummy, but can’t get back over. This has broken our sleep. I also think we are going through a sleep regression (didn’t go through it at 4 months). She has been taking naps anywhere from 20 min-2 hours but never consistent and always unpredictable. Some days she can nap & others no way. Currently these are her wake windows: 2/2.15/2.15/3, some days it’s more like 2/2/2/2.5. It really sucks that everyday is different so I can’t find a schedule to stick to. For the longest time, when she was predictable, her schedule was nap 9-11, 1-2:30, and 4:30-5pm. Now that we are getting older I’m realizing she probably doesn’t need that much sleep anymore, and obviously the wake windows are getting longer. Also since learning to roll we are having 1-3 wake ups in the night. It’s usually just go in, give her the pacifier, and leave. One night she needed me to rock her, she was pretty inconsolable. Now sometimes I go in and she’s still on her back just crying. So I’m thinking also sleep regression. I haven’t sleep trained. I’ve always just rocked her for a few minutes and put her down asleep. I’ve never changed that part. Her room is PITCH black. No light coming through what so ever. Loudest sound machine I could find, and she wears a sleep sack with arms out (has since she was 6 weeks hated being swaddled).

Now my schedule looks something like this:

7am wake up

9-10:30 nap (I wake her up usually)

12:45-2pm nap (sometimes it’s only 1-1:30 and we just have a longer wake window)

4:15-4:45 nap

7:30 bed

Someone told me to stop waking her from naps if she’s sleeping, but then others say don’t let them sleep too much during the day it takes from night sleep. I’m just so confused and feel defeated when the day goes to shit or she wakes at night and never did before. I’m just nervous I’m going to create these habits and she’s going to think that’s how it is.

I’ve tried sleep training, I’m not very good at CIO, and she has been able to just be placed in the crib wide awake and I walk out and she falls asleep. But I notice when I do this she doesn’t nap as long. And I’m scared to start a new routine now that I’ve been doing the bedtime one for so long.

Someone just please help me

Since having my baby 5 months ago, every sound drives me insane. My husband turning on the faucet and letting the water run, doors creaking, cabinets slamming, flushing of the toilet, literally everything that is loud & makes noise. But this only is when my baby is asleep. I know the link of sound & fear of her waking up are connected. People say don’t tip toe around your house while baby is asleep, but unfortunately we did and now anytime something is loud baby wakes up. So I’ve created my own anxiety lol. I’m pretty sure this is just a vent and not really a post for help, but maybe someone else feels the same?