Lack of sleepand rubbish naps affecting development?

Oh it can be so overwhelming - sleep deprivation is torture! Have you considered sleep training? We used the pampers sleep coach app and has worked wonders for us. It explains all about how sleep works to begin with which was really informative. It’s really helped us x

My baby girl will be 6 months on 27th.
She has 30minute naps only and wakes up 4 times a night.
I wouldn't worry too much.. if baby is generally not grouchy all of the time and relatively happy, still taking milk, plenty of wet nappies.. then baby is doing well 🥰
Some babies can take longer to figure their sleep cycles out xxx

I've sent you a message x

How many day time naps is she having?

It sounds quite normal the amount of disruption. Both my boys operated on the least amount of sleep possible and only got better with naps when dropped to one long nap.

Does she nap better if having a contact nap? X

This is so normal. Please try not to get hung up on the shoulds of baby sleep. My baby only had 30 minutes naps at that age too until he dropped to two naps. 12 hours total in 24 hours is within the normal range for a 6 month old. Some babies just have low sleep needs. It's very very unlikely to be affecting development, if she's happy and healthy then she's getting what she needs! It will pass, I promise.

I highly recommend Lyndsey Hookway and Heysleepybaby on Instagram if you want some realistic baby sleep info and support. A lot of what you will find by a simple Google comes from sleep trainers and those expectations just don't fit most babies x

12 hours in 24 is great at 6 months. Absolutely nothing to worry about. Your baby would be visibly tired, irritable, grumpy if not getting enough sleep. You can’t just look at average sleep recommendations - they’re based on average baby, not even on science. A happy, alert individual baby is getting all the sleep they need. FWIW I’ve got a good (contact) napper but nights are up and down. My girl is probably getting 11-12hs in total. She started rolling and crawling a month ago. Nowhere near sitting up by herself though unlike many babies her age. All babies develop differently x

I can feel your frustration and it’s so so hard. My first was the same; awful sleep (truthfully she only started sleeping through after 2 years which won’t make you feel better but is how it was!) she is the brightest, happiest little thing! I tracked everything and it made me feel awful, I was obsessed with her sleep and it didn’t make it any better! With my son I’ve not tracked a thing; he sleeps when he sleeps and although I know he wakes in the night I couldn’t tell you how many times and so I feel so much happier in myself. If you wanted to extend day time sleep could you try adding in some contact naps (thats always how we get longer naps so if he’s had a crap nap day I’ll make sure I hold him for one so he gets a good one!) The sleep wil not be stopping rolling unless you could see visible signs she was sleep deprived

These comments have really helped me, thank you. So hard to not get sucked into the ‘should’ mentality especially with google

@Jessica-elizabeth I haven't tried the Pampers app, but I will give it a go. Thanks 🙂 x

@Terri Ann thanks for your experience, it helps to know I'm not the only one going through it (even though I'm not it feels like it sometimes). She generally is a happy baby, and has so many dirty and wet nappies 😄 x

@Amy she generally has 3 naps a day, but because they are so short she always needs the next nap. Some days she seems 'wired' though so no matter what I try she will only have 2 roughly half hour naps.

She contact naps via breastfeeding and being carried in a carrier, but barely makes it over 30/40 mins maximum. She's not actually slept on just me since she was a newborn, which is a bit sad sometimes x

@Eve thanks you for your reply, I've heard of Lyndsey but will look on Instagram 🙂 She doesn't ever get to 12 hours unfortunately, but as you say, hopefully it will pass x

@Alice yes I became so obsessed and anxious about naps at one point that I would spend so long looking for the answers on the Internet. Even though it happend at 2 years old for your daughter, it helps me to know it might end at some point. It's that I don't get any real rest time during the naps either. My diet is awful as I just don't feel like I get time to do anything for myself and haven't got the energy without the help of caffeine, and it becomes a vicious circle. I don't know if I can stop the tracking though just yet like you did (very brave of you 😅). Unfortunately she doesn't contact nap on me, only through breastfeeding or being put in a carrier, and even that doesn't get a nap more than 40mins maximum

@Chloe glad it's helped you feel better as well 😊 x

@Jade thank you for your reply. She generally has 3 naps a day, but I will try to find ways to wind her down before her naps to see if that helps. I've been using the Huckleberry app to try and get an idea of her nap times as my head is all over the place most of the time, so I need a bit of a reminder about scheduling and the app helps with that, but I do try to follow her cues as much as possible x

Honestly sounds normal. My daughter just dropped from 4-5 wake ups at night to 1. She still takes 30 min naps. This likely isn't causing developmental issues. My daughter is advanced for her age developmentally. She meets most of her 9m milestones already and has her first words. My son slept way better at her age but got hit these same milestones about 2m later then this.

Hello, sorry you are going through this. I will first say you are not alone.

The ONLY thing that has worked for me is contact napping in the day where I lay with him the whole nap. I can get him to nap 3 hours with me or a maximum of 20-30 min when he sleeps alone. Have you attempted this at all?

I hate to disagree with some of the others. However, i do have to say that I don't think two 30-minute naps a day is okay. It is not enough daytime sleep for a 6 month old.