6 Month Old Wakes After 30 Minutes

I know that can be very frustrating. I have a six month old too. Her naps are not always consistent, but she usually does take three a day. If she sleeps less than an hour, I usually leave her in her crib until the hour is up whether she goes back to sleep or not. I wonder if your son might be getting enough sleep and simply wakes because he is rested. How long is he staying up? Maybe he needs to take a nap after staying up a shorter amount of time. My daughter can only stay awake for 1.5-2 hours at a time. If I keep her up longer than that she gets over tired and really fights her nap. I'm sorry you are struggling and I hope it gets better.

Is you son going through a growth spurt? I find that when my 9 month old twins start this, it's because they are hungry. I try to make sure and give them a big meal right before nap time and that seems to help them sleep longer. Also, I've noticed that their sleep schedules gets wacky when they are cutting new teeth, so maybe check for that. Good luck.

This is not uncommon for babies between 5 and 8 months to do. Hopefully it will be temporary - no longer than three weeks. The cause may be associated with a new sense of alertness that occurs around this age. As he comes out of one sleep cycle (like REM for us), this new sense of alertness is affected by familiar sounds of his surroundings. It's enough to wake him up and his curiosity makes him decide he wants to figure that out more than fall right back to sleep. I think it's best to leave him in his crib to self-soothe back to sleep. Sounds like it is having a negative effect on the rest of your day, but I think it shouldn't last too long.

Hi G..
Do you drink much caffeine? If so, that may be a factor in your son's lack of getting a decent nap.
Also, do you pick him up everytime he wakes up (after 30 min.)? If so, he's learning how not to self sooth. Maybe he needs to be ignored (I know that sounds harsh), but maybe he could learn that if/when he wakes up, he won't get the positive reinforcement of Mom picking him up, getting lots of attention, etc.
Have you considered not giving him a nap for a day or two?
Maybe he'll sleep even longer at night and do fine without a nap.
Good luck!

I am SOOOO in your shoes right now. My son is 5 mnths old and does the exact same thing. On a good day I will get at least 1-2 good naps from him then a short 30-40 min nap while we take a walk in the evening. I wish I could give you advice, but I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone. I will be looking to see what advice you get from other moms. My son is not sleeping thru the night yet and but gets at least 9-10 hrs at night. I am like you thinking this is not enough sleep. However, he is not cranky, but I can tell he is tired. I will be looking to see what I can do to get my little guy more sleep. I hope that your son will get the sleep he needs. Good Luck!!