Please Help Me Get My Almost 6 Month Old Son to Sleep

Get the book Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child. Read it.

At 6 months, I think it is time to take him out of the swaddle. How long do you let him scream at nap? The book will talk about teaching a child to self soothe and the different stages of sleep/napping at different ages. SUCH a helpful book - GET IT! :-) I HIGHLY recommend it! :-)

At 6 months, a child should be taking two solid naps a day, maybe even a 3rd short nap and starting to sleep long stretches at night, waking up only 1-2x if ANY. You are right, your child needs to sleep, but you need to help teach them to sleep. Right now he is protesting and somehow you are giving in.

Good luck!

Is he teething?
Is he getting enough intake? ie: breastmilk or Formula?
6 months of age is also a growth-spurt period in a baby. And at these junctures, many things go on, at the SAME time, in a baby and per development, and it can tweak their sleep. And at these times, they often need more intake and need more feedings/nursings.

At this age also, breastmilk/Formula is a baby's primary source of nutrition. Not solids. Solids is not as nutritionally dense, as breastmilk/Formula. And they need to be nursed on demand.
I know, a few women who had babies that would not sleep and was fussy. And the reason was: their baby was not getting enough intake. One woman did not have enough breastmilk, and the other just did not nurse her baby, on demand and her baby was "not getting fed enough... " in her words. And then, once she increased nursings, then her baby got better. And slept better. And the other woman fed her baby (who was on a bottle) when she, thought baby needed to be fed and she had her baby on a "schedule" for feedings. But so baby was not getting fed when the baby... needed it and was hungry.
Are you nursing your baby, when he wakes? And during anytime, on demand?
My kids as babies, had huge appetites. All day and all night long. And they grew like weeds. I always nursed before each nap and before sleep and when they woke. I knew if they were hungry, or just having wakings.
For a baby, sleeping all night long, is not the same as an adult who may sleep for 8 hours straight. For a baby, sleeping throughout the night, means even just for 4- 5 hours straight. And they do wake.

And if he is also teething, in conjunction with being hungry, a baby cannot sleep.

Is he sleeping on his tummy? Our daughter slept like a rock when placed on her tummy, or with her legs tucked under her and on her tummy..

Make sure, and I am sure you are checking.. that he is fed till full and really well burped. As their tummies grow, it may take 1 or 2 more burps than normal t get the gas out, make sure he is dry and not over heated.. Some people over dress their babies. They are little balls of energy, so many of them tend to feel over heated.

Take your finger and go around his gums and see if you can feel any tiny teeth coming through.. Be careful, if he bites down and there is one of those needle teeth, it will hurt you! If you feel them, freeze some baby wash cloths and let him chew on them.

He could be reaching a milestone..
They get fussy trying to roll one way or the other, practicing getting up on his knees, pulling up to stand or trying to walk..

Our daughter loved her doorway jumpy at this point. I would put on some music and she would jump and jump.. Got rid of a lot of her frustrations AND wore her out!

Does he have reflux by chance? If he does, you may not be doing anything wrong - laying down is simply painful for him.

My reflux baby did this. He NEVER took 2 naps a day, and he woke many times each night well past 6 months. He slept better in a swing or bouncy seat, because of the incline. But, to be honest, he never slept really well until he outgrew the reflux.

If he is a reflux baby, don't beat yourself up over this. Get as much help as you can so that you can get some sleep. My DH and I found that we were both better off if we took turns with an entire night at a time. So, I would take all the wake-ups one night while DH slept in the spare room. Then we would switch. That way, each of us got a full night's sleep at least every few days.

ETA: I just look at some of your previous questions. Your baby sounds so much like my reflux baby. Please talk to your ped. Even if he doesn't spit up all the time, he may have silent reflux.

When he wakes at night do you rush in or do you give him a few minutes to see if he will settle on his own? I used to wait 5 minutes if they were just fussing or light crying, and most of the time they settled back on their own in under that time. But, if he is waking up in a full our cry, of course that is different.

It sounds like he doesn't like or need the swaddle... mine would break out of a swaddle by 3 months old. Also, I don't know why you don't expect him to sleep through the night. At 6 mos, a baby should be more than capable of sleeping through the night... at this age they don't wake out of hunger, but out of habit (unless they are sick or uncomfortable). It seems like he could do without the swaddle, and might be overtired at this point. Maybe 1.5 to 2 hours after waking he is not quite ready for his first nap... give him a bit more time to play/be awake. At 6 mos, my kids would usually sleep from about 8 or 9pm to 6 or 7 am straight through with 2 naps that usually equaled 3 hours. He should be totaling 13-14 hours of sleep in 24 hours at this age. Another possibility could be teething? A growth spurt or new stage of development? Go without the swaddle for now and see if that helps... Other than that, maybe do less "trying" to get him to sleep and just leave him to learn to fall back asleep on his own. He should be able to soothe himself back to sleep and may just need to fuss and cry for a while. It is ok to let babies cry. That is what they do... sometimes to just get there energy out. As long as you know he is not in pain or sick, he will be ok! Good Luck.

I imagine he doesn't like being swaddled...

Otherwise he sounds like a normal baby.

I would get rid of the swaddle and let him sleep on his belly.

I will tell you what I do and I am struggling with some of the same things you are- frequent waking, hard to get down. Some of what I have done to cope is not considered safe, or ideal parenting. But we have to survive right?

I gave up on back sleeping. Once baby had a strong enough neck to lift his head, I put him to sleep on his tummy.
I purchased and Ergo baby carrier and often get him to fall asleep in there before transferring him safely to his crib.
I nurse him in my bed until he falls sleep and then let him sleep in my bed. I place pillows so he cannot roll into crevasses and put the baby video monitor on him. I will no longer do this when he gets good at rolling.
I bought him a kick butt baby mobile and placed it very close to his reach.
I got him on cereal and try to do a cereal feeding right before bed time.
With other babies, I put them to bed all night in the baby swing!
Also, I keep a baby recliner with dangling toys that he enjoys and after his morning feeding me or husband buckle him in there right next to us and go back to sleep. He is content with this for up the 45 minutes while we catch a few more precious z's!

This much I know is true. Things can be going very badly with baby and change for the better overnight. And conversely, things can be going very well, and suddenly going badly again.
I feel for you. Mine was going down at 9 and waking at 12:00, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 5:30 and up for the day at 7:00. Now this week he's only up at 12, 3, and 7. getting up twice is better than getting up 5 times to feed. Its rough mama. So sorry. I wanted to write this post myself last week.

Maybe he does not like being swaddled. Try letting him sleep on his belly.