Please help - getting a 5 month old to sleep at night

[thebecster]

I'm so sleep deprived, please somebody help! My 5 month old isn't sleeping. We try to put him down at 7pm after bath, massage, feed, story. He falls asleep but then wakes up crying at about 8pm, & screams until 9.30pm when we feed him again. Then we feed him at 11pm, although he doesn't really wake up then. Then he wakes crying at 1am, 2am, 3am, 4am... We usually feed him at 4am. If we feed him before that he wants to be fed at 4am regardless. By 6am he's exhausted and wants to go back to sleep, but DH and I have to get up then.

He doesn't sleep much during the day - just a couple of hours at lunch time at most. I tried getting him to sleep more during the day in case he was overtired, but that seemed to make the problem worse. Heeeeeeelp!!! QWhat are we doing wrong? Has anyone had this problem, and managed to resolve it?

[lesley1417]

hi i have 17 week baby with reflux.perhaps yours has this?maybe he is uncomfortable.how is he during the day.do u breast feed? maybe he is comfort feeding (no-one is hungry every hour).look imto cranial osteopathy -i tried it-maybe it works. look up reflux.also if b/f have u tried to modify your diet. im cutting out dairy at present cause mine can ce a bit of a rascal .dont know if if worksas yet good luck!!

[thebecster]

Thank you Lesley! It's good to hear from someone else who has been there... So many of my friends seem to have babies sleeping 7pm to 7am (or so they say... )

He is actually really good in the day, as long as there is lots going on - when we're out & about & he's with lots of people he is just a little angel, smiling and chatting to everyone. He frets a bit if we've been in the flat all day. I was breastfeeding but my milk supply failed so he's on formula now. He's started to have a few solids - baby rice & mashed potato.

Comfort feeding sounds quite likely to me - he does fall back to sleep very easily if we go in to him, but then we're stuck in the vicious cycle of going in to him every hour... How did you find out that your baby had reflux? I don't know if he has any symptoms of this - I'll do some research.

Thanks so much for your post!