5 month old very distressed and will not sleep!

[Elguapo]

Hello everyone, Last time I posted here it was about our new born with reflux. You all were a massive support and help during that time and we managed to get through it pretty successfully, So another massive thank you is in order.

Anyway, since then our DS had begun to really come in to his own regarding sleeping and was beginning to sleep 8-10 hour stretches without to much fuss. It was awesome and we were thanking our lucky stars.

Unfortunately about three weeks ago we noticed him becoming more and more restless around bed time. It was taking considerably longer to settle him down to sleep. In the last week this has escalated into full blown in intense, hard, distressed unconsolable crying. The only thing that will settle him is if my wife breast feeds him to sleep, which we are only doing out of sheer desperation and even then his sleep is shallow and restless. Needless to say we are back to being so sleep deprived we are near crumbling.

My wife has read about 4-5 month sleep regression? Is this something any of you have knowledge or experience with? I don't know if that is what is going on here, but whatever it is it's bloody hard and we're not sure what to do or where to go regarding setting a distraught screaming baby.

I'm not a big fan of letting DS cry in out for too long, especially if his cries go to that next level of distress. I have a terrible feeling that the answer is to "Just ride it out, and it will get better". In the mean time we would happily listen with all ears to any advice, ideas or common experiences that might shed some light on getting DS to sleep and/or keeping our sanity.

Thanks Y'all.

J & A.

[Elguapo]

Just to add, Other than the sleep issues, He's an incredibly happy mellow baby pretty much the rest of the time. Thank God.

[ElphabaTheGreen]

Hi there - yes, could be the four month sleep regression. And there isn't really anything wrong with breastfeeding to sleep, especially if it works! Evening breastmilk is full of tryptophans to promote sleep so the more the merrier.

Did you know there's a dedicated sleep board here with lots of people with the same problems and great advice/support?

[Elguapo]

Thanks for that. I did not know that. I just flash posted this. I'm not exactly running on all cylinders.