5 Month Old Sleep Advice

[Toniaxo]

Hello fellow mums! I hope you can help, I feel like I'm on a constant losing battle with my baby's sleep. I posted a few weeks ago about how he was miserable most of the day and it was suggested he wasn't getting enough sleep. Since then I have been working really hard to sleep train and improve day time naps. Assuming he's fed, changed and winded I put him down as soon as he gets fussy and he does drift off pretty quickly by himself. Some days though, even though everything is the same, he will wake up after only 30 minutes or so and ends up having maybe 3 x 30 minute naps all day. Once he wakes up it seems whatever I do he just won't go back to sleep. On his good nap days he's in a much better mood but then sleeps terribly at night. Taking a long time to get to sleep, waking up every couple of hours and having long restless periods. Here's an example schedule of what I would call a good nap day:
Wake 8
Bottle 9
Sleep 9.30
Wake 12
Bottle 12.30
Sleep 2
Wake 3.30
Bottle 3.45
Sleep 5
Wake 6
Bottle 6.30
Bottle 8
Sleep 8.30-9 with 2 night feeds approx. 3 and 6.
Can you offer any advice? On a good nap day should I be waking him up or letting him sleep as long as he needs to? On a bad nap day how can I make his naps longer? Is there a way I can have him napping well in the day and sleeping well at night or do I have unrealistic expectations of his sleeping pattern?
Thank you so much!

[FATEdestiny]

If I was to copy and adjust your schedule for a good day, this is what I would do (in bold are changes).

Wake 8 and immediately give bottle
Bottle 9
bottle and then sleep 9.30
Wake 12 and immediately feed
Bottle 12.30
Feed and then Sleep 2
Wake 3.30 and immediately feed
Bottle 3.45
Bottle and then Sleep 5
Wake 6 and bottle
Bottle 6.30
Bottle 8
Bottle then Sleep 8.30-9
Dream feed around 11pm
No night feeds 11pm - 6am

[Toniaxo]

Hi FATEdestiny thank you for responding! You helped me on my previous post too, I'm really grateful. I'm not quite sure what you mean, shall I give him a bottle each time he wakes and another before he goes to sleep each time? I've tried to dream feed in the past but it hasn't worked for me. He won't take more than a couple of ounces and he would wake at the same time for a night feed anyway. Either that or he'd wake up during the feed and it then took me a long time to resettle him, so I gave up! How would you work the schedule without a dream feed?
Thanks again :-)

[FATEdestiny]

He won't need the calories of two night feeds at this age. He might need one night feed, in which case offer a dream feed so that it doesn't encroach too much on your night. But equally 6 months reasonable to not baby to not need "calories" at night.

I've put calories in inverted commas deliberately. Because he might need the comfort of a night feed (or might not), but it's not about calories.

As long as daytime schedules allow for going to sleep within 2h of waking (which it should at this age) then your feed before going to sleep wants to be what's left from the wskibv up feed; rather than a full feed. I'd calm this a top up feed.

You can keep left over bottle feeds for 2 hours.i don't know what size bottles you give. But say you make 8oz bottles. Give the 8oz bottle upon first waking, assume baby will bring around 6oz. Then wind, nappy change and have floor time. Upon getting back to sleep for the next nap, give what's left in the bottle. I'm my example it's 2oz left from an 8oz bottle, aiming to empty the bottle. If the bottle us regularly emptied fully, make bigger bottles.