I don't want to do controlled crying with DD- 5 months. Come back me up here please!

[jeffily]

DD has just started, in the last couple of weeks, waking 4/5 times a night. She feeds back to sleep usually, although we have had a couple of nightmare nights where she has wanted to get up at 3 am and so stayed awake for a couple of hours. I am shattered...
She is not taking a full feed on these wakes, and I have tried getting her off to sleep without the boob (though, it must be admitted, not very hard as am too tired to stay awake for long and just want the sleep). She has recently started rolling over, so sometimes she wakes because she is stuck and can't get back onto her back, other times I think she may have just got into the habit of waking.

I am hoping that this is a growth spurt and she will settle down again, but the fact that she is not taking a full feed is making me feel that maybe not. DH is quite keen on CC, but I really don't want to do that. Is it the only way forward? I mean, I really do want to get some sleep again, I'm happy to get up 2x a night but this is silly at the moment. Should I start giving her water in the night when she wakes? at the mo she is fully BF, so I'd have to train her on the bottle as well as to take the water. Should I try her with a dummy? Or is it time to bite the bullet and start giving her some formula milk? Please tell me that this will pass....

[bamboobutton]

is she in her own cot? in your room or her own room?

i am a huge fan of co-sleeping as you can just roll onto your side and BF while dozing and staying bed. i don't see how this problem can mean the end of BFing! formula won't make her sleep the night through, i FF and ds still woke loads at this age.

im sure a more knowlegable(can't spell today) MNer has come along with better advice in the time its taken me to type this out!

[seeker]

She is too little for cc. Could you take her into bed with you or isn't that an option? Might be the best way for everyone to get some sleep!

[Habbibu]

I would just feed her back to sleep at this stage - they go through a huge range of developmental changes which affect sleep; it may be that her learning to roll is triggering./being triggered by all sorts of interesting changes in her brain, and that's affecting her sleep.

She's too wee to do any kind of "sleep training" just now; if you want a gentler thing to read, try the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. But odds are it's a phase and will pass. having worried about this kind of thing a lot with dd, I wish in hindsight that I had just gone with the flow more and done the easiest thing at the time, all the time. i did in the end, as I'm very path-of-least-resistance minded, and no rods were made for our backs, as it turns out.

It is a phase, it will pass, and she'll do something new and surprising to occupy your minds!

[Montifer]

DS was the same and I personally feel sleepy bf is the easiest solution.

As Habbibu says lots going on developmentally at her age. DS had rolling, growth spurt and teething going on at 5-6 months.
I also worried about always feeding him to sleep and him never being able to settle himself, but it just happened - another phase no doubt.

He is now 15 months and sometimes asks for bf if I put him down but is very happy being put in his cot by anyone else when he is tired, even stands at the bottom of the stairs and points to his bedroom!

It is hard when you are so tired but these early stages are so short in the general scheme of things, I try and enjoy them as they will be gone so quickly.

[sweetkitty]

Agree with everyone else 5 months too young for CC, cosleeping and BFing best way to get some sleep. It sounds to me as if you are happy as things are (well maybe not the lack of sleep) but feel your DH is forcing CC on you both.

I have had 3 DC, first one great sleeper from 6 weeks old, next 2 woke up to 6 times a night for a feed even when on 3 meals and snacks a day, it's a comfort thing as well as a food thing, little babies have small tummies and some of them do need feeding at night at 5 months. Both DD2 and 3 went into a cot in their own room no problem at 12 months and dropped the nightfeeds without CC, there was a little crying when no boob was offered on the first night but DP was there for comfort and cuddles. 7 months or so isn't that long in the grand scheme of things.

Formula won't do a thing, neither will water probably, she is waking as she is coming up her natural sleep cycle and wanting Mummy and boob to settle herself back down and know everything is all right, it's kind of natural from their point of view.

[tinierclanger]

It will pass, if you can cope and are prepared to carry on, it will get better and she will learn to settle herself. DON'T do CC UNLESS you both want to.

DS was bad sleeper at that age but started gradually improving from about 6 months. I did do some stuff from NCSS, which I think helped, especially the pulling off before he fell asleep feeding, but in the main I think a lot of it is developmental.