Having a tough time with my son...

[ninjaninja]

My son is nearly 5 months old. He's always been a fairly good sleeper. Always woken up for 2-3 feeds but straight back to sleep after. All of a sudden his sleep has completely changed. He sleeps for an hour at a time then wakes up to chat, wakes up for 2-3 hours at a time in the middle of the night, just chatting and screaming (because he finds it funny not because he's upset). I'm utterly shattered, and exasperated by it! Is this normal? Does it get better. I'm so, so tired...

My son did that at 6 months ..... I was exhausted we ended up co - sleeping

We are already co-sleeping 😥

I found 5 months was a game changer for sleeping, DC regressed horribly. We tried different routines, putting them down at different times and ways of relaxing them before sleeping.
We got there eventually, but it did take a good 6-8 weeks for them to settle into a routine and sleep properly again.

It's so hard when you have no help from a DP. I'm so exhausted!

I bet it is! Just take every day one at a time and try different routines. You’ll both get there.

My GS sleeps for 12 hours most nights and has done since about 5 months. But he doesn't co sleep. He wakes up at least once in the night and has a little chat to himself, sometimes for half an hour, then drops off again. The big drawback to co sleeping is that when the baby wakes up, someone else is there to play with!

@Soontobe60 I just know though that if I didn't co sleep he wouldn't go back to sleep, he would cry until I came to him. We've only co slept for the past 3 weeks but the reason I started doing it was because he wouldn't settle in his own cot. I thought this would save my sanity but clearly not 😥

What’s your current routine? What things have you tried?
Have you tried a night light? That helped my DD when her sleep went rubbish.

Does your DC sleep in the same bed for their nap time sleep during the day?

@LordVoldetort the routine was wake up around 7, feed, go about our day, nap in the pram if we were out or in his Moses basket at home (he still fits as he is tiny!). He would nap like clockwork, almost same time every day. Always asleep by 8:30/9 then same again.

Suddenly it's all gone to pot and he won't sleep!

Not tried a night light though....

He's also become OBSESSED with sticking his tongue out the past few days. He's really distracted by it.

Maybe try napping him in his cot when you can when you are at home.
Also, what would happen if you just ignored the night time wake up?
We used to also play music to DD when she was younger and woke up at night. Didn’t always send her back off but was a win win when it did

@LordVoldetort I've ignored him once and he screamed and screamed. I live with my friends who have a 14 year old in school. I'm so aware of any noise he makes.

Mine did this, too! Also a lone parent so I was at the end of my rope. It lasted 3-4 weeks and he's a great sleeper again now at 9 months.

3-4 weeks 😆😩