To ask for your advice on how to get baby to sleep - please help!

[Springbaby2023]

My 5.5 month old baby will not sleep and has not slept well since 3.5 months. I’ve posted about this before but it’s just getting worse and worse, he’s now up every 30 mins - hour over night. Never does more than an hour.

Last night he was up god knows how many times (it’s usually around 10 when I count) and has now been awake since 4.30th and my three year old will be up any minute. Today will be hell.

I’m at my wits end and can’t think clearly on it because of being so tired.

He has a good nap schedule but is fed to sleep (EBF) which I think is the issue. Also has a dark room, white noise, isn’t too hot/ too cold, has teething medicine, anything you can think of basically. Won’t take a dummy.

As far as I can see I’ve got three options:

1. Wait it out, know it’s a phase and will pass
2. Sleep train
3. Introduce solids to see if that helps (I don’t think it will but MIL swears it will so thought I’d include it)

I honestly go round and round in circles trying to decide what to do and it’s driving me just as mad as the lack of sleep itself. I don’t really want to sleep train but I can’t keep living like this.

Probably opening a can of worms here but has anyone got any advice on what to do? Or even just on how to survive this phase.

I don't agree that it's the feeding to sleep that is causing wake ups.
DD was EBF and was terrible sleeper until just before 12 months old she started sleeping through the night.
DS is 9 months and also EBF and his sleep is so much better, doing longer stretches overnight.

Some babies just need more comfort and reassurance than others. Sleep training isn't the right thing to do with a baby that needs more reassurance and comfort.

It's tough but it will pass. There will be a lot of phases of sleep throughout the first couple of years.

Weaning isn't likely to help and may make it worse as baby tries to process the change to food, that can make them uncomfortable.
DD was fine but DS was very uncomfortable for about a month.

Have a look at the following sleep accounts on Instagram, they are all gentle consultants (but actually, not under the guise of anything else), their pages have been amazing for me:

Little nest sleep
Second star to the right
Fox and the moon
Lyndsey Hookway
Hey sleepy baby

@TheGoogleMum that’s the issue I’m having, too tired to think straight or logically!

5.5 months is not too early to night wean and formula will not make a difference

Whats the naps like during the day? Wondering if overtired x

5 months is definitely too early for night weaning and sleep training!

How did you do this without sleep training? Did you stop feeding to sleep? This is exactly what I wanted to hear!

Yeah I stopped feeding her to sleep (which I should've done sooner but it was just so much easier, I had been putting off stopping for ages as I just didn't have the energy to try and stop)

Started rocking her and singing instead, it took longer to get her to sleep to begin with but she'd sleep through/wake once so it was worth it

and it meant she was still being comforted and felt safe compared to being left in a room to cry alone

She's 2 now and just lies down and has a cuddle and goes to sleep

No they're not. My son stopped night feeds at 11 weeks. I fed him every 2 hours to get the calories in

During the day*

Have you tried a soft night light? My son could not sleep in pitch black, and we found it really helped. My daughter needed the black out blinds etc, so I do appreciate this might not be helpful!

My daughter only ever slept in chunks of 40 mins and then would scream for 2 hours on repeat every night until I resolved her dairy intolerance / reflux issues at 6 months. I had a call with the sleep fairy (Alison Scott Wright) which totally changed our lives! So if you have any spare funds, speaking with a professional sleep trainer is worth its weight in gold.

Sleep training doesn't have to be leaving baby to cry going back in 1 2 3 minutes look at gradual withdrawal but easier done if it's another adult as baby won't smell your milk

Thing is, sometimes there is no reason for it. I didn't breastfeed so no feeding to sleep, he rarely fell asleep on the bottle but still woke every 2 bloody hours.. I clung to weaning as the solution, but nope, it made no difference.

Really good, he has an hour or so in the morning, two hours at lunch and then anywhere between 15 mins and 45 mins in the evening. For his long nap he’ll wake after half an hour, be fed back to sleep then sleep by himself for 1.5 hours which he never does at night!

This is what I did too and night feeds stopped at 8 weeks. I didn't breastfeed though.

Most babies are capable of sleeping through long before five months. HV on Woman's Hour said 80% of babies.

Mine did from 8 weeks and 11-12 hour block of sleep by five months.

But we'd made sure not to have a feed/sleep association from early on which was a big help with this.

@RidingMyBike I disagree with the HV... show me the peer reviewed research! HVs are not oracles. And for naturally fed babies it's almost impossible not to have a feed to sleep association. Did you FF?

Also breastmilk is digested quicker. An 11 hour stretch at 8 weeks for a BF baby is not necessary, healthy or desirable!

I didn't have to feed my son to sleep on a night. Put him straight down and he went to sleep. He learned to self settle

Sorry by 5 months but same point stands.

@Cowlover89 did you breastfeed?

Oh bugger off! If they get enough calories during the day of course it's fine for them to sleep that long. My son did at 11 weeks.

Yes

If so that's great @Cowlover89 but it wouldn't work for every baby.

I know it wouldn't. Every baby is different

I think it's highly unusual @Cowlover89 and not many could manage it. I'd get thirsty myself over 11 hours!!

My opinion may be unpopular but I'd switch to formula.

I had a similar situation with DD1, i ended up weaning her from breast to bottle (couldn't pump) and she slept so much better.