Restless nights

[Mumbert]

I would like some tips on how to get my baby to have more settled nights. He is 5 months old and has no trouble falling asleep in the evenings but during the night he stirs a lot and cries until someone soothes him back to sleep. This happens nearly once an hour. He uses a dummy at nights, would it help to wean him from it? I'm not expecting a full night's sleep, just a bit more peaceful time for all of us.

I never used dummies with either of mine, so have no idea if they are a problem or not, although if it falls out of his mouth, he could be waking up when it falls out?

If you are going to him every time he cries and he falls back to sleep as you soothe him, he will love that!

Have you tried leaving him longer before going to him? Or will he scream the house down.

I put mine in bed with me but my children's father was away a lot so it was easy for me to have them in with me.

It seems that he knows when he cries he will be soothed so perhaps for a few nights you have to tough it out and leave him longer to cry if you know he is fed and dry and is simply calling out for attention.

All three of my DCs woke up every hour or two for feeds until they were 9-10 months old. It's not unusual at all for 5 month olds to still need feeding at night. I would just feed him and see if that helps him go for longer stretches. Don't leave him to cry, you will breach the bond of trust you've built up - he's five months old and doesn't know he's separate from you. Being fed and dry is really the most basic of a baby's needs - he also needs heaps of physical contact to develop properly.

He wakes up 3 times a night to feed but those times are not really the problem as he's quite regular with them and falls back asleep easily. It's just those gazillion other times when he fusses and stirs for no apparent reason. I've tried to have him in bed with me, and it did calm him down and even if he was awake I could still sleep as he wasn't crying. but I haven't done it often as I feel so scared about rolling on top of him or him rolling under the duvet or something else happening. Are there any safe ways to co-sleep that i could try?

Yes, DS2 has been like that since about 4 months. He's now 8m and does seem to be coming out the other side of it a bit. We co-slept either all or part of each night until literally the last few days - I would take him to the spare room and sleep with him in the double bed there. It's shoved against the wall so I was never worried about him falling off. I wouldn't worry about him rolling under the duvet - it's pretty unlikely. You're unlikely to roll on him either - make sure he's on his own side of the bed, kind of at arm's length, and he'll be fine. You'll be aware of him even when you're asleep (the subconscious brain is amazing). I wouldn't do it if you've had a couple of glasses of wine, though, also you shouldn't co-sleep if you're a smoker.