We all need some sleep!!!

[tiredviolet]

I know this has been done over and over, but I was hoping for some personal tips/hints.
DS is 5 months old, exclusively breast fed, in a cot at the end of our bed. Never slept for more than 3 hours! He was an IUGR baby so is a snacker and wakes every 2-3 hours all night! Tried all sorts, change mattress, sleep aids, dummy no dummy, co sleeping, too hot too cold ect ect the list could go on and on!
I'm exhausted, please any tips would be perfect right now!

Has he got day/night sorted? - is he BF enough during the day? is he sleeping a lot or not enough? Is he outside enough in the day?

Have you tried extending the feed times? So when he wakes, make him wait if it's been less than 3 hours since the last feed. Comfort and cuddle but no food. Then slowly over days/weeks extend the time gap. Always ensuring he's feeding lots in the day.

You have my sympathy. AT 5 months DS hadn't slept more than 45 minutes in a row, then taking 1 hour+ to settle back to sleep. I was the walking dead! When his sister came along and slept for 2-3 hour blocks I thought I'd won the lottery!

DS is now 6. He's slept through from 8 months ish (nothing we did though god knows I tried everything). DD is 3.5 and still wakes 1-2x per night.

My overall advice is to try to survive it, try not to develop a desperate need to fix it, because usually, they just start sleeping when they're ready. Sorry, know that's not that helpful!

We did the extending feed times thing. if when he woke well before 3 hours, DH would take him and just rock him etc. He didn't try to put him back to sleep particularly, just comfort him. At 3h I would take over and feed him back to sleep. It only took a couple of nights to go from hour waking to our 3 hour schedule. When that was bedded in, we did the same to move from 3 to 4 hour slots, but you could do it for whatever time period you need.

It did take a lot of patience from DH as he had the tough bit, but it was only for a couple of nights. It could well work for a single parent but I'd have thought it would take longer, as it's would be less understandable for the baby. Ours was exclusively breastfed, bottle refuser, so he knew daddy = no milk.

I read the No Cry Sleep Solution and that says you don't need to have only one rule and stick with it. You can try your new method until 2am or whatever time you pick, then give in and do whatever works. It might take longer to work, but it should still work and to me, if feels a bit kinder to all parties.

Like the PPs, I worked to extend the gap between feeds which helped with DD1 although didn't eliminate the night waking. I eventually gave in and did controlled crying at 1yo which improved things a bit again, and then at 16mo I moved her into a toddler bed which was finally the charm (also a completely unexpected consequence as it wasn't why I moved her).
At 5mo you still have limited options, and I don't think 3hr sleep blocks are that unusual tbh at that age.

I know guidelines say to keep them in with you for the first 6mo, but have you tried putting him in his own room? Do you think you could be disturbing him?