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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

I think I ha be made a huge error - feeding to sleep

9 replies

Bleats · 04/01/2017 12:54

Hi, so my five month old has a routine to sleep that was fine until the four month regression kicked in, but is now sending me back to the hell of the fourth trimester. She is waking every two hours throughout the night and is using my boob to ear and a dummy. Ahhhhhh!

We have a bath and then I feed her to sleep on our bed (we co-sleep kind of by accident as I had wanted to use the cot next to the bed, but transferring her is hard - she more often wakes than not). She is often asleep by 7.00 or 7.30 and wakes properly between 7.30 - 8.30.

Any advice as to stop this behaviour? I have tried some controlled crying and a dummy (tommy tippee but not any others). I am a real softie about keeping her happy but frankly I am now like the living dead and need to sleep. Please help

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Original poster

Bleats · 04/01/2017 12:55

have made a huge error - see sleep deprivation in action

OP posts:

CatchIt · 04/01/2017 12:59

No advice as I'm in exactly the same position! My ds is 6 months and we ended up cosleeping for the same reasons. As much as I love it, I realised I've made a huge error as dd never did this and slept through pretty much from the off.

So, even if no advice is forthcoming, you're not alone!

Liskee · 04/01/2017 16:56

Me too!! Currently googling transitioning from cosleeping to cot. I fear me the only option is going to involve crying, just hoping to find something that works and minimises the crying.

Original poster

Bleats · 04/01/2017 19:07

Well we make a small support group . Perhaps people have given us up as useless for advice.

I am currently feeding whole holding her tonight and hoping to, gently, get her into the cot. Fingers crossed and then we will work on her soothing...

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Temporaryname137 · 04/01/2017 19:09

I did this - still do sometimes and she's 15 months now! 5 months is still tiny and she'll be having growth spurts. as she gets bigger she will go for longer.

Do you have a sleepyhead? It saved my sanity as she would go in there once the boob had drugged her to sleep!

Original poster

Bleats · 04/01/2017 19:20

Hi temp - dd would only sleep on me on her front for the first 3 months. In that time the cat stole the sleepyhead! She (dd) never really liked it. So she has proved to have prone with sleep most of the time bar month 3.

OP posts:

Becciilouisex3 · 05/01/2017 23:44

Just wondering, have you tried Ewan the Dream Sheep? He's a life saver for us and a lot of mom's I know!

He basically plays 4 different sounds including harp music, womb sounds, heartbeat and rain. White noise can be a godsend for soothing a baby. He's also on a timer for 20 minutes and then turns off. It's definitely worth a try as it seems like she needs comfort from you and these noises can provide comfort.

My son was a bad sleeper until we paired Ewan with a fisher price projector that shines a moving pattern into the ceiling for him to look at and plays a lullaby.

With the regression, the best course of action is generally to use whatever means you can to help baby sleep and then slowly wean her off of them so that she can self soothe and send herself to sleep unaided. Hopefully these things can help you in the short term and then your sleep coaching goes well!

Good luck

MoreThanUs · 19/01/2017 07:52

Have you got a white noise toy? MyHummy is amazing!

lightsussex · 21/01/2017 07:10

I co-slept with my DS2 and fed him to sleep for every sleep. He wouldn't sleep without me. I didn't set out too - and didnt do this with DS1 - but just to give you some hope, at around 7mths he started to self settle a bit more. I'd still feed him to sleep but could walk away from him and if he woke he wouldn't scream the house down! He was in a cot in his own room by 8mths. He was obviously still waking up for a feed a few times a night but I could put him back down afterwards. He is now 21mths and a really good sleeper, better than DS1! I have always given him a t-shirt of mine that I have worn and also definitely recommend Ewan the sheep! I know this isn't massively helpful but will hopefully give you some hope that things will get easier! It can be such a foggy haze of sleep deprivation to start, especially during the sleep regression times. Everyone, including hubby, used to say 'he'll never sleep by himself/you're building a rod for your own back' etc etc...but although the constant bf-ing and the fact I had to go to bed with him every night, is tough, when I look back now, it's strange I don't think of how knackering it was but just remember all those snuggles!?! (Which is mental as at the time I wouldn't have imagined myself saying that!!) Hang in there xx

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