5 month old won't sleep!

[RachelWood1991]

My 5 month old son will not sleep! On a regular day he gets up between 5.30-7.00am gets tired about 2pm but he wants rocking to sleep if not he just screams, about 5 mins after iv put him down he wakes back up and is wide awake (he naps for 20 mins at most). I aim to get him bathed and asleep for 7-30 - 8-30 but this never happens as he just wants holding and wakes back up when he's put down, he finally goes to sleep about 10pm then he's back up at 1am for a feed and goes back to sleep about 3am until 6am :( please help I'm so tired!

Hi Rachel, my 5 month old DD sounds a lot like your son. It's unbelievably tiring isn't it?

I posted on the sleep board here when I was at my lowest ebb and had lots of great support and suggestions. My daughter was - and still is - incredibly overtired. She's so determined to stay awake no matter what, and the more tired she gets the less she sleeps. I have put all my energy into helping her nap more in the day - doing whatever it takes to get her to sleep.

She only takes 20 minutes naps so I try to get her to have 4 a day, using a sling or driving her in the car usually. I also put her to bed as early as possible, as soon as she looks the slightest bit tired.

Slowly but surely her nighttime sleep has improved. I can see a clear link between the quality of her naps and her general happiness and ability to rest at night.

I do all the things you're not supposed to do to help her get some sleep but I think it's so important for her development and wellbeing, I am prepared to do whatever it takes! The no cry sleep solution has lots of suggestions for things you can do to help your baby nap better.

Definitely overtired. Try and catch him before he's passed it and he will probably go over easier.

I'd suggest an awake time of 3 hours max at 5 months. 7am wake, sleep from 10-11, awake 11-2, sleep 2-3, awake 3-6.30 then bed. Something like that might work.

Do anything to get the naps. Walks in the pram etc.

Work on self settling with shh-pat.

Lastly, a hug because I've been there and feel your pain

I could have written your post a few months ago. I did all the things suggested to encourage naps etc. shush pat didn't really work for us so I rocked my dd for every nap and night sleep.

But....miraculously as she turned 6ish months it all got better and she figured out how to self settle and then slept a lot better with more regular naps and longer stretches through the night.

I remember how tough it was and I really worried that I needed to 'teach' her how to sleep but actually she figured it out on her own so don't get frustrated and hang in there and it will get better!