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Night feed troubles

3 replies

Weebeastiebaby · 10/12/2015 08:52

(Not sure if this is the best places to post this)
Ds is 5 months old, breastfed, mostly a happy smiley (if a little clingy) baby. Growing well, developing normally.
For the last few weeks his sleeping pattern has become terrible. He feeds to sleep around 8pm but rarely sleeps for longer than 1.5 hours overnight. Waking up screaming and only settling with a breastfeed. He was never like this before... Used to sleep for a 5 hour stretch then up every 2 hours after. I'm not expecting him to go down for a full 12 hours but I feel in at the end of my tether. Im so tired I feel myself losing my patience with him, along with my motivation to entertain him and can see him falling behind with milestones probably due to me not having the energy to talk/play with him. I tried to get dh to bottle feed him overnight but ds screamed and refused even after a full hour of trying would only settled when I appeared with boob. He used to take bottles happily but has started pushing them away and refusing them. I've tried all sorts of thing I said I would never use:
Formula top up at night
Hungry baby formula
Putting him in his own room
Crying it out
Starting solids

None have made any difference. I feel so tired I can't make sense of things and don't recognise my baby I feel it's turned me into a very poor parent whereas before I was coping well. I just have no idea what to do I know other babies sleep much worse but combined with other stresses I feel like I'm losing my mind

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
moggle · 10/12/2015 09:53

It sounds like the 4m sleep regression... Try the Sleep board as there are lots of people at the end of their tether in the same boat! It's when their sleep patterns change from the newborn "sleep all the time" to the sleep cycles that we have for the rest of our lives. It should pass as they get used to t although for some babies it happens quicker than others. We had it although not as bad as you but I recognise the feelings of being totally lost and getting really annoyed... Why won't you fricking sleep?! Good luck!

Weebeastiebaby · 10/12/2015 20:35

Thanks, thought he'd already been through that but may be doing in all over again :(

OP posts:
youlemming · 10/12/2015 22:46

Could he be teething, it messed up DD1's sleep at 5m and she used to go through the night until then.
DD2 had a couple of odd nights this week and her first tooth came through today at just over 4m.
It might be that the boob is comforting if he's in pain, try a bit of calpol or teething gel and see if it helps.

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