5.5 month old sleep - eye rubbing and dummy

[Blodwyn831]

Hi all,

I'm coming to the end of my tether here. DS is almost 6 months and has never been a good sleeper but I keep hoping it will get better some time, but it hasn't.. in fact it's worse. I thought we were through the 4 month sleep regression a few weeks back when he started extending his naps but night sleep is still awful. Our problem is he wakes himself up frequently every night rubbing his eyes, and knocking dummy out. Needs a quick resettle to go back to sleep - dummy in and hand on tummy. But this is getting us out of bed every hour or so (we feed 2 times a night ff) and not sustainable. What could it be? Should we ditch the dummy? I'm reluctant as it's a godsend in lots of other situations- car journeys, when I'm public and he's feeling squealy etc. I do end up bringing him into bed with me around 5 or 6 because he wakes so often it's just easier to have him near me, but I'm not keen on this as a kind term solution as I've got a bit of insomnia and find it hard to sleep well when he's in the bed. Has anyone had similar problems?

So many typos

Give it literally a few weeks and he will be replacing his own dummy. Almost all babies can do it by 7 months but some are a bit earlier. At that point you can chuck 10 in the cot and he should sort himself out. From 6 months I started putting it in DS’s hand and guiding his hand to his mouth every time I have him the dummy. It took about 2 weeks but then he cracked it and I haven’t replaced a dummy since. I know that doesn’t solve the issue of why he’s waking in the first place but it should at least make it easier on you!

Thank you @RandomQuest 🤗 good to hear there might be light at the end of the tunnel. He's already trying to put it back himself with mixed success. I'll start training him right away!