Sleep - BF baby help

[EssexMamisoa]

Help my EBF baby wakes every 2 hours (ok every 1 hour a lot of the time). She is 5 months. Any gentle tips to get her to sleep longer?!

I feed her to sleep most times she wakes and aware she’s probably doesn’t need this. She’s always been small - bottom 2% on the nhs charts so I have been feeding on demand but reacher a point where I am comfortable and HV is comfortable that she is just a small baby so I would ideally like her to sleep longer.

We do all the swaddling, white noise etc.

Putting down “drowsy but awake” isn’t a thing for us. Baby is high needs so any attempt at putting in cot is world war three immediately!!

She sleeps in her next to me crib. She is fussy and even if I try to co sleep she cries (“mum why lie this closely when you could just stand up and cuddle me properly”)

This is normal, my advice is to co-sleep and feed laying down. It can take a bit of practice but once you've got it, it's a game changer.

I started co-sleeping/bed sharing with my DD when she was 4 months and it gave me my sanity back. As she got older we side-car a cot to the bed to give me a bit more space. Some parents prefer to do a floor bed.

Look up safe co-sleeping advice on the Lullaby Trust. Also I recommend reading Safe Infant Sleep by Dr James McKenna, hugely eye opening.

Well done for getting this far, I haven't forgotten how unbelievably hard it is, felt like I'd been hit by a truck!

@RedRobyn2021 thank you for replying. Yes groggy is certainly me. 🤣🤣