5 month old baby no sleep, any advice welcome!

[IslandGirl5]

This will be a long one...

So my DD is 5 months old and EBF. She started sleeping relatively well around 2-3 months. She would go to sleep at 8pm and wake around 2am, then 4ish, 6ish then up at 8 (very roughly) and I was okay with that! I could start to function normally again. I’ve not had more than 5 hours from her at once and no less than 3 fed a night since birth but I knew that was normal and fine

But from about 3.5 months that all went to sh*t, she started waking every 2 hours, sometimes every hour from midnight onwards and wouldn’t settle until fed. Before this I could leave her 5 minutes and she could sometimes settle back down but now just gets more frustrated if left. Then to top it all off she has now started having a period of 2/2.5 hours of wake time a night at once, for example tonight: asleep by 7.30pm (one wake with teething pain around 8.30pm) then first wake at 11.45, then 1.30, then 3.20 and fully awake until 5.30, then 6.30 then 7.30 up for the morning. It’s relentless! And somehow I now have to stick her on the boob each time for her to settle. She doesn’t wake up crying just constant cooing and fussiness until she gets really frustrated.

So extra info: we’ve had the same nighttime routine for months of nappy/baby grow change with soft music playing, little baby massage and lullabies then a cuddle and feed which normally takes her off to sleep then a burp and down in her cot. That’s normally quite smooth. She has 3 daytime naps a day, 1 or 2 long around 1.5 hours and 1 or 2 short. These are either in her sling or on me after feeding as she doesn’t sleep for very long during the day in her cot. We have white noise playing all night and keep it dark and warm. I use a hot water bottle to keep her cot warm and she’s never taken a dummy. I tried controlled crying a couple of weeks ago and it was awful, she just got more worked up each time and was harder to settle after. We’ve started her on solids literally a few days ago as she’s so active and rolling and sitting etc

I’m just lost at what to try to help her sleep better as well as me. DH sleeps in the spare room so he’s alright for work and takes her whatever mornings he can so I can sleep in but it doesn’t work him taking her in the night as she only settles on the boob right now so he can only do so much. Any advice much needed!

Thank you!

If she's following her centiles and meeting her milestones, I'd try cracking the naps first.

She may simply be too tired to sleep properly at night.

Have a look at the No Cry Nap Solution and see what you think

Totally developmentally normal to have sleep like this at her age. There is a brutal 4 month sleep regression that tends to last 4-6 weeks and results in very frequent nighttime wakings.

Both mine had it. With my first, I kept the nighttime routine exactly the same but moved her to her own room just before 6 months on the suggestion of the HV to see if it made a difference, as I was at my wits end by this point.
Things improved overnight.... Is she still sleeping next to you at night? If so, maybe worth trying her in her own room, if you feel comfortable doing so? Maybe it was a coincidence but she went from waking hourly to every 3-4 hours!

With my second, we had the same issue. Unfortunately moving her to her own room didn’t resolve the problem but a week or so later she just magically started sleeping better. No change to routine at all.

Hard when you are in the thick of it but it DOES get better...... and then worse again..... and then better again!

Omg thank you both for replying! Her naps are alright in the day. 3 naps usually, morning, early afternoon and late afternoon ranging from 40 minutes to sometimes 2 hours!

She is still sleeping next to me in her cot, I think moving her is the one thing I haven’t tried! Still makes me a little uncomfortable but I think that’s just me! Plus with how often she’s been waking ive wanted to keep things slightly easier for myself by having her in arms reach! But right Now I’ll try anything! Thank you

@IslandGirl5 I felt exactly the same! A bit uncomfortable about doing it and unsure how it would make it better, me having to get out of bed a million times a night....... but rightly my HV said, try it for a few nights and see. You can always revert back if it’s unsustainable.
We bought a sound and movement monitor for the nursery to keep my anxieties regarding baby breathing under control a bit more.

BTW I EBF both so I know how hard it is when all the feeds rely solely on you. You’ve got little to lose by trying.

@RoseBud2016 very true, I’m already hardly sleeping so it’s definitely worth a try your right there. We’ve got a radio monitor too. I’ll give it until the end of the week, I’m doing an online course, just incase it makes things worse! Then I’ll try it! Wish me luck

@IslandGirl5 The very best of luck!!!

Give me an update when you can x

@IslandGirl5 How are you getting on now?

@RoseBud2016 it’s been a sleepy rollercoaster! We moved her into her own room not long after I wrote this and she started off really well! It went down to 3 or 4 wakes a night but no crazy 2 hour awake period. Thought I’d cracked it and it would just keep getting better the more used to it she got but a few weeks later I’m up every half hour, sometimes not getting to bed myself until 3 and it’s bad again

So one night she’s up every 20 minutes from 7pm until 11 when I went to bed and I just brought her into bed with me. Never done that not even when she was in her own cot/basket in my room, and she bloody slept nearly all night. So kept trying that and she wakes maybe 2 or 3 times briefly for a snack or reshuffle then back to sleep in 10 mins or so and we’re all sleeping better for it.

So not sure if that’s progress or going backwards but we’re all sleeping and that’s the main thing! She still goes down in her cot until I come to bed, wakes once or twice there but it’s a better system right now!

Probably too long napping?

huckleberrycare.com/blog/5-month-old-sleep-schedule-and-development

Also are you giving solids yet? I know they say 6 months so probably not. In which case they're likely getting hungry so waking for extra food.

@IslandGirl5 Oh no! Sorry to hear it’s got worse again already! We did the same with DD2- co slept for a while with the sole intention of just surviving.... that was for the 8/9 month regression.
Definitely do whatever you need to, to get some sleep at the mo and look at it again once you have the energy.

As pp has said maybe look at her naps and see whether she needs to transition fully to 3 naps (if she hasn’t already) or whether you could tweak them by bringing her final nap forward/back to accommodate how tired she is?
Apart from that it may just be a case of riding it out. It’s all a phase and does improve in the end 💐 x