How to settle 5 month old baby at night

[Flossy78]

I need some advice from some mums! Last week my 5 month old DD had a nasty cold & although she's just about over it now she has got herself into the habit of finding it hard to settle to sleep at night. She's EBF & I usually feed her to sleep after a mammoth feed session usually lasting from 7 till 9pm! I used to put her in her cot then & she'd sleep till 1or 2ish. However in the last week she's woken about 5 mins after being put down & cried furiously. We've tried sshing/patting/rocking her back to sleep but nothing works until I feed her again. So most nights she's not been asleep till 11ish - exhausting for us all! Please help, I'd appreciate any advice as I'm slowly going mad!

We had a bad spell about 5 months which we seem to be thankfully over the worst of at 6 months. After several weeks of trying everything I hired a consultant who convinced me less is more, don't touch, bend over cot etc as it can confuse them. Just sit by the cot and perhaps shush or repeat a short phrase once a minute. You might have a few tough nights but DD got it quite quickly and now usually self-settles. Also of crucial imPortance was grttng her to fall asleep in the cot. Easier for me as I've never fed to sleep as she usually only feeds 5-7mins. Your evenings sound very draining! I can only imagine how exhausted you must be! Good luck

Thanks for your reply. Yes I really need to get her used to getting to sleep herself in her cot. I am so tired that it's hard to see the wood for the trees sometimes & difficult to know where to start! I'll definitely try your suggestions though, thank you Also out of interest who was the consultant you saw & did they help? I've often thought about using one but didn't know if they actually existed!

Hi again, I forgot to mention no eye contact! I know what you mean, we were just too afraid to try putting her in the cot awake because getting her to sleep in the evening was about the only thing that was ok! Most people could probably have done what we hired the consultant for without help but we were so tired we kept changing our minds about what to do and having someone experienced to meet DD and suggest what would work for her, and just give us the confidence to go for it was well worth it for us. We're in Exeter and used local firm Sleepy Tots who are lovely.

Hi, your story sounds familiar to mine. Are you sure DD is feeding for the 2 hours? I used to sit in a dark room and go slowly crazy as DH was getting on with his evening and I would be dozing off with a suckling baby. I've now learnt to identify when the feeding finishes and the comfort sucking begins, and I try and take her off and put her in bed then. Sometimes she cries and I put her back on the boob for another couple of minutes then try again. I wouldn't say it's made the nighttime wakings any easier but it's given me my evenings back, I would say we've gone from 1.5 hours on average down to half an hour. Good luck.