Help please! Baby only settling with breastfeeding

[baileylanes]

Hi all. My son is 5 months old and up until he was 4 months old he would take 3 good naps a day and sleep from 9pm until 5am have a feed and then sleep till 8 am. In the past month it is getting harder and harder to get him to nap in the day and he is now waking up every 2 hours at night. The only way he will settle is with breast feeding whereas previously he would suck his thumb which he now can't seem to find. Most of the time he will have one or two sucks and fall asleep so I know it's just comforting rather than hunger. He doesn't appear to be teething and gallop or teething powders make no difference. We've changed nothing about his bed time routine. In the day, when ok do get him to nap, as soon as I put him in his cot he wakes up but if I hold him he can sleep for hours. Please help I'm exhausted and would love it if his dad could settle him at night sometimes so I can get some sleep. He also won't take a dummy!!

Can you cosleep? Around this age I started cosleeping with my dd for the same reasons. It really was a life saver and got me through a month or so of her waking every hour. It needn't be for ever - just to get you through this stage. I wasn't keen to do it to start with, but I always aimed to have her start the night in her cot and then bring her in with me when she wouldn't settle. I think I did it for about 6 weeks and then she settled down again. I've just started doing it again (now 12mo!) because we're going through a similar phase!

It will all pass - just do what you need to do to survive and don't worry about all that rod for your own back rubbish!

Not really into co sleeping as hubby is a very deep sleeper and moves around the bed a lot so I'd be worried that he'd roll onto our little one. The two nights have been slightly better but nowhere near what we used to have. I'm really trying to get him to have more sleep in the day to stop him from getting over tired even if it does mean having to sit and hold him!

What about a sling or good snuggly carrier (ie. not a Bjorn) for the day - would he sleep in that?

Possibly, to what age can you use a sling until? Is there a size or weight limit? Thanks for your help.

Just to say - things could change again at any time. Don't assume you will always be stuck with this. Fingers crossed it does go back to how it was.

I'm sure you've thought of this but would he nap in a pram or car seat during the day? During one bad spell I took my DS out in the car then made sure doors were locked, took a cushion with me for a pillow then parked up and napped myself. As blushing says, do what you need to to get by...

He'd probably be too big for a stretchy wrap sling now, but you can use a woven wrap for virtually any age child. You'd need to learn how to tie it, which can seem daunting at first, but is worth it IMHO as I have found a sling by far the comfiest option for baby and mummy. But there are also great buckle carriers around, which will carry up to about a 2 year old I think. Try googling Connecta, Manduca, Beco baby carriers for some ideas.

My stretchy wrap sling totally saved my sanity when my dd wouldn't nap - she pretty much took all of her naps in it until she started napping in the pram around 5mo!

Good luck

Mine is 14 months and still waking 3 times a night for breastfeeding. Hopefully it will stop eventually...

Thanks for your help. Will look into a sling. Last night was the best night by far for weeks although he started off badly waking every hour until 11 pm. He then went til 5am when I woke up thinking why hasn't he woken up!! Went in to check on him and he was face down fast asleep so unfortunately I had to roll him back as he'd buryedhis face into the matress so I was worried to leave him like that and he woke up!! Fingers crossed for even better tonight!!