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5 months and won't settle in the evenings... But is really tired

3 replies

boopdoop · 24/08/2014 21:28

My DS is 5 months old, and isn't great at sleeping. He catnaps in the day, wakes 3 times in the night for feeds, and this is the best it's been. I can kind of cope with that but in the evenings he is a nightmare and I would so love for that to improve but don't really know what to do!

He is exhausted early eve so has bath at 6ish, bottle and then bed. He usually settles between 7-7.30pm, usually needs feeding to sleep, then moved into cot, but goes down pretty easily at this point. He then usually wakes by 8pm, and either I just bring him downstairs till later and he is tired but awake, or I spend the evening trying to settle him several times, but it can be anything from 2-8 times during the evening.

Once we come to bed he often ends up co sleeping, but I do try and keep him in his cot when possible, just sometimes too tired and go with the easy option!

I am guessing he is too used to sleeping with us at night, on me in the day (only does short naps after feeds or in car/buggy), and so wakes up on his own, can't resettle as he's usually fed to sleep, and then cries... I have no idea what to do to improve this... But he I'd exhausted and I would dearly love my evening back a bit, even just to do housework!!

Any suggestions?!

For info his bottle before bed is his only bottle, he is bf on demand the rest of the time, and is on the 98th centile for weight.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
DomesticGoddess31 · 26/08/2014 20:44

No advice but watching with interest. My 4.5 month old is your baby's sleep twin!

curlyLJ · 26/08/2014 21:28

I think maybe he's not ready for such an early bedtime and is treating the 7.30-8pm sleep like a nap. I can't get my 4.5m DD to settle for the night before 8.30,although usually more like 9.
How about you bring that nap a bit earlier, say 6.30/7 and then give the bottle before 'bed' nearer to 9pm?
I'd love my evenings back too, but have resigned myself to this routine, as it seems to be working, for the moment. am pplanning on gradually bringing bedtime earlier in a few weeks once we're out of this 4m sleep regression.

Littlef00t · 30/08/2014 10:36

In my experience if my dd is extremely overtired she wakes after 40 mins. There is a sleep transition at that point. If she is less tired she can transition without issue.

When my dd was 12wks her naps went totally to pot and she got chronically overtired, just grumpy constantly and v difficult to get to bed at night etc. we took her for a long drive for a couple of days (1.5-2hrs) which she slept through, and it did seem to help as she was less exhausted.

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