This isn't great is it?

[Yoghurtget]

My 5 month year old won't sleep for longer than 2hrs. We did have a phase at about 3 months of sleeping for a 5 hour stretch but since then it's got gradually worse. People keep telling me oh that's babies, including my DH, but I really feel we need to start doing more to resolve this. For my sanity if anything else. We currently have a good bedtime routine, have worked through some day nap problems. I think the next step us to get really onto the self soothing- as it's clearly not going to happen on it's own. Thoughts greatly appreciated.

For info she is ebf but am considering formula

4-5 month sleep regression. It is a killer.

I found at around 5-6 months mine started self settling and sleeping much better with little guidance from me. I just gave them the chance every now and then.

They were still crappy sleepers though due to reflux etc but self settling did come in time. Although plenty of times when they wouldn't self settle after 6 months!

We found dd needed help to self-soothe at 8 months.

It's not for everyone, I know, but we used cc. We bathed her, bfed her, read her a story, two songs then into the cot awake.

We checked on her after 4 mins then patted her and spoke softly to her before leaving her for 5 mins and so on. The first three nights were very hard. Now, she's really sleepy during the songs and she's often asleep before I leave the room.

If she wakes in the night, we give her 4 minutes to self-soothe before we intervene.

People will flame for this method but it's worked for us. She is sleeping; we are sleeping; everyone is happier.

I was worrying that DS would never sleep through too at that age. He did 12 hours the night before last and we didn't do anything different, he's still ebf (also eating food). I'd been told he won't asleep through til you give formula" etc, but he did
Just do what feels RIGHT for you and the baby.
Good luck

Sorry, 5 months is still tiny so it is normal for some babies.

Bloody exhausting though! :(

Thanks for your replies. Mistletoe how old is your DS? I am not keen on CIO but sometimes she gets so workers up we can't console her- like last night, so she does end up crying herself to sleep but we are holding her

I know. I hated the thought of it and I could never leave her to cry for hours. I can see now that a couple of nights of discomfort has improved our lives.

Having said that, I fully agree with the pp who said do what feels right for you.

I thought I would share a little bit of progress. Last night I decided to give my dd a bottle of formula before bed, and it worked! She slept for 5 hours. I also gave her some chamomilla. I had doubted it would work- people quote the research that say a ff bottle is a myth, but it worked for her. She took the bottle really well, but in the breast she often fusses on and off- I think she wasn't getting enough milk. Tonight we are moving the ff to 10pm so hopefully we'll get another 5 hours but in our night time rather than mainly the evening.

We are also considering a comforter as she often fiddles with my shirt as she is going to sleep- does anyone have experience of this? I am concerned about the slight risk but I though if I cut up a muslin (breathable) to handkerchief size (can't wrap it around her neck) it would be safe?