5mo waking every 45 mins.

[User24689]

Hey everyone. I posted on the 4 month sleep regression thread a few weeks ago, thought things were bad then but we managed to get through the 2 hourly night wakings and back to a reasonable routine of down at 7pm and doing 2-3 wake-ups until getting up at about 6.30.

This week DD has been going down at 7pm, sometimes earlier because she has been really tired in the evenings, and then waking up every 45 mins to an hour for the whole night long.

I am sitting here in tears because I am so exhausted. The broken sleep is killing me, I have been having crazy weird dreams and waking up disoriented and sometimes I am just completely unable to get back to sleep again. Also, she is waking anywhere between 5am-6am. This morning it was 4.45 and I couldn't get her to go back down.

WTF is going on? It seems like she is waking at the end of each sleep cycle?

I'm finding things really hard at the moment and have been making stupid mistakes during the day/ forgetting things I am told. I can't make decisions e.g. deciding what I want to eat etc and now things with DH are bad too because I'm basically useless during the day and have completely lost my sense of humour.

I just want a night of sleep and I've only had one or two of those since I went into labour with her! Those were random flukes when she was 3 months old and I thought I had cracked it!

Sorry for the unload. Should I stop feeding her back to sleep? I don't seem to be able to get her back down any other way. I know she is waking for comfort so feel I should give it to her, but now other people are telling me that I'm making it worse. So confused. Does anyone have any ideas? TIA

You poor thing. I just wanted to say I could of written your exact post!
We are waking at the end of evey sleep cycle too, it's so tiring, my baby doesn't nap much in the day either so I get no rest.

The only advice I have is what I keep telling myself is it won't last forever and it will get better.

Here's what I'm doing.

Only one feed at night as he's not hungry for all the wake ups.

I'm putting him down awake at night so he can get used to falling asleep on his own

I have a Ewan the dream sheep I pop on - white noise maker

And if he's totally eyes open a light show as he now falls asleep with that

I pat his belly and say shhhhhh and this seems to calm him down

I don't really pick him up and comfort him with him still in the cot as mine is just fussing rather than full on crying.

It will get better, this is tough at the moment though.

Poor you! I know your pain!

It is useful to start to use something else other than bfing to get her back to sleep. Although hard!

How does she nap in the day? Are you managing to get her a late afternoon catnap? My DS will have 30 mins around 5 and still want to go to bed at 7 so don't be afraid of late napping at this age if it pushes bedtime a bit later.

Then work on resettling on the first wake up in any way you can without feeding. She will cry but you can cuddle, bounce, rock, anything really. Just aim to get her back to sleep somehow! And hold her til she is completely gone over. I found a bouncey walk using massive squat style steps and pretty heavy jiggling while holding DS across my body worked (kills the legs!)

If you can get one resettle down without feeding then you are on your way. If she gets really upset then try again later.

Aim is to move to feeding only as often as she feeds during the day (so everybthree hours or so). Then hopefully move to bigger gaps and less intervention for resettles. So I have just moved to cuddling with a gentle pat on the bum, minimal mivement which hunt been too painful. Next or resettle in cot!

This is a v gradual approach for if you don't like crying too much. Takes longer but eg DH can now do resettling and DS rarely feeds before 11 now

What is she like when she wakes? Content, or does she seem upset?

Any chance you could Co sleep for a bit?

Is your DH doing his share of the night wakings?

Thanks for the replies.

ANiceSlice I will look into the light show idea. Thanks for your kind words! I know it will get better, I'm just dead on my feet and every time I think it has gotten better it gets worse again!

FreeButton she naps 3 times a day - about 9am, about 1pm and about 4pm. Usually for about 45 mins although the middle one can stretch to 2 hours on some days. The times vary because the time she wakes up varies so much and then each is usually about 2 hours after last waking. She used to go down for naps easily, when she was tired I'd put her down eyes open and off she'd go. Now each one is a battle, particularly the first one and she becomes so tired she eventually gives in with me rocking her to sleep.

She does sometimes do a 5pm nap but I don't let her sleep beyond 5.30.

Thanks so much for your advice. She does feed every 3 hours or so during the day. Last night she woke up 20 mins after being put down so obviously wasn't hungry and I managed to get her back to sleep with rocking but it was hard work. For the other night wakings she just got really upset and started throwing her head into my boob! I need to maybe work up to settling once without boob, then twice etc. Not sure. But thanks.

Cupcakes She is pretty content yeah. She wakes up just chattering and is usually smiling when I go to the cot. But I've tried leaving her and the chatting quickly escalates into full on crying so I stopped doing that and now go to her as quickly as possible because its harder to get her back to sleep when she's upset... but not sure if that's the right thing to be doing!

I sometimes bring her into the bed but find I don't sleep as well because she spreads out and I end up teetering on the edge of the mattress. Plus I always take my pillow away as I'm afraid of it being next to her face and find it harder to sleep without one.

DH doesn't do any of the night wakings but that is probably a thread in itself.

Ah poor you, it's awful isn't it. My DD got particularly bad again around 5 months. Six months now and she's even worse! Sorry, not to freak you out - my DD is an exceptionally shit sleeper.

I hear what people are saying about not feeding to sleep. But it's so hard not to! We start off feeding on demand when they are tiny...then when they are well and truly comfortable and used to this habit, we're told to stop doing it! Seems really unfair!

I know that I should be using other methods to get my DD to sleep. But when it's 3am, on our fifth waking, my entire body aches and I just want to be horizontal, and she's angrily crying and seeking out my boob, well, sorry, I'm going to give in. I realise I'm doing it all wrong but when you've had six months of crap sleep (not including pregnancy insomnia) then you just do what you do to get through!

I wish I had words of advice but I'd just say get through it, it will pass, and don't be hard on yourself for doing it your way. Not sure what the situation is with your DH, bit even if he can't do night duty, even him just getting up a few hours earlier and letting baby sleep on him might help?

Good and

My DS is 20 and a half weeks and I think we have hit the sleep regression. Since the weekend, he has been fighting naps more than usual and waking after about 30 mins crying as he's still so tired but I can't get him back off to sleep. He seems sleepier than usual which is made worse by his wakings! He was in such a good bedtime routine - down by 5.30, feeds at 8 and 11, then usually sleeping through til 6. Now tonight he woke up an hour after I got him down (which was harder than usual) and that took ages. He just cries as soon as I try to transfer him to his cot which was something he'd stopped doing. Any idea how long this goes on for??