Five month old sleep question???

[LittlelottieO]

My five month DD2 goes straight down to sleep with no rocking or feeding to sleep at 7.00pm.

she then wakes at 3 hour intervals and struggles to soothe herself to sleep, so I feed her to settle her. She doesn't always feed very much, I feel she wants the comfort most of the time when she wakes.

Any suggestions on how I can get her settling herself in the middle of night as she does at bedtime???

Would CIO work? I've no experience of this method but would be willing to try it!

The broken sleep is really starting to make me feel exhausted and find myself dropping off sleep in the day (for all of about two minutes before my toddler wakes me!)

Any ideas much appreciated!

She's too young for CIO. Also too young to self settle.

I'm in the same boat (currently feeding my fine month old to sleep...) and it's one if those things that is really shit but will pass. My older DS was the same and he's now a perfect sleeper.

Hang in there!

P.s. Three hour stretches is something a lot of people would kill for!

Agree with pp. Totally within the range of normal for a 5 month old.

It's not recommended to do CIO on babies less than 6 months.

PS my DS is the same - he's only 3 months so I don't expect it to improve for a good while longer!!

Have you tried a dummy?

White noise?

Be grateful for the 3 hours stretches, honestly. If you go to bed early you should be able to cope with that. I have a nearly 5 month old and that would be a great night for us. The nights I struggle after are where he's waking every 60-90 mins. Torture!

No advice sorry, but you're not alone and it will get better.

I second the dummy. If sucking soothes her, maybe that will be the answer. It was for us.

Just a warning with the dummy though as my DS loves his but he does grumble when it falls out in the night and he can't put it back in himself

I would also warn that dummies can be great but also a massive pain in the arse. DS1 had one, and I was up every fucking hour to replace it when it fell out of his mouth.

3 hours is good at that age! As is going down with no fuss. Self-soothing will come in time. We've just started a bit of sleep training with DS who is 6 months and positive is a 3hr stretch then 3 2 hour stretches!

Thank you all so much ladies for all your advice. Don't feel so alone now! I know I'm lucky she goes down so easily and the stretches are good. Think I was unsure as lots of my friends babies seem to sleep much better. - I guess they are all different! Think we will leave any sleep training for a little while. Your right she's still so small