Sleep still not great despite self settling

[Symbista]

Ds2 is 5 months. Around 6 weeks ago he started waking every hour at night as I was feeding him to sleep. We tackled that by managing to teach him to self settle. Hooray! He was still waking several times a night to feed and having great naps of about 1 1/2 hours morning and afternoon with a cat nap late afternoon. But suddenly in the last week naps are terrible again. He puts him self to sleep no problem but then us awake again after half an hour but still really tired and can't go back to sleep. Any tips or ideas? Being so tired is making him really grumpy and me too! I'm breastfeeding and we're on a decent eat/play/sleep routine.

What happens at bedtime?

Also, what happens when he goes to sleep at naptime and after a night wake?

At bedtime We have a little routine of a feed, then into pyjamas and sleeping bag, one story and then into bed. Naps are the same but I don't do a feed first as he's usually so tired by that point that a feed would just send him to sleep. I lay him in bed and he usually fusses a little for a few minutes and then goes right to sleep. After a night feed he either does the same or falls asleep while I'm feeding and stays asleep when I put him down.

The problem is your baby is not self-comforting.

He can go to sleep when exhausted and/or with a full tummy. But that won't always be the case. Like night wakes - baby has just woken up may not be absolutely exhausted. May well also not be hungry.

As he gets older he'll want to be able to go to sleep before he's dead tired and food/drink/milk will become seperate from sleep as he gets older.

So try developing a self-comforting method. Something baby finds soothing and comforting to get to sleep. This might be a dummy ir bkankie. Maybe a special toy to cuddle. Or it might be a rituslistic movement. Thumb sucking, playing with his own hair, rocking head side to side, patting himself, stroking his own ear. Children do many weird and wonderful things for comfort.

Your problem will be that at 5 months he doesn't have the physical dexterity to coordinate his movements to self-comfort. So he may need help.

It sounds like he's not linking sleep cycles and when he comes into light sleep he's waking. If he wakes at 30 minutes you might try making a but of noise at 20 minutes to rouse him slightly. I think it's called wake to sleep?

Thanks both, some interesting points. He won't take a dummy but will try a soft toy comforter and the 'wake to sleep' thing.