5 months sleep help!

[Ames29]

Hello

I'm a desperately tired mum looking for advice or encouragement from others 😴

My baby boy is 5 1/2 months. We hit a sleep regression around 6 weeks ago and I thought it was the fourth leap. He then got a cold and we just never slept... then got better and was still waking every 45 mins all night long..! We are now in leap 5 territory so it seems we didn't get a break between the two! He goes down for naps fine without much or any help from me, bedtime is roughly 6:30 and again doesn't usually need much help getting to sleep. He then stirs once or twice between 7:30 and 10. We have to resettle with dummy and he goes back off straight away. Then it can start from 1:30ish every hour really - just needs resettling; dummy, pats on the bottom, stroke his face, some form of comfort. This can often just go all night so a few times a week we bring him into our bed by 5 just to get some sleep. I should mention here we do often feed thinking he's hungry but he doesn't really want it! If he's lasted til half 5 I'll then try and he might take half the bottle.

I have started him with solids now to see if that's something extra he needed, but doesn't appear to have made a difference.

During the day he can't link his sleep cycles so often he only has 45 min naps. If we are at home and not out I can go in with him during the lunchtime nap and cuddle him in for that sleep cycle transition and he can then go for 2 hours with that help.

Any advice would be appreciated! I realise babies don't always sleep through the night but this does seem excessive 😄😴

Thank you x

Waking that frequently really isn't a normal thing. The lack of deep, restorative sleep at night would concern me.

The most common reasons for very frequent wakes like this would be:

• pain/illness (this could be reflux, digestion or wind, illness or teething)
• hunger (not discrete hunger before a feed, more the total number of calories over 24/48h being on the low side)
• over tired (again, cumulative over 24/48h. So reduce awake time between naps to make more frequent and also extend nap lengths)
• method of going to sleep not conducive to staying asleep (for example going to sleep in your arms rather than in the cot. Ideally baby wants to go from fully awake to asleep all in the cot)

My little one was doing the same at around that age. It lasted for a couple of months but we had on off periods of much longer sleep inbetween. She’s now almost 9 months and goes a few hours between wakes. It will pass don’t worry! Also people often assume solids will increase sleep but if anything for me it made things worse in the short term as it upset her stomach! Don’t worry he is fine although I totally can relate to how exhausting it is xx

Thank you crazycatlady5 that's so reassuring!! Good to know there's a light at the end of the tunnel :):)

I did wonder about teething FATEdestiny, I have baby bonjela at the ready but doesn't seem to give loads of relief. He's not crying when he wakes just a bit of a grumble occasionally, but mostly just wide awake and wanting to play, so I'm not worried about pain so much.

Thanks both :)

My eldest did the same as you describe between 4-6 months old. It was hell on earth. Solids and bottles (is previously been EBF) along with introducing a small comforter (one of those soft blanket toys which I kept under my top for days so it smelt of me!) did the trick. He has pretty much slept solidly since then (he’s 7 now!).

This isn’t helpful advice but honestly just try and get through it and try not it to rule your life- I did- it was all I could think about and it ruined the early days for me. It won’t last forever.

I actually started a thread on here back then... I’ll look for it now.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/1231873-4-month-sleep-regression-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel

This isn’t the thread (my previous user name) I appreciate it’s a zombie thread but tonnes of good advice on there.

Sorry meant to say this is the thread. Good luck.

Thank you, that's perfect 👌🏻❤️