5 months...no sleep?!

[userabcname]

I'm sorry if this has been done to death but feeling exhausted and unwell today after several nights of little / no sleep.

My 5 mo has never been a great sleeper. However, we managed to get him down to only 2 feeds a night (he is bf), which felt like a huge achievement. His routine was wind down / bed time routine at 7pm, asleep by 7.30, wake for feeds at 1am and 4am then up for the day between 6-7am. We had a few unsettled nights at around 4 months which I put down to the 4 month sleep regression and we started to go back to our 2 feed routine.

However, last week it all went hugely downhill. I will give last night as representative of how he has been for the last 5 or so nights: bedtime routine at 7pm, did not want to settle in moses basket but asleep by 8pm, wake up at 10.20pm and had to be rocked and cuddled, wake up at 11.45pm hungry so fed, would not settle in moses basket and completely woke up. No sleep again until 3am after another feed then woke up at 5am crying - no idea why, settled with a cuddle. Managed to get to 7.30am but very restless (co-sleeping in spare room by this point).
Is this normal? He is not unwell, I have felt his gums but no sign of teething. I am so so tired, I feel like we are back in the new born days where 2 hours was the longest stretch we ever got! Tonight I am going to co-sleep from the start in the hopes of getting more sleep but if anyone has any help or advice it would be greatly appreciated.

My baby is slightly younger but i don’t put him to bed until 10 or 10.30pm. Our evening usually is sit on sofa from 7pm, feed and cuddle to sleep, as soon as he stirs usually 8.15 ish feed again cuddle to sleep. He is fed again about 9.30. And fed again just after 10 then goes in his basket. By filling him up all evening he sleeps longer and will only wake me twice in the night. If we go out and I don’t feed him as much in the evening he’ll wake almost hourly from midnight.

Or it could be a phase and he’ll settle back into his routine soon.

My DS was like this weeks ago, when he had just turned 5 months, he’s now just shy of 6. Like your wee one he’s never been a good sleeper from birth, but things had improved. A couple of weeks ago he started waking more again and being awake for hours at night in between wakes, where as before even if he did wake more frequently he’d go straight back to sleep with a quick BF. It was tough, but sure enough after about 10 days, 2 little tiny stubby teeth poking through. I wouldn’t rule out teething just yet. Won’t lie it as tough but he seems to have settle again! Hang in there!

How is baby going to sleep?

7.30 is a very early bedtime for a 5 month old. Mine was (like pp) going to bed at about 9.30/10 at that age. 7 would have been a nap.

Also, in general, 5 months was the toughest sleep wise for me except for the past two weeks at 9 months so it’ll be a phase x

Thanks for the replies. I could try keeping him up - that's a good point. Especially as he has consistently been waking around 10pm anyway!

Yes maybe it is teething - I will keep an eye on it! I tend to bf until he is very drowsy, then put him down. He usually stirs a bit but I sing him a lullaby, gently pat his chest and put on his white noise. This was enough to put him to sleep before but does nothing now! Hopefully it is just a phase - good to hear others have been through similar at the same age . It gives me hope!

Do you have a thermometer in the room? It was really cold last night for the first time so may be coldness?

Will definitely try a later bedtime!
Ooh good point - his thermometer is broken, have just ordered another on Amazon prime.
Thanks for your comments everyone.

Also my DS goes to bed between 7-7.30 and has done for about a month now. Ever since he dropped down to 3 naps a day, which he did by himself

Beg to differ with PP saying 7/7.30 is too early! DD1 and 2 have gone to bed at that time from 8 weeks and slept fine. DD2 sleeping til 6.30/7 with no feed from 10 weeks.

No skill on my behalf, she just stopped waking for a feed.

I think all babies are different so all different things work for different people!

I don’t think 7:30 is too early at all! I’m putting my guy (also 5 months) to bed right now... he had a very long early afternoon nap so didn’t want the late afternoon nap so slightly earlier to bed.

We’ve been in a similar situation recently with down to 2 feeds and then regressed slightly. Last few nights have been better but did result to controlled crying to get back on track. CIO is super unpopular on this forum and maybe not needed in your situation but I found it was the only thing that worked. I don’t think sleep is linear in the first year or so. Ups and downs!

Thanks for your comments. I will see if he will go down a bit later as can't hurt to try but he hasn't napped well today so not sure how successful that will be!

My son was waking every 2 hours recently. He rolls over and the duvet is off him. I put a vest under his pjs, put socks on him and bought a little plug in radiator that ticks over on low overnight. It keeps his room a lovely temperature and now he sleeps a dream. Defo agree with PP that he may be a bit cold.

If you are making bedtime later, baby may still need a nap downstairs at around 7pm. I didn't move to an early evening bedtime until the 7pm "nap" linked directly to the nights sleep without any proper waking up.

For us, that change had happened at 5 months old.

You may find that he starts to sleep better once he’s being weaned. As they get bigger, even a big feed doesn’t fill the belly like it used to.

Thanks all - had a slightly better night (managed to push bed time to 8) although still woke every 2 hours! Ordering higher tog sleeping bags today and will have a think about naps/bedtime.

So glad I found this thread! And it's recent! We are in exactly the same position as the OP. Our nights are exactly as she describes in her example.

DS will turn 5 months next week. For the last week he's had a pretty rubbish cold so sleep has been even worse and we have resolved to either letting him sleep on our chest or co sleeping. However, we are so scared we're creating sleep associations that we won't be able to break.

We said weeks ago we were going to stop rocking him to sleep because he's getting too heavy but that's gone out the window now.

He used to nurse to sleep in the evening but that hardly works now.

Someone suggested we move the next2me crib away from the side of the bed.

I really want to teach him to self settle but I've got no idea how to go about it. If we put him down in his crib drowsy he just comes to and cries. Even if I lay down next to him and sing/shush/pat.

It's so hard!

I think we drive ourselves mad trying to fix all the minor problems we encounter along the way. Decide your approach (using the advised principles that we see on here time and again) and stick with it. Consistency is the key. You'll have phases where it wobbles but chopping and changing things will just complicate it further. Put the bad night behind you and move onto the next.

Well for the first night since I posted, we only had 3 wake ups last night! I have moved nap time to later in the afternoon and start bedtime routine at 8.30pm now. I have also bought teething gel as DS' gums are feeling quite lumpy and putting that on at bedtime. Not sure if either of those are helping or if this phase is passing or if last night was a fluke but fingers crossed we are turning a corner!