5 month old- hourly waking- will this change?

[charliegal]

Hi, am struggling at the moment with my 5 month ds as he is waking very frequently during the night and I am feeding him back to sleep (co sleeping). He used to sleep for 3 hour stretches, which I could manage with no problem. Now, however I feel exhausted and a bit desperate (NOT desperate enough for cc though).
In Elizabeth Pantley's book, her son at 12months seems to have a very similar sleep/wake pattern to mine. I feel a bit disheartened as she says that the baby is unlikely to change this of it's own accord and none of her suggestions leaps out as being that different to what we are already doing.
So, did any of you find that this pattern changed of it's own volition once the baby was older? I can live with it if that is the case, otherwise I feel I'll have to look for more advice..

Hi

My DS did exactly the same thing (we co-sleep too) and has recently gone back to 4 or even 5 hour stretches, without any intervention from us. When we did try to change his habits all we ended up with was more tears.

He is now 7m and sleeps by himself in the bedside cot 7 - 11pm, then has a feed and sleeps until 2-ish, then 5 or 6, then gets up for the day at 7.15 - 7.30pm. We are happy with that, as compared to every 40 minutes or every hour it is a lot better.

Hang on in there - I know it's hard but he will improve I am sure. By all means try things to help, but don't read too many books

Oh! You give me hope! BTW, I am the queen of reading books and bouncing from one philosphy to another. It must be so annoying for my dp (daren't ask her).
Yeah, I think actually trying to change things can be really demoralising. You're sleep pattern sounds acceptable to me too!

Here are a few tips from Practical Parenting that I just posted on another thread. I did come to the conclusion that I was reinforcing ds' waking by feeding him every time so got tough when he was around 4/5 months. It was surprising how long he could actually go without feeding! We tried controlled comforting which worked for us...

sleeping methods

Mumpbump is that the same as controlled crying? (Not trying to be controversial, just genuinely wondering)

Similar. With controlled crying, you leave the room; with controlled comforting, you are always in the room and in contact with the baby, but you just turn them away from you so you don't have eye contact. It's still stressful/hard to do, but not as bad as leaving them all alone to my mind.

Sorry the article was taking too long to load, now I've read it I understand

Getting tough is what I want to avoid, as am soft.

Mine just changed by herself, after months of trying to improve her naps, pantley pull offs etc etc. We co-sleep so it didn't really impact my life too much once I'd accepted it (v important to me).

And one day I just realised that she was sleeping for three-four hours at a stretch on a fairly regular basis. And I've no idea why!

that is what am hoping for. as for those pantley pull offs!

Hi Charliegal just read your thread and realised your 5mo ds is doing same as my 5mo ds - we are also co-sleeping and he seems to feed back to sleep every hour as a habit in the last week. Am also soft and am currently hoping it might change of its own accord, but we'll see...

Hello, I have had a week like that with my 5 mo he was waking a lot and snacking (also co-sleeping after first feed). I was exhausted. In the last 2 nights I have been a bit more strict with the boob and it seems to have helped. I started wearing a nursing bra and top and turning away from him when he finished nursing (rahter than going to sleep myself). I have also been trying to get him back to sleep through cuddling before feeding. He is waking less and only fed at 2am (offered both sides) and 6am last night. He has also started having problems with his daytime sleep so think it may be a phase. HTH.