Five month old night sleeping - where to from here?

[EssentialHummus]

DD (just turned five months) had progressively good sleep until 3 months - dropped more and more feeds by herself, and then for a magical two weeks slept through 7-7. Since then it has gone to pot, whether because of the 4-month "leap" or otherwise.

In December, she began waking up at 22:30, 01:00, 03:00 and 06:00, more or less. I'm not much of a guide-follower for most parenting things, but the book we were relying on advised making one feed at a time smaller and smaller, and/or delaying them to reduce them, before eliminating them altogether. So she now wakes up at 11pm, we shush her back to sleep with a dummy; as soon as she wakes after midnight we give her two ounces of formula then back down - she falls asleep pretty quickly with a bit of shushing. Then she wakes up two hours later, I BF her for a full feed, then back down. If she wakes up again (4am or so), I shush her back to sleep.

I don't see that it's feasible to cut down on either the 2 ounces of formula or the BF without her just being up/unsettled all night. But when she wakes in the morning she's not hungry.

I just feel a bit stuck with what we're doing. I don't see how to reduce her feeds further from here, what to do, what she needs, or how to move things forward. I am trying to feed her more during the day but not sure it's helping. Any ideas?

On the plus side, she goes down to sleep really well at bedtime, and naps are improving - I just don't know what to do about nights.

If she’s only just turned 5 months she’s still very young to be reducing night feeds. I’d just feed on demand at night.

Baby sleep isn’t linear, it goes up and down in the first years. Just because she’s dropped feeds previously doesn’t mean she won’t need them again.

What time does she go to bed? Are you doing a dream feed? How does she go to sleep at bed time and naps? Does she drift off herself or do you rock/feed etc

I know it’s really hard with broken sleep, but it’s totally normal for her age and it will pass.

Thanks forthe. I guess my frustration is that she was sleeping through, and then it stopped.

She's up at 6ish. Nap by 8am. Up 08.40. Nap by 11am. Up 11.45. Nap by 2pm. Refuses to nap thereafter, so I walk her in her pram so she sleeps a little more around 4pm. Bath and bottle from 17.30, in bed by 18.15. The last bottle of the day is a mammoth 7oz/210ml. She's BF the rest of the time. No dream feed.

She's put in her Sleepyhead to sleep, I plug in her dummy, say Shhhhhhhhh, and then come back if she's crying. She tends to
cover her face with her hands and fall asleep pretty quickly. She's been improving on this, so sometimes I don't need to go in at all.

I also feel like that's ^^ going well, and I don't want to screw it up.

My DD wasn’t ready to drop her night dress until 7 months when she was on solids so I’m not sure I’d worry too much about dropping feeds at the moment.
It sounds like it’s going well settling her back to sleep but I’m wondering if you fed her at 11 would she still wake after midnight?

I’d maybe try a dream feed at 10/11 instead of the dummy then, and do a full feed not just 2oz, she may be waking again because she’s taking enough to go back to sleep but not enough to go a decent length of time. We are EBF and still have one night feed at 4/5am and straight back to sleep. He’s 8.5months.

I know it hard when they have slept through but I found it best to adjust my expectations. Just because they sleep through one night doesn’t mean they will the next day, week or month.