Am I expecting too much?

[JES12]

Hi all, I’m looking for advice. My 5 month old has a really bizarre sleeping pattern and I wonder if you have any advice.

They will fall asleep at 8pm, feed at 10.30pm but then wake anytime between 1 and 3.30am, they are then really unsettled until 5am. If I put her on the boob she will have a tiny bit and fall back to sleep but wake when I put her down, if I offer a bottle she isn’t interested. When I know she isn’t hungry I just keep putting the dummy back in but she is still restless.

Once my husband feeds her at 6am ish she sleeps in until anywhere between 8am - 10am.

What am I doing wrong? I’m thinking it’s the dummy thing but without this we will have fully blown hysterics. I sometimes wonder if she just wants a cuddle but I’m so tired I can’t do this and also don’t want to make a rod for my own back. Is it a case of not self soothing?

Any advice would be great.

She is enjoying being close to you have you thought about looking into safe cosleeping?

Is baby in a cot next to your bed?

If so, can you reach over the side. Just feeling your hand on her chest may help her settle. If you have difficulty reaching, you could completely remove one side of the cot (easily done with most cots) and have it wedged up to your bed. This allows for close contact to settle her, without having to share a bed.

Other factors to consider:

• too cold. Have a couple of nights with an extra layer on her and see if it helps.

• physical developments (the gross motor skills like rolling, crawling etc) make staying still at night difficult. I used a swaddle or tightly tucked in sheet over a sleeping bag to calm these

• wind. My children often bought up wind after several hours of lying down. It's like a build up. Just a quick minute upright usually solved it.

• hunger. The most obvious reasons for nit settling is needing a feed.