Am I doing something wrong?

[whitehousemum]

Just had a rare visit from some strong minded family members and feel a bit confused by it. My baby is almost 5 months, generally sleeps through the night 9-7 unless going through a growth spurt when they might wake up 1-2 times to feed. Daytime naps aren't great as they struggle to stay asleep but will have approx 3 - 4 naps a day around half and hour and one is usually around an hour. Relatives think this is v bad and baby should be sleeping longer during the day. They think this is caused by a lack of solids (we are waiting til six months). They also think baby should be in a nap routine (we have a set bedtime and routine but relatives think it is too late at around 8-8:30), and that I should leave baby to fall asleep on their own. At the moment we are moving from breastfeeding to sleep and have been working on putting baby in sleepy but awake and using a dummy to get baby to fall asleep - taking 20-30 mins at the moment but gradually getting easier, but relatives think I shouldn't stay in the room with baby to replace dummy etc and should just leave them to go off on their own. I'm just feeling a bit thrown as I thought we were doing quite well but relatives came and pointed out everything they thought was wrong. Have I been doing it all wrong?

DD is 6.5 months old and never naps longer than 30 minutes- sleeps around 10-11 hours at night with a few of wake ups. I don't leave her to fall asleep on her own.

It seems like you are doing fine - I've just learned to smile and nod when people give 'advice'

Everything sounds great. Ignore them.
:-)

I'm sure if you wanted advice you'd ask for it. We always used to be told to start baby on solids at four months but the advice has changed since then. Replies may have their own opinions but they aren't more valid than yours. Just smile, nod, and carry on regardless

Rellies not replies

Thanks all, I'm already feeling a lot better!

You're doing just fine. You have a baby that sleeps through, give or take, at 5 months (not that I'm jealous or anything). In my experience naps didn't start to fall into a pattern until about 6 months. And while others might put their baby to bed earlier, if what you're doing works for your family, keep doing it!

Your BF baby sleeps 9-7 at 5 months??

I think you must have superpowers! 🙌

Ignore, they know nothing. Sounds like you're doing a great job.

My baby is four months and also sleeps through 9-7 at night. So i dont really fuss or overthink his napa during the day.
He has a bottle in morning around 7.30 and from then he usually has awake times of about 1.5 -2 hours and is then ready to sleep again. Can be anything fron 30 mins to 2 hours

If my baby had done this at 4-5 months I would be over the moon! Ignore.

Nod and agree and then ignore. You’re doing ace. Neither of my two have slept through that early (my nearly 2 year old still doesn’t)!

Thank you, I was sure we hadn't been going that wrong! Just they caught me a bit off guard by telling me they thought there was a problem - I hadn't said anything at all about sleep to them as I thought there was no issue!

Also I have done nothing to encourage the sleeping through, baby is completely fed on demand (which is apparently wrong as well...), baby just really likes sleeping!

That all sounds great and a good amount of night time sleep. There is no problem that needs fixing! I fed on demand (very frequently), fed to sleep, naps were short and random but it all gradually worked into more of a routine from about 7 months onwards.

At that age my dd was waking 4x night, forcing us to cosleep, and would only nap on me!!

Now at 7 months she self settles in cot for all naps and sleeps through the night.

I found getting past 6.5 monthsish really helped sleep :)

Sounds like you’re doing a great job! Carry on as you are - you’re winning at this! It’s very rude of your family to start criticising you like this. Definitely ignore them.