5 month old sleeps longer before I come to bed!

[MasterSensei]

My ebf 5 month old was a good sleeper until the regression his us and she's been waking every hour from 14 weeks. What I don't understand is why I can put her to bed at 6 and she won't make a peep until half 10 when I go to bed but then she's up every hour all night!
I can't go to bed at 6 with her I tried that and ended up with pretty horrific post natal insomnia becuse I wasn't sleeping because it was early then laying in bed too long so then wasn't sleeping then getting over tired, a whole big thing.

So why does she do 4 solid hours before I come to bed and then every hour since!! It drives me mad.

Can you not keep her up later than 6pm?

It’s the type of sleep not the actual timing or you coming to bed. If you went to bed with him at 6pm, he would still have solid sleep for hours and start moving around/waking around 10pm.

I have the same with my 2 dds. Both have slept well for the first part of the night, then would have unrestfull period around midnight, before settling again into deeper sleep from 2/3am.

Sounds like he wakes up and then has trouble falling back asleep

Can she smell your milk? I bed share with my DS and he feeds loads in the night (much more than in the day) which I've always assumed is because he's in closer contact to the milk.

Maybe you're also waking her up? Is she old enough to go into her own room?

Do you snore?

My thought was also that she can smell your milk as pp said. Maybe try to keep her awake longer so you can hopefully get extra sleep but other than that I suspect it could just be one of those “it will pass” scenarios. I know how knackering it is hang in there!

She can't go up any later than 6 she used to go to bed at 9 but now if it gets much past half 6 she kicks right off. This one is very particular! It helps that after bath she goes down within about 20 minutes.

I'm not aware of any snoring I'm sure my DH would have kicked me out of bed long ago!
Maybe it is the milk she smells or me rolling around wakes her. She seems to settle at about 2/3 after then she only wakes up once before she's up for the day at 6.
I'd like to keep her in with me until at least 6 months and then if she still wakes every hour I'm not going back and forth to another room all night!

To be honest DS woke every 90 mins to feed at that age anyway. It's frustrating and exhausting but it sounds quite normal

Pretty standard baby sleep I think. The long stretch at the start of the night before the shorter stretches start to merge

My 18 week old DS is the same. Down at 7-sleeps solidly until 10, dream feed, sometimes down until 1 but then awake every hour or every 30 mins from about 4/5. I have no advice but I feel your pain.

Standard baby sleep behaviour I’m afraid. The first part of the night is the deepest sleep apparently

I would try a later nap still around 4.30pm. only 30-60mins. Then try a later bedtime of 8-8.30pm.

Is it something she should grow out of and start sleeping in longer blocks?
I'm hesitant to try to force change her routine, that's where the 6pm bed time came from we went through a horrible phase where she wasnt napping or sleeping at all becuse I was putting her down at the wrong time of day and she wasnt ready or it was too late. Her days are pretty much led by her, we go out or stay in and she falls asleep about the same time. She takes about three naps at an hour each and most days with her last nap she sleeps till 5 and by half 6 she's fussy and cranky and will eventually just sleep where she is and I have to wake her up to put her to bed.

If she is napping until 5pm anyway, i would try a few other things.

1. give milk after nap
2. try and shift schedule so she can stay awake an extra 15mins each evening, until its shifted to at least 7.30pm
3. then another lot of milk before bed. 4)feed every 2-2/12 hrs max in day. Don't leave her 3hrs.
4. then at night I would stop all feeds within x amount of hour, ie only feed every 4 hours overnight. so if she is fed at 7pm, I wouldnt give any milk feed before 11pm, then only after 3am, then 7am again. Any wakings in between settle back to sleep only with water, and being rocked, or patted to sleep. otherwise she is learning only to sleep with feed again and snacking all night.
5. last feed before bed, do in living room with lights on, so it isnt associated with sleep