5 month old sleep has gone to utter shit.

[Jiminybikkit]

My baby was the perfect sleeper until the four month sleep regression. It has got progressively worse since then and I'm not sure what to do.

In the evening we have a loose bedtime routine between 6-7. She used to sleep in her cosleeper cot, then have a dream feed at about 11 when I came to bed. Then she'd have another feed at 3 and sleep until around 7.30am.

Now she simply will not go down. I've tried leaving it later but she just gets overtired. She cries, we pick her up and cuddle her, she falls back to sleep, out cold, but the moment her head hits the pillow she wakes up crying again.

She also hardly naps in the day, usually it's about 3 naps but they're never more than 30 minutes if I'm lucky. She will sometimes sleep longer if she's in the pushchair or sling and we are out a walk, or in the car.

I feel that she could probably sleep longer in the morning as I usually wake before her, but I need a wee and she wakes up once I get up from the bed. So I'm pretty sure she's tired,she must be.

To be honest I can live without her sleeping through, but it's the evenings. I hardly have a minute with my husband, and I'm an introvert and desperately need time alone, it doesn't have to be long, but if I just had an hour to myself to have a cup of tea and read, I could deal with anything else. But I'm simply not getting that and it's starting to take a toll.

I've tried just going back to basics, and letting her stay up with us in the living room, like we did when she was a newborn, but that's even worse because she ends up wide awake for hours and is miserable the next day.
I won't do CIO or anything like that, I don't believe in it, but I really really need something to change

Following as I have a almost 6month old who is the same. Some nights he is up every hour

Could you maybe try implementing a bit of a routine (bath/book/music night light) and see if that helps? My DD was a crap sleeper and I had to resort to CIO but she was 16 months at the time.

When you put her down are you sure she is in deep sleep? Can take 20mins to get into it.
My lo has not naturally been a good sleeper but we're getting there. Reading up on the cues to look for, info on sleep cycles might helptoo

If you have her in deep sleep it will help keep her down once out if your arms. I resorted to a lambskin at 4month sleep regression. So hes put down onto a cosy surface.
It will get easier...can just plonk him on bed and walk away now

I've been lying beside her for longer to make sure she is in a deep sleep for the past few nights and there has been a slight improvement, in that she is already down, so not screeching when she feels her head hit the mattress. But it's only a difference of ten minutes and then she's awake again, even if I've lain with her and she's been asleep for half an hour. She just doesn't seem to sleep for more than half an hour max unless I'm holding her.

The other thing is, she's always flailing her arms, whacking at her face, grabbing her ears. Part of the reason why I think she sleeps when I hold her is because I have her arms sort of pinned (that sounds worse than it is) and I think she likes that pressure. Even in a deep sleep, if i don't hold her, the arms come up right away, and then of course she's wide awake.

Are you using a sleeping bag? I think they are less likely to notice the change in temperature between your arms and the bed if you use one. You could also try warming up her cot with a hot water bottle.

If you think she is really tired it might be worth lying with her once in a while to make sure her sleep is topped up properly.

I could have written this post.. she never slept through prior to sleep regression but once put to bed she would stay asleep until a feed in the middle of the night and then sleep until early morning.

Since the regression she will go to bed as fine as she always has but I have to resettle her at least 3 times but often 5 or 6 between bed at 7 and her dream feed at 10ish - she's constantly thrashing her arms around and banging her legs up and down.. sometimes this in itself settles her without my intervention but mostly wakes her up.

We've got back down to one wake up in the night but we were having several bouts of 'singing' during the night a couple of weeks ago too. She takes longer than she ever has before to resettle in the night and often isn't interested in a feed. She used to just feed back to sleep and that was that - 10 mins tops, now it's more like an hour and 10 mins. I don't talk to her or put bright lights on, I try not to get her out of the cot at all but that rarely happens and I end up rocking and shushing.

The regression has a lot to answer for! I'm sat watching the monitor like a hawk now because I can tell from her breathing she's about to wake up again for the 5th time

Moving her into her own room has really helped though - that's what's made the difference between her waking up and singing for us several times and just the one wake up.