Help! Baby won't go back to sleep during the night/5am

[tigger15]

My ds is now 5 months. From 3 months we had managed to get him to fall asleep by himself and although he woke up a few times in the night he went back to sleep after being fed.

Recently he's started waking up at 5am and 2am and refusing to go back to sleep after his feed. Instead he either point blank refuses or we can only get him off after a combination of teething ring, rocking, chamomile and sometimes more feeding taking about 30 mins but only at 2am - everything has failed at 5am. Previously he just went down as he has a thumb and knows how to use it! He is teething at the moment but his wake up calls do not seem to coincide with the times he is screaming in pain from the teeth. He is completely breast fed and I'm not planning on starting solids until he's 6 months.

Has anyone got any ideas on why he has started doing this now and how to stop it?

Many thanks,

DS' 2 exhausted parents.

I had a similar thing - started to go through (a bit. lol), then started regularly waking at 5am. Ds is 6 months, so they are similar ages.
Some people have suggested (to stop the 5am wake up):
trying to make his bedtime later by 5mins / day til he is going to bed an hour later (didnt try this, as the meltdown wasn;t worth it).
feeding longer / more frequently before bedtime etc.

I think yours is also a problem of self -settling though, which she used to do but now won't. Does she go down at naps ok?
Perhaps she has started a habit of needing all those things to drop off at 2 am, so why not try gradually dropping 1 at a time.

I don't follow my own advice though . I just get in bed with ds and co-sleep til a reasonable hour!! I often sleep holding down his legs (trying to kick me to play) and 1 hand on his dummy!

He's got much worse about naps recently. He used to be pretty regular but at the moment sometimes he wants to sleep lots and other times he'll go for a really long time (4 hours) with nothing. When he goes for a long time it's obvious that he needs a rest but he just won't go to sleep even though I've put him down when he's sleepy and not overtired. He refuses to go to sleep and gets overtired. Other times he behaves perfectly.

Usually at 2am we're just desparate to go back to sleep and will try anything that works. They're not done in any particular order.Some nights he will go back at that time but then will stay up at 5am.

He also doesn't fall asleep completely when I feed him most of the time otherwise I'd just leave him in bed with me.

really sympathise tigger.

my ds of 9mnths has got worse of late. He to wakes at 2&5. Sometimes he crys for an 1hr, if I put hm down partially awake at 2, have tried co-sleeping but dh thinks I should not encourage this as bad habit formimg. However am at work and so tired and getting despertate. 5am, well the day starts, until ds usually sneeks a nap in at 6.30.

Have been advised to just let him cry if I , know he is well fed and have offered drink, but don't think I could handle hearing him so distressed.