5 month old no longer sleeping through

[LikeSilentRaindrops]

Hi all

Looking for ideas / reassurance here - my 5 month old DD has always been a pretty good sleeper. From about 9 weeks, we had a routine of bath at 5.30, feed to sleep from 6 and transfer her into her crib, where she slept til 4am. She then fed and went back into a light sleep til 6am ish. She seemed to create her own schedule of going into her deep night time sleep early at 6pm and waking up early at 6am, which was great.

Then we had a growth spurt, cold, regression etc etc and it’s all gone a bit to pot. We’ve kept to the same evening routine, but she’ll now wake up anytime from 11 to 2am wanting another feed. That I could handle, but she also wakes up at 4am for a feed and doesn’t go back to sleep

We’re now in a horrible routine of DH getting up at 5, after her feed, and entertaining her downstairs for a few hours while I try and get more sleep.

Has anyone got any ideas on how I can either get her to drop the middle of the night feed (which in fairness seems like a decent feed) or getting her back to sleep after the 4am feed?

If it helps, today has gone like this:

1am - feed for 20 mins
4.30-5 - feed / doze on breast
5-8 - awake and playing with DH
8 - feed for 15 mins
8.30-11.30 - nap in swing (only naps if in motion and not normally for this long)
11.45 - feed for 15 mins
12-2 - awake and playing
2-2.30 - feed / doze on breast
2.30-4.30 awake and playing
4.30 - feed for 15 mins
4.45-5.30 awake and playing
5.30 bath time and she’s just fed to sleep on our bed

Can you try and move bed time back a little? My 6 month DD doesn't go to bed until about 8pm, which I know seems later than most but it means her dad can see her in the evenings, and she doesn't wake up for the day until 7am (at the earliest). She still wakes several times in the night to feed, but usually I take her into our bed sometime after midnight where we safely cosleep, and her feeding doesn't properly wake me or her up.
Hope you find something which works for you.

Six feels a bit early to me. My DD is four months and she goes into her cot at 6:45 with the aim of asleep by 7.

Your daughter doesn't seem to nap really in the afternoon which might be why she is going to sleep for the night so early, as she must be quite tired? My daughter has around two hours nap between about 11.30 and half 2, depending on what we're doing that day. She is up at 7, nap usually around 9 for 45 mins or so, then her middle of the day big nap, sometimes broken into smaller chunks if we are out at baby groups or meeting people, then another short 45 min nap around 4ish, with bedtime routine starting at 6.15.

Without that afternoon sleep, she'd be a nightmare come 5pm!

Try altering the naps so that she's having an hour around 9-10am and then a long lunchtime nap at 12-2ish/ 1-3ish. She should then be able to last well until 6:30/7pm. You could try a dream feed at 10/11pm and then see what time she wakes for feeds. She should start the day at 6/7am. Any earlier and I would feed back to sleep in the dark, just to get her body clock used to sleeping at that time.

To make all the changes try shift the routine by 15 mins every few days / wake her from her long morning nap until you are at the above.

I would focus on the daytime and night time sleep and then see how her feeds fall during the night. Then tackle that.

Sometimes babies get to a stage around 5 months when need the extra calories so they need more feeds until you wean.

The above routine worked for my ds when he was that age and we had to get a sleep consultant involved because he had a massive reaction to nutramigen milk and everything went to pot. He was up in pain 15 times a night and once the milk issue had resolved he was just in the habit of waking.

Oh I see the poster above said the same thing!

Great minds

My DD was a great sleeper until the 4 month sleep regression. She's never recovered from it and I think that is fairly common so you may be in the same boat.

DD also gets up at 4-5am, regardless of when she goes to sleep - the other night she went to bed at 9.30 (late car nap!) and was still awake at 4

Thanks for the responses!

@kunderscorej and @celebelly I agree 6 is on the early side; she kind of fell into that really at quite an early stage, as she just didn’t wake up! So we accepted that as her bedtime, but I take the point.

@worriedmammaof2 I like the 15min shift idea - I’ll try that tomorrow. Not sure she could go from 2-6.30 as she is at the moment, but I could try building in a short nap for her at 4ish. Part of the issue is that’s when we’re picking up my eldest, and the two are so excited to see each other that it keeps the youngest popped up! I do all night feeds on my bed, in the dark, with white noise etc, so not much more I can do to keep her bored 😆

@SherlockSays oh please, say it ain’t so 🤣 I was hoping this one would be a better sleeper than the last. I’m clinging onto the fact that she does know, on some level, how to sleep through, because she did it for weeks, so maybe she’ll remember the skill..!

@LikeSilentRaindrops if she naps 9-10 and she can comfortably go till say 12:30 then she could nap 12:30-2:30 or 1-3. Actually I think my LO did 1-3

Anyways good luck!

Oh God, reaching a whole new level of shoit here tonight 😦

She was awake again at 8 and was rocked back to sleep by DH. Then up again at 11, screaming, and only a feed would settle her. And now she’s woken up again, not yet screaming, but is ramping up, so yet again only a feed will do. How is she functioning on 2 hour bursts of sleep?! Because I’m not...

*shit