how did your LO sleep at 5-6mo?

[choolie]

Am at my wit's end. DS 5.5mo is waking 3-4 times a night now, usually v. difficult to settle at the last waking to the point that I take him into bed with us, when he will eventually sleep, but I don't manage any until hubby gets up with him at 7, giving me an hour in bed to catch up a bit. Now, his day-time naps are starting to wrong too. He tends to have a nap 9ish, usually for 45 mins now, which is still ok, then he used to have 2 hours around mid-day, but is getting harder and harder to settle for that one. I hold my hands up to sleep associations such as feeding to sleep, but even with these he isn't settling now. He fights the sleep constantly, even when I'm cuddling him. i've got NCSS so am working through some of the suggestions and am not prepared to do controlled crying. anybody got any suggestions? I'd be grateful to hear how your LO was at this stage.
TIA

choolie, I feel your pain. My dd was quite similar at that age. It took her ages to get better at sleeping. At 19mo, she's still not the greatest but usually sleeps for at least a good 7 hour stretch. A lot of people havve success with the NCSS. I wasn't one of them but I also didn't stick at it long enough.

HAve you started feeding him solids? that might have an impact. It could be a phase (and, I hope that it is for your sake!).

hang in there! sorry I can't offer an pearls of wisdom...

Oooh Choolie - I could have written this myself. My DD is now nearly ten months and she has just (this week) starting sleeping from 9pm - 7am reliably. I am beside myself with joy. Previously she would wake three times (AT LEAST) a night and napping - she's never done napping!

I did find the no cry sleep guide helped me - at least tracking her sleep so I knew what she was actually getting - it seems less when you are being woken up all the time.

Also, have you considered the fact he might be teething? They get v unsettled when teeth start putting in an appearance.

But while they are started to get mobile they are disrupted generally and you just have to ride it out I'm afraid.

Sorry to say, they were both pretty crap. Actually, really crap. Until about 6-7 months when I did............yep, CC.

Both slept fab after, though. And still do now. But understand why you are against it, it is difficult to implement. Hope your ds settles soon

Choolie - honestly I think it's totally random you see. Babies haven't read the books and they don't 'get' why they should sleep. When they are born they don't even have melatonin secretions on a regular basis - they have to develop them and hormones don't actually regulate properly for the first year or so, so it may be that you just have to wait it out.

I resigned myself to this fact and kept saying 'this will get better eventually' and it does seem to have (although I want the little monkey asleep by 7 so I can have a life too!)

You have my sympathy Choolie... DS is 5.5 months and an appalling sleeper, made worse by eczema. 3/4 night wakings would be a good night for us! We are just trying to ride it out (I am co-sleeping which helps).

thank you all so much. even if it doesn't improve at the moment, it just helps to hear other people out there are the same! - nobody I know has admitted to having problems like this, so I can't chat to anybody who understands.

I have started him on his first tasters now, and I do think that's unsettling him a bit at night (windy bottom with the purees!) and he's been dribbling on and off for a couple of months, so it's probably a combination of it all, but I feel guilty as if I've taught him bad sleep habits - my mum was forever telling me to put him down when he was a newborn, which of course I didn't and dont' regret now either as the time was too precious...but how I long for a decent night's sleep
cheers

5-6 months ...he didn;t sleep, iirc

It took me ages to realize that it coincided with early weaning...I think on the worst night he'd had avocado or some such

I was so ignorant then (pre-MN), weaned at 16 weeks like HV suggested, no baby led weaning or anything.

My advice to me if I had the time over again would be to ease up on the solids, tbh.

Don;t worry about bad habits, it's a bit of a myth imo.

Choolie if you want some company and sympathy, you are welcome to join us sleepless mums on the Sleep Is For The Weak thread, and check out our blog

My Ds is just over 6 months and is a pretty bad sleeper at night. He seems to have got much worse this week but I think it's because he's teething.I usually end up bringing him into bed as well.

choolie - at 5-6mths my ds was an appalling sleeper. He would wake 2hrly every night to be bf back to sleep. Weaning made no difference whatsoever (despite hv telling me otherwise). His naps were atrocious too and I was at my wits end. He would lseep in the day but only in his buggy/on the move. It was a terrible time. I did cc at 8mths which worked miracles for me but i fought against it until i could stand no more. I did try NCSS (the pull off thing) but it did not work for me, Baby Whisperer methods were useless for me too though i know some who have had success with each of these methods. I hope you get through it!

Choolie - those folks who say 'my baby has slept through from day one' they are either lying or they have selective hearing (ie they ignore the cries).

You, and your son, are entirely normal! And I promise it does get better (although you will never again sleep soundly as you did pre-kids - sorry!)