5 mo suddenly waking at night

[Autumn29876]

My 5 month old sleeps in a snuzpod cosleeper next to my bed. He used to have a dream feed at 11pm and then wake at 2.30/3 am for another feed. He would go straight back to sleep. I have always allowed him to nap on me or in his pram when out and about.

He is now waking constantly it seems to be every couple of hours. He sometimes takes a feed but often doesn't. Last night he laid awake kicking around for two hours. In the past I have picked him up and cuddled him back to sleep and he would then sleep for up to 4 more hours. Now he just wakes up again and the o my way I can keep him asleep is to hold him.

Please advise. Should I try gentle sleep training? Pick up put down? Move to big cot? I'm loathed you use controlled crying. Do I need to continue to offer feeds at night?
Do I leave him in the cot and stroke his head- he starts to cry if I try this but I am willing to let him cry a little bit if it will help so long as I can cuddle him in his snuzpod pod of that makes sense ?

Any advice gratefully received

Sounds like the 4 month regression has hit (just a few weeks late). We're just entering it now and will be sleep training in a month as that worked amazingly for our toddler at the same age. It's not for everyone though and their sleep may improve on its own in a few weeks once they come out the other side of the regression.

What kind of sleep training will you be using?

I found that my dc often woke in the night like this if they were about to hit a milestone like rolling or crawling or similar, it’s like their brain was working away and couldn’t switch off.

It could also be a growth spurt or teething? I would offer feeds and cuddles, pain relief if you think it could be teething. Baby is too little for sleep training.

We used a sleep consultant and implemented a really consistent routine for bedtime and nap times, sorted out the sleep environment, made sure awake times in the day weren't too long and then did a bit of controlled crying. We were only comfortable going up to 3 minutes but that was enough for it to work for us. DC1 is now a brilliant sleeper and loves going to bed and her own space.

Wineat4 thanks that's really helpful. Could I possibly ask for the rough daytime routine you used at this age, and for some more details about how to set up the sleep environment? That's really useful to know that it only took three minutes of crying. I could just about cope with that I think any more and I would find it really distressing myself.

Would you recommend moving him into a big cot then as I can't see how I can sleep train when he is next to me? Otherwise I wouldn't be leaving I would be going back to sleep if that makes sense

Thesearmsofmine thanks for the reply. Yes it could be teething- he is dribbling and chewing everything. Do you think this will pass then without me doing anything? I am already giving cuddles and feeds it's just that I think that he would like the cuddle to last all night .

If it's any consolation my 5.5 mo is doing exactly the same and has been for just over a week - last night he finally slept through so tonight I'm going to try him all night in his cot. 🤞🏼 I think it's either regression period or teething?