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5 month old won’t sleep

4 replies

violetfern · 07/02/2020 15:58

Sorry for the long post! Our DD has just turned 5 months. She has never been a great sleeper, maybe once or twice sleeping for 4-5 hours at night. She was very windy and unsettled after her 8, 12 and 16 week imms but each time after 10-14 days seemed to settle into perhaps waking every 3 hours and settling quickly after feeds (she is ebf) for a couple of days, and sometimes we could settle her by shush patting in the crib between feeding. She is fed to sleep at bedtime but for naps we had managed to go from feeding to sleep to just cuddling her to sleep then putting her down (with the aim to then settle her in her crib as the next step). Then the 4 month regression hit and she’s just seems to be getting worse and worse. We do bath, story, boob then bed, with dummy and a comforter, and even during the regression could get 2.5-3 hours as an initial sleep before she started waking every 1-2 hours. She now wakes every 1-2 hours minimum, and can have a wide awake period of 2-3 hours of more in the middle of the night. She thrashes and screams, will drop off during feeds but then wakes as soon as off the boob, and there’s no way we can settle her in the crib. Eventually she will fall asleep on me but then I’m not getting enough rest. She’s started to roll, and initially slept better once on her side but now that’s stopped helping too! She’s fighting naps as well now and I’m only guaranteed to get a nap if she’s out in her pram (at which point she will go over 2 hours sometimes). We make sure to put her for a nap around the 2 hour wake point but she’s having none of it. She’s such a happy, smiley baby otherwise, I just don’t know what to do. Feel so disheartened that we managed to get to the point of good napping and settling in crib and it’s all gone out the window. Myself and DH are knackered ☹️. Do we just ride it out??

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Meghaji · 09/02/2020 14:44

Hey Violetfern, sorry you’re having all these sleep issues. My DS who is 8.5m old started this at around 4 months of age, I decided to try and ride it out but 4 months down the line he wakes every 45minutes all night long and naps are still one sleep cycle of 45 minutes. Sorry probably not what you wanted to hear:

Do you think she could possibly be over tired? How much sleep do you think she’s getting in total?

I don’t have much advice, other than I would try to stop feeding to sleep. Even though it’s such a saviour when you’re so tired. I thought it would just ride out and it hasn’t for me, if anything it’s got a lot worse.. so I’m not sure it’s one of those things that you can ride out .. although others may tell you otherwise but her from my personal experience :)
Have you heard of the Elizabeth pantley pull off technique? Maybe have a google and see if this works for you? It helps them to learn to fall asleep without the nipple in the mouth; long process but a lot of people swear by it. It didn’t work for me, however every baby is different and always worth trying.

Also short naps are developmentally normal up until around 6 months of age then they should start to lengthen after this point if you can help her with the sleep association of boob to sleep. Also maybe try playing with awake windows by 15 minutes or so; maybe she needs to go down slightly earlier or later :)

Sorry can’t help much but you’re not alone! I hope you manage to get some much needed sleep soon! Xx

violetfern · 09/02/2020 15:42

Thanks so much Meghaji, it’s so nice to know I’m not alone! You must be exhausted!

I definitely think she’s overtired so have been trying a few earlier nights to get her some more sleep, at one point I think she was getting less than 10 hours sleep in 24 🤦🏻‍♀️. I think I’m going to try experimenting with the awake windows like you suggested, see if that helps. Since I posted I started the pick up put down technique as I was at my wit’s end and did manage to get her to sleep without the boob for some naps but she conks out during night feeds and I don’t want to particularly wake her up as all I want her to do is sleep- the pull off technique might help with that though so thanks I’ll have a look.

I hope things start to improve for you, the sleep deprivation is a killer (and there I was complaining of tiredness when I was pregnant 😂) x

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AnnieS2511 · 11/02/2020 03:46

Hi mama! Your post sounded like I could have written it myself.. My babe is 4 months as well and, though she's never been a good sleeper, this last month or so has been pure hell..! I'm sorry that I really don't have any advice for you but just wanted to say that you are not alone!! I'll be waking every 30 minutes right by your side! Grin(Right now it's 4:45 a.m.)... Solidarity sister! We can get through this!

WaitrosesCheapestVodka · 11/02/2020 07:05

We just started sleep training our 6mo using the Ferber method (but never leaving her longer than 10 minutes. It worked ib 3 days, last night she woke once to fees then slept through until 630. She was waking 4-5 times between 12-5am. She smiled to see us and seems her usual self

I know sleep training isn't for everyone, and it's not recommended before 6 months, but in a few weeks at least you'll know you have another option in a few weeksFlowers

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