My child is a conundrum and I don’t know what to do.
He’s almost six months and we’ve never had great sleep but it’s been awful for weeks now. He’s exclusively breastfed although we’re experimenting with weaning at the evening meal (around 5pm).
He’s only ever done 30 minute naps although on occasion and with white noise I can get longer but it’s very unpredictable. I pay attention to sleep signals and wakefulness periods and he goes down for naps fairly easily but won’t stay asleep for long as a rule.
He goes to bed at 6:30 generally without much fuss although it’s harder when he’s learning a skill because he’s too interested in his surroundings even in the dark! He’s currently very much on the move and learning to crawl.
He goes to bed in his cot which is next to my bed and I lay next to him, sometimes with a hand on him and then leave. Sometimes I’ve been able to leave straightaway.
He used to do a longer stint at the start of the night (3-6 hours) but that’s gone out of the window and he wakes every 1-2 hours.
It’s not always hunger and he settles with a hand on his back and has gone 6 hours without being fed and settling this way. Recently as soon as I’ve moved my hand he wakes up, no matter how long I’ve had it there, but not always. The first waking of the night is normally when he’s most upset and needs a feed. He does a good feed of about 20 minutes then so I know it’s hunger (whereas if it’s not he feeds for a couple of minutes and I know I’ve been conned!)
I tried moving feed time and feeding him closer to bed as he doesn’t need a feed to sleep, and also giving solids in the evenings but it makes no difference.
I’ve tried sleeping in a different room - again, no difference.
I’ve tried co-sleeping but if I’m laying next to him he insists on having a nipple in his mouth and if it falls out he roots (presumably because I’m close).
He also wakes up between 4&5 am - I can persuade him to go back to sleep but only for 45 minutes or so at a time and with white noise.
The heating is on through the night and temperature is consistent.
I’m a first-time mum and doing this solo now after Dad moved out 3 weeks ago. I worried this made his sleep worse but it doesn’t seem any different in honesty.
I considered teething but he’s good tempered in the day.
I wondered whether it’s separation anxiety but he doesn’t show signs of this in the day and is often happy for me to leave the room before he’s asleep when he’s put to bed.
I tried leaving him to cry the other day which I hated and after 30 minutes gave up on. We did an hour of laying with my hand on his back and he didn’t sleep then. He constantly wriggles and turns himself onto his back (is a tummy sleeper) and then won’t go to sleep like that but gets annoyed when you turn him into his tummy!
Sorry that this is long and disjointed I’m just losing patience and am at my wits end!