Hi all, I hope this is OK to post here... Sorry it's long, just putting as much info in as possible!
My ds is just over 5 months old (was born a month early) and is breastfed with the occasional bottle. At night he sleeps in his snuzpod next to our bed. He has never likes a dummy.
He naps OK in the day, a mix of in his cot, on me or in the pram. Wake time is around 2 hours but I'll try to settle him earlier if he's showing tired cues. We do a mix of self settle, feeding and rocking; just whatever works basically! He's mostly a very happy chappy but I think recently bad sleep is catching up with us all!
At night we start his bed routine between 6.30 and 7 with clean nappy, moisturising, story and a feed. He's usually down between 7.30 to 8ish.
For the last month he's been waking between 3 and 5 times a night and being wide awake about 5.30. Sometimes he has lots of short wakes, some nights he wakes up and it can take up to 2 hours for him to go back to sleep! We keep the room dark and quiet, minimise interaction and only change him in the night if he poos.
I'm starting to feel exhausted and worried about him not getting the sleep he needs and that we must be doing something wrong ☹️ Dh goes to work in the day but helps as much as he can when he's home. I so wish my mum could come and see us!
When he's 6 months (just 3 weeks!) we are hoping to move him to his own room. Does anyone have any advice that might help him sleep a little better? I really don't expect him to sleep through, I'd be happy just to knock the long night wakings on the head for now! I don't feel co sleeping would work; we all fidget, don't have a spare bed for dh, plus I never mastered feeding laying down anyway. I also worry about sids as he was prem and there is a past instance of it in my immediate family. Sometimes I wonder if weaning him to a bottle would help, but then if it doesn't then it is just more faffing! We have a monitor that does a light projection and we'll probably set something up to play his sounds all through the night, maybe that would help??
Sorry for the long post. I've been OK with it all until the last few nights, but just feeling really down right now and like a rubbish mum who can't get her baby the sleep he needs! I've had a few comments from my mil about it too, which probably haven't helped!