Five month old sleep improvement

[satsumasaturday]

My five month old has generally been a good sleeper since he was born. Once we got past the newborn mad first couple of weeks he started to do stints of 4/5 hours and only wake in the night once or twice. However there has been no improvement since he was six weeks old. Napping has always been much harder but for the past couple of months these have been in his cot for 40 minutes each. He usually naps three times a day and averages about two hours total nap time in a day.

He is fed to sleep by me (EBF) for each nap, and for bedtime unless we are out in which case he will nap in the pram as we walk.

However some nights when he wakes he doesn't go back to sleep, last night for example he was wide awake with me for two hours before he went back to sleep. The night before he woke again 90 minutes after I'd fed him at 1am. Some nights he sleeps through 7-6 so I know he can manage the full night.

I've got no problem waking to feed him but we had planned to move him into his own room. However if he's still up lots then I'd rather he be in with us still so I don't have to keep going to another room. But perhaps we are disturbing him and he'll sleep better in his own room?

Separately I know I've got into a bit of a pickle with feeding to sleep. It came about earlier out of desperation as rocking has never worked. At some point I will go back to work so this will need fixing as I won't be able to feed him for naps. But if we put him into his cot awake he gets upset and me and my husband are both equally as weak when it comes to picking him back up again at the first whimper. I'm not against sleep training but it's unclear to me how they all work. We won't be able to handle crying so any method training we do we will need to be as low on tears as possible. Does anyone have any recommendations? There's far too many websites giving conflicting advice so I thought I'd reach out to mumsnet to help me sift through the nonsense.

Sorry my post is a bit rambling I guess my questions are:
Did people see an improvement in sleep when they put their babies in their own room or did it make it worse?
Is the feeding to sleep causing the inconsistent sleep habits?
Any recommendations for how to break the feeding to sleep habit?

Thank you!

Hey op

They can have a sleep regression at 5 months, can be the famous 4 months regression but late, or it could be a developmental lea or growth spurt.

If you're trying to break the feed to sleep cycle, you'll have to find other ways your baby soothes.
Mine is a clingy baby and the only way for her to sleep is to be held, rocked and ssshhed or patted.
She's got reflux and bad wind so needs abut extra and is only 9 weeks yet.

Is there anyway you can think of that soothes your lo? A dummy, rocking, a comforter, low music, a drink of water?

I think it's all about problem solving really this parenting thing.. Wish i was good at that haa!

I don't really think there's anyway you can get away with hardly any crying, you might be lucky but most babies cry, especially when goinv through sleep training. Just expect it and if it doesn't happen too much then great.

Most people i know with sleep training wait till baby is sleepy and then put them down, if they cry leave them a couple minutes and then go in, stay silent but comfort them until they calm down, then leave again.
Repeat cycle.
Expect crying for a few days or maybe longer but it usually works for most.

You have to repeat sleep training again if they have something that upsets the cycle, like teething etc

I have this all to come.. You got this!!

Any recommendations for how to break the feeding to sleep habit?

Without any crying you have two realistic options:

• Replace feeding to sleep with a dummy - since it's physically impossible to cry whilst sucking. But if you've not already established a dummy by 4 ish months then the chances of establishing it are small.

• Accept that the process of learning to sleep independently will be a very slow process (many, many months) and that while you might be able to stop feeding to sleep, baby will still need your help to sleep for quite a long time.

The gradual process involves unlatching baby from the breast gradually earlier and replacing feeding to sleep with cuddling to sleep (and rocking if distressed). So initially unlatch baby when swallowing stops, from that point onwards cuddle to sleep. Slowly bring unlatch baby sooner until the point that you are unlatching baby while properly awake and cuddling to sleep instead.

The on from that, follow the same process for how soon you put baby into the cot. At first this will mean putting baby into the cot 10 minutes after getting into a deep sleep. Then 5 minutes, then just as gone to sleep, then just before going to sleep and so on. This would then replace cuddling to sleep with in-cot settling by patting and shushing.

Over time you then, very gradually, reduce the amount of patting and shushing needed in the cot. The ultimate aim, many months down the line, will be to put baby in the cot wide awake, give a reassuring pat and say nan night then leave.