Takes min 45 mins but mostly 1-2 hours to get to sleep

[mjwb99]

Our baby is 5 months old, she's always been hard to get to sleep but as the 4 month regression hit shes been a nightmare sleep wise.

We try 4 naps in the day, but it generally will take 45 mins to get her to sleep by rocking her, shes never fallen asleep while you're sat down with her etc.

Generally it's so hard we occasionally get 4 naps but generally 2 or 3 if we're lucky, each nap is 20-45 mins.

By the end of the day shes shattered, we put her to bed around 7pm, it'll take min of 45-1 hour to get her to sleep but often it'll be up to 2 hours+.

When shes finally asleep at around she'll be asleep for 20mins and wake up, then throughout the night it's every hour or 2 hours.

As you can imagine we're shattered and it's been like this for about 5 weeks now!!!!

Any help really appreciated!

You're in an over-tired downward spiral.

When baby is overtired then its harder for them to get to sleep and also when they go to sleep they spend longer in light sleep ratger than deep sleep. It's much easier to be woken up in the light sleep phase, so baby wakes up much more easily.

In short - bad sleep leads to even worse sleep in a horrible downward spiral.

So in the short term - make sleep your biggest priority for 3-5 days.

● Limit awake time. However long baby naps for, maximum awake time until bring asleep again is double the nap length. So 30 min naps mean 1h awake window. Allow for 15-20 minutes settling time, so start settling to sleep from 40 min after waking.

● Make getting to sleep as easy as possible. Dummy for comfort sucking. Naps in something that moves. At bedtime a sidecar cot may help comforting baby from your bed. Plus dummy for comfort.

● Make staying asleep as easy as possible. For daytime I recommend a bouncy chair for naps. Park yourself on the sofa and bounce with your foot. Even tempo and be relentless. Don't stop. The even movement helps baby stay asleep for as long as possible.

● Maximum calories, frequently. For the emergency measures few days to get out of the cycle, feed as often as you possibly can. (Milk feeds, solids just complicate matters). Give a full milk feed in every awake window and at any night wake when baby isn't settling within 10-15 mins. Wind well too.

Overtired or reflux/CMPI.

Two of my four were like this! It’s hard work. Hope you are ok.

Will she sleep in the car or the buggy? I used to time nap time with a walk or car drive. They used to go straight to sleep and stay asleep for a good while.

Our bedtime routine was warm bath, last feed in a dark room with a night light and classical music, put them down nice and sleepy, turn off night light, keep everything calm as I’m sure they pick up your feelings of anxiety about it all. Good luck!

Thanks for the replies.

She doesnt sleep in the car, rarely in the buggy. She won't accept bottle milk or dummies ever. She also struggles with breastfeeding.

Literally tried everything.

Is there any service you can pay for to help? We're at our whits end, spending about 6-8 hours trying to get her to sleep every day and then having awful night sleeps and crying.

@mjwb99 you have my sympathies. We also have five month old and sleep has gone to utter sh*t. I get four naps in a day. As a pp said will baby sleep in pram or car? I usually do two naps rocked to sleep, and two in pram. Rocking to sleep is too much work! Also nap in car if we're out and about. At night I'm now co-sleeping. Not what I wanted to do but less tiring to deal with all the night wakenings. Fingers crossed they develop better sleep soon!

Sorry cross post.
I still find a buggy walk at nap time useful for me even if they don't sleep. Beats sitting whining in the house.
Perhaps an earlier bedtime if it's taking so long? On a bad day we take ours upstairs at 6pm.

What happens if you have one day of just getting up and not putting her for a nap at all? Just go about the day in the pram, car it whatever and see if she re sets herself and nods off when she wants to? No expectations just see what happens.

What time does she wake and what times are you trying her for a nap?

I have had the same problem and recently got in touch with a sleep coach and she’s been a miracle worker . Let me know if you would like the details! She has changed our lives.