Sleep - 5 month old waking but not going back to sleep.

[Bobbiblue]

Morning all!

Sooooo my almost 5 month old, goes to bed at 630pm - not choice. How she likes it. Will cry for her bed. She crys when she goes to sleep - approx 4 mins sometimes less sometimes more (not much more) . It used to be settle in her bed with comfort as faith destiny has described before. She now gets more worked up and distressed with this. So once I literally was busting for the toilet and by time I got back she was asleep. So now I sit in our room with her until she goes sleep - if i hold her she will literally buck herself and wiggle until put down. So left me little choice tbh.... She has a dummy.

Anyways. She sleeps 630pm until 1.15am.i literally mean to the minute she will wake at this time. Doesn't cry out or anything. Just plays with her sleep suit and talk, anyways I feed her - takes a good amount (150mls to 210mls) and I pop her down awake after a quick cuddle as gets bit sicky due to reflux...

Now for anywhere up to hour and half sometimes 2 hours she will shout/Talk and want her dummy back. I have tried holding her for over an hour but will not drop to sleep (though is quite) and is actually better in her travel cot. We use one of these as the side cot she grew out of.

She feeds generally OK, has 700 to 850mls a day. based on her weight 8.5kg is not enough. But that's what she wants and doesn't want anymore, and she's gaining weight. Took a long time to go with flow on that.

Her naps-
830/9 - 30mins to 45 mins
11/1130 - 45mins to 2hours
230/3 - 45 mins to 1hour if she doesn't have her long sleep at 1130 ish she will have a bit longer on this one.
Sometimes has a cat nap about 5ish...
Don't get me wrong I know her sleep is very good at night. Just thrown me with the middle of night one, staying awake 🤷🏼‍♀️used to have feed and go back to sleep within 30 mins...

Simply put is this developmental the waking in night?

She was teething for about a week, but no teeth yet. I felt like I changed her top 60 times in a day due to the dribble and chomping. I do give teething gel at this middle of night too 🤷🏼‍♀️ but makes no difference.

What is her daytime feeding routine like?

And those naps- do you wake her or leave her to sleep as long as she needs? Do you manage any successful resettles to lengthen the shorter naps?

Where is she napping and how are you getting her to sleep?

You mention a travel cot, any reason you are using this rather than a normal cot? It's just that normal cots have higher mattress settings so that you don't need to put baby so low down. This makes a big difference when settling a younger baby.

Fate destiny yay 🎉🙏🏻 it's you! Such great advice you give.

She feeds 7am/730am 1030/11am 130pm/2pm 5.30pm/6pm. I tried dream feeding at 10pm and screams at me. Though that was a good 6 weeks since I tried it. I have tried 3 hourly but wasn't keen - should I reapproach that? Do the 7,10,1,4,7?

I leave her till she wakes up.... She has about 3.5 hours to 4 hours sleep in day I would say. No luck with resettling for shorter naps looks at me as if I'm mad, tried doing as soon as I see a stir and no luck. The longer nap was done on her own accord, one day just started to have a longer one, was doijg 30min ones. Doesn't cry when wakes up from shorter naps and lots of smiles, and doesn't display her sleepy cues for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Very naughty but as we're out quite a bit she is sleeping in the stroller - I pop her in with her white noise, and off she goes. Has a good chat to herself, and has her shout when she needs me to pop her dummy in and stroke her nose to help her drift and generally goes off herself, even sleeps in buggy at home 🙈. I rarely have to hold her - sometimes the cat nap in late afternoon. She doesn't like the bouncer for sleep. She's too Nosey 😂 maybe if at home should put her in her cot she goes to bed in at night for her naps?

Yes using travel cot as the cot too big and doesn't fit in our room. Even with rearranging it wouldn't fit. Her travel cot is in front of our wardrobe and have to move it each day. We had this problem before we started using travel cot too.

Glad it's you fate destiny 😊

I'd say she is waking up in the night because she needs calories (as opposed to comfort). Because she's waking for calories and not comfort, your best way to tackle this is to load up her daytime calories so she then doesn't have a need to wake in the night at all.

The way to increase calories is not more milk per bottle, it's more bottles per day (So smaller gap between feeds). Aim to get at least 1, ideally 2, more bottles in her per day.

I would work out naps according to awake windows of 90min-2h, rather than at set times in the day. 90 minutes awake time if you had a shorter nap, 2h awake time if you get a longer nap.

To put sleep routine and feed routine together, give a full feed to baby upon waking up from every nap. Make bottles big enough so there's about 1-2oz (30-60ml) left in the bottle once baby is full and not wanting any more. Then 90m-2h later when going back to sleep for the next nap, reoffer what is left in the bottle.

Do this for every nap cycle. I would also wake for a 10/11pm feed at this age, to stop the middle of the night feed.

Today her naps were 830 till 915am. 1045am till 1pm (did wake half way as had a bowel movement) 215pm (think its the heat) till 3pm. Then from 4pm tried back to sleep(showing all signs) But was almost 4.45pm before she would settle till 1730pm. Then to bed at 645pm and went pretty much straight off, a few grizzles till 1930pm as she lost her dummy but nothing more... 🤔

OK. I will give it all a go. Thank you 😁

Although FATE does give good advice, I do feel it isn’t always personal to the child. You can’t necessarily just ‘give more milk’, it doesn’t work with every child and doing a 10/11pm feed in our house actually resulted in more and longer wake ups.

It might just be a totally developmental thing, a later 4 month regression that you just have to ride out

@Bobbiblue

Today her naps were 830 till 915am. 1045am till 1pm (did wake half way as had a bowel movement) 215pm (think its the heat) till 3pm. Then from 4pm tried back to sleep(showing all signs) But was almost 4.45pm before she would settle till 1730pm. Then to bed at 645pm and went pretty much straight off, a few grizzles till 1930pm as she lost her dummy but nothing more... 🤔

We must have been typing at the same time. I'd say you can stretch the awake time between naps to more like 2h. That might move you along to a 3-nap day.

The heat will do funny things to everyone's sleep at the moment though. So this weekend might be a write-off for that reason.

Oh blink three times, me and DP were gonna try it tonight at 10pm 😂 Yh I have tried to give more frequent before but she just clamps her mouth shut..... And screams if its in her mouth and she doesn't want it 🙈 she's had 780 today... Which is good as she suffers from heat.

Yes I think we must have been writing at same time 😂 ... OK I give it a go! Thank you 😁

Oh fatedestiny, last one. You say to reoffer bottle 90 to 2 hours later before going for nap. But I thought we were meant to get rid of after an hour?

Oh blink I thought we come out through the other side of the regression, 😭 as that's the last time I came on here for help!

Ahhh I hate to break it but often there’s a new recession every few weeks 😫

Regression 🤦🏻‍♀️

😔😭 I thought we were over it and could wait till the next one. Thought it be like six months old 😂 😔

4 month sleep regression is huge. Some babies also have “split nights”. This is completely normal. (Humans aren’t meant to sleep in long blocks once per day.)

@Bobbiblue

Oh fatedestiny, last one. You say to reoffer bottle 90 to 2 hours later before going for nap. But I thought we were meant to get rid of after an hour?

You can keep made-up formula for up to 2 hours.

If you're in any way worried you can put what's left into a freshly sterilized bottle (the reason not to keep longer is due to sterilizing, not the milk itself spoiling). It's not necessary though. Plus by 6 months and once weaning, you start relying less on sterilizing anyway.

I thought we over it as she did the whole waking every 2 hours as couldn't link sleep sleep cycles at night and needing to sleep in arms. Fate destiny was great. Awake in cot and settle in there and now she doesn't even want us to do that. Just pop her dummy in and shhhhhh her and keep reinserting for her with some grizzle crying 😂 been good now this is happening ooooo I love a good sleep in one go 😂 obviously my kid doesn't.

OK great thank you fatedestiny. Must admit we break the rules on bottle making.... We premake bottles (water only) and do it room temp, Its the only way she will drink it 🤷🏼‍♀️ we are aware of the risks.... But my kid prefers it.

Await silently for the slander from people.....

I’m confused as to how you make the bottles?
Do you mean you mix it all up (formula/water) in bottles, pop them all in the fridge and then just give as and when? Cause that’s fine

Sounds to me like your little one is totally normal, split night waking is normal and it's actually what all humans did before recent history. Some babies do it for months, some have a little flirt with it for a few days or weeks. I would leave well alone and she'll stop in her own time. Do go to bed yourself earlier though.

Sorry just read it back and realised made no sense, tiredness must have set in by then. I make the bottles up with boiling hot water and allow to cool on side and then when they needed just add powder.
HV said only way you should do it is by making it fresh boiling water each feed.... I know the risks of how we do it. She just won't drink it any other way literally projectile vomits the bottle up of we do it the way it should be done.

Mattie and mummy - normally I'm asleep by 830pm 😂 feel so silly going sleep then... The amount of times my DP has found me with my phone on my hand fast asleep in bed is countless. only when we have my other half's kids do I stay up a little later....

@Bobbiblue

I think you might’ve got slightly confused with what the HV said, although please do correct me if I’m wrong.

The boiling water is required to sterilise the formula. So it’s more than ok to make the full bottles up in advance and store them in the fridge and then just grab when you need