How to get my 5 month old to sleep?

[honeybee95]

I’m in a bit of unknown territory and need some suggestions/advice please. My eldest slept through the night by 11 weeks, and I’ve followed the same routine with my 5 month old down to the letter but he’s still waking like a newborn. For the last week or so he’s waking all night long, around 2.5-3 hours inbetween feeds, he’s taking 4/5oz’s every time. We have upped his oz’s when he’s drained a bottle etc, but he’s still waking so often. He has a white noise machine that’s on all night and sleeps in a sleeping bag. Being awake through the night and then up at the crack of dawn when 2 year old is killing me 😬 He’s been through the sleep regression at 4 months. We got to a good stage where he was going 8pm-4am and the back to sleep after a feed until 7am. But now he goes to sleep around 7.30-8pm and is awake every 2.5/3 hours all night long.

I’ve read about early weaning - but I wait until 6 months! I did with the first and I will with my baby. I just up the oz’s if he seems hungry. So please no suggestions for early weaning.

Any advice?

Hey OP

Bit of a long shot but it worked with my 5 month old. Any chance he could be a bit chilly? What's the temp in his/your room at night and how many layers under the sleeping bag?

I also had to make sure my boy had the scratch mitts up on his sleepsuit or he would wake himself up hitting the side of his cot 🙄

@pag2020

Hey! Hmm maybe something to consider.

It's usually around 19/20 degrees in our bedroom. He has a short sleeved vest, baby grow and his 2.5 tog sleeping bag. His body is always nice and toasty but his cheeks do feel cold some nights when I roll over. But I'm worried if we rack the heating up he'll over heat? Is the heating ok? I'm not sure 🤔

Heating sounds perfect, same as our room! I have the same tog sleeping bag too but I do give him a long sleeve vest under his sleepsuit just to make sure his arms aren't too cold. I may be completely wrong here, but worth a try!

I don't think it's necessarily something you're doing or not doing... All babies are just different! I think you've been very lucky with your first-born tbh...
It will get better eventually! Hang on in there

I agree you've been very lucky with your first!
Some don't get what you have now so it could be worse

Wondering if a later bedtime would mean you get a bit more sleep?

I had the same with my 5 month old and I did the exact same things. I put him in a warmer sleeping bag because we did notice our house was becoming chilly and other than that I offered him a dummy during the night (which he never used to take) and he started taking it then going back over for another hour or so. And only other thing I did was start spoon feeds, very little he gets a bit of porridge and fruit purée once a day

Now he sleeps from around 9/10pm to at least 9am which is because of late nap that I can’t get him out of or I would have him in bed earlier. And other than stirring at times because I think he goes into light sleep he’s asleep all night

My first 2 slept through the night extremely early so it's new for me that at 6 months my 3rd doesn't. I think some babies are just different.
2-3 months she slept 13 hours straight
Since 3 months every 4 hours she wakes for a bottle. Every so often every 2 hour(currently going through this phase) She doesn't like a Morning bottle so can be 2/3 hours after she wakes before she'll take milk, therefore, not taking all that much milk in total through the day. I think this makes her take more at night. Could this be similar?

Sorry wasn’t suggesting spoon feeds it’s just what I did

Thanks for all the replies! Some good ideas!

He's usually up at 7am for the day, naps around 9am for 30-45 minutes, again at 12/1ish from anywhere between 1-2.5 hours, last nap around 5ish for half an hour or so. Bath and bed usually by 7pm. Sometimes he'll have a 20 minute cat nap after bath time around 6pm and then go to sleep for around 8pm, could that be knocking his schedule off balance?

@Sweetpea12

It's totally fine - what works for your little one is what's best for you. He's 6 months in 2 weeks could it do any damage to try a few mouthfuls of porridge/puréed fruit? He's a very chunky baby and I'm not sure he's satisfied. We moved him onto hungrier baby milk around 3 days ago and it's not made an ounce of difference. He is still waking every 2.5/3 hours throughout the night. It's like he wakes and he's starving nothing else pacifies him, won't take him dummy, won't settle when I rock him just wants a bottle. He feeds well throughout the day. Doesn't miss any so I think he's getting enough in a 24 hour period.

@1moretry

Sure doesn't feel like a luxury right now 😅 But you're right, it could be worse.

I could try and push a later bedtime but worried I'll have an over tired naggy boy with doing that. Anything is worth a try right now though.

My son has a community nurse and when he was waking 3 hourly at just over 4 months she suggested water during the night saying he could be waking from thirst not hunger. But I was never sure of water under the age of 6 months and was worried if it replaced milk. He’s my first child so I panic about everything lol i give my son about 3 spoonfuls a day of puréed fruit and offer the amount of milk in oz for his weight and if he doesn’t take it or takes more I just let him

I do think every mum knows best. My health visitor wasn’t amused he was trying purée 🤷🏻‍♀️

Wow there are a lot of people who have been very lucky on this thread! Waking every 2.5 to 3 hours for a feed sounds really normal to me for any young baby. Mine was doing that then from four months onwards the sleep periods got shorter and shorter so by the time I did sleep training at 6 months he was waking every 45 minutes to an hour and a half. I thought this was awful but fairly normal, maybe I have a real treat in store with my second baby! Never heard of babies that slept through by themselves at 11 weeks! Is it more likely to happen with bottle feeding?