20 /30 min naps 5 month old

[TwoLittleRoses]

My 5 month old only naps for 20/30 mins since the 4 month regression and I am unable to get her to sleep any longer. She goes down independently but when she wakes the only way I can extend it is my bf her back to sleep and holding her. I have tried leaving her on figure it out but that is just 20 mins of screaming. Has anybody had success fixing this?

Also at night she wakes every 90 mins from midnight. I am one very tired and emotionally drained mummy.

You may need to help her learn to link sleep cycles.

Could you try putting her to sleep in something that moves (pram, bouncer etc). You can then use movement to get her to sleep, keep her asleep and extend her naps.

The pram used to work but stopped after she turned 4 months :-(

No real advice, but maybe some reassurance, mine did this until about 7 months, just 30 - 40 minute cat naps. Then one day he suddenly slept for two hours every afternoon. I thought it was going to be a lucky fluke but it carried on for two more years! So it may just be a phase you need to ride out.

@TwoLittleRoses

The pram used to work but stopped after she turned 4 months :-(

You are possibly (wildly) underestimating how much work and effort is needed to get baby sleeping independently after 4 months.

Persistence is key.

No advice but I feel your pain, going through something similar with my 5 month old. However he randomly slept 10pm-6am last night so there’s some hope! I didn’t do anything differently

That is the dream!

I’m not sure I have two months left in me

Yes, but I left her to yell. In our case it was 10 minutes of actual crying & 10 minutes of grumbling for 2 days and then she went back to sleep and slept 1.5 hours 2x a day for the next year. She was sleeping through the night though so maybe had a easier time with the naps. It was killing me having to put her down for 4 naps a day prior and nothing made any differences. I also slightly lengthened her awake window too.

Do you use white noise? My 5 month old will only sleep on me during the day and I’ve noticed she wakes more easily since 4 months but white noise and dummy do help.

@kikisparks that must be tough. My DD will fall easily in cot and I make sure it’s dark and use white noise but still waking. I think I have given her a feed to sleep association when she wakes and need to cut it out. I’m just exhausted as I have not slept for 5 months and so a quick 5 min feed every hour at night seems to win over letting her cry for 30 mins throughout the night.

I remember your pain OP.
Honestly? I’d stop trying to change her and go with it. And that’s very different advice to what I’d have given a couple of years ago! My first was like this, though never ever slept for more than 20 minutes during the day from birth. Screamed in buggy. Screamed in car. Massively overtired. After an hour of screaming she’d scream herself into a 20 minutes exhaustion nap then start again. She did give us 4-6 hour stints at night though (about half the time). Then she hit 11 months and was cruising around and she did a 45 minute nap. That was it - the naps got longer and longer. I know 11 months feels like a lifetime away but if I’d stopped stressing and just gone with it, for me personally, it would have been better than the (eg) hours pounding the street with a crying baby.

First, night sleeping. Your DD wakes from midnight…. What time are you putting her down? You’ll typically only get 1 block of sleep at night - use it when you sleep.

Secondly - naps. You say she goes down in the cot which is brilliant. Can you nap next to her during this time so when she wakes up you’re there? Your smell and breath might naturally smooth her back to sleep. When trying to get DD to sleep we’d have to lie on the floor next to her and breathe deeply as if we were asleep - it soothed her and extended her naps (plus inevitably I’d fall asleep and at least get a bit of sleep!)

3rd dummies. If she’s using you to soothe back to sleep before she should actually need a feed then it’s the sucking action that’s calming her. I was anti dummy with no 1. I wish I hadn’t been. Never had an issue taking them away (they just spat them out after a while) and it would have saved me sleep deprivation.