I thought self settling was the magic bullet?

[Chumbibi]

It certainly was with DD and lots of my friends children. DS is nearly 6 months and can self settle really well. Even after night feeds he goes back in his cot awake and gets himself back to sleep, even did it at 5am this morning!

Yesterday his routine was perfect, nap gaps on point, rock solid bedtime routine since birth, and yet he still woke at 10, 2 and 5 and up for the day at 6:30. Three wake ups is a lot I feel given how I always read stories of babies who wake up every hour who then learn to self settle and then only wake once or sleep through!

where am I going wrong? What’s not linking up here?

also I appreciate that the situation is not horrendous but it was and I’ve worked really hard to get to this point and for it still to be a bit rubbish it’s so disheartening.

You give them to your partner who hadn't been up four times in the night, and go sleep?

@pigonalipstick - it doesn’t work like that. Ds was up every 90 mins for several months. We tried a bottle, he refused, gagged and held his breathe until he passed out. If I had already been up 5 times with Ds, I could feed Ds at 6am for 20mins, dh take him downstairs by 6.30am, but by 7am he would already start crying for more feed. I could never just fall asleep instantly so by the time you fall asleep baby is already crying in house. He was always genuinely hungry

OP, I have a 2.5 year old and a 3 week old who is EBF. I EBF my toddler until 2yo. Im in the trenches here with you, and I didn't mean to sound trite. By maximising your own rest I mean finding solutions other than trying things to get your baby to sleep through. Such as: putting your 2 year old in nursery/with friends/relatives so you can get in to bed with the baby and sleep (even a few extra 30 min bursts would help you right now); co sleeping; getting your partner to put baby in a carrier to try to extend their naps/keep them entertained while you get a decent 2/3hour nap at weekends or early evening once toddler in is bed; letting toddler watch TV more than usual so you can rest. This is a phase and the baby will grow out of it, and I'm not saying it's not hard, but the more you try to change your baby's normal behaviour the more frustrated you'll get if it doesn't work. Instead, figure out ways for you to get more rest that are not reliant on the baby sleeping more.