5 month old sleep - please help!

[FernGully43]

I know there's no magic solution and it's normal but I am TIRED.

DS2 will be 5 months old next week and has had consistently rubbish sleep since birth. It's usually a 2 hr block at the beginning of the night, then 90 mins, then an hour, then every 10-40 minutes for the rest of the night until he wakes. It's exhausting. He wakes and it's like he gets really frustrated that he's not sleeping, as he whines and screeches and tries hard to close his eyes and sleep. I don't know what else it could be. He's fed, nappy fine, close to me, sleeping well in the day.

This morning at 450 I tried to nurse him back to sleep, pat bum (which he usually loves), ssh, give him space (which he sometimes also likes as we cosleep). With his white noise on. Nothing worked. So I got up, came into the living room and he just yawned and whinged cause he was tired 😅

Anyone else been through this or have suggestions what else I could try? Ds1's sleep was up and down, so while there were hard nights, I also got good nights and it was far more manageable than this consistent rubbish sleep. I hear other mums saying their 5 month olds are sleeping 12 hours at night, waking once or so and I'm like argh how? DH is more than happy to do nights but I'm the one who says there's no point as ds2 is ebf and I can't pump so I don't see the point in both of us being tired.

Thanks,
One tired mum with a toddler who woke as soon as I got the baby back to sleep

Or even just a reassurance that this might stop soon 😅

He's also still on 4 naps a day. I thought he'd have dropped one by now.

Hi! I could have written the above myself!! 😭

DS is a bit younger at 4 months. I know it’s too early for proper sleep training but just looking for tips on how to get him napping and sleeping at night in his bed and for longer stretches! I can tell he’s tired and wants more sleep but just won’t let himself!

I was completely spoilt with my DD who was sleeping through at this age and I didn’t do anything! So it’s a bit of a shock to the system.

I'm absolutely exhausted and just want a few hours at night when I’m not having to co-sleep (safely)!

@MummaNeedsHelp90 sorry you're going through this too. It's so exhausting. I'm trying to just go to bed earlier but I can't catch up no matter what I do.

How often is he awake between naps? If you haven't already, have a look at wake windows for his age to be sure that he isn't getting over tired because it can make it trickier for them to sleep well.

If he is just whining or grizzling then I'd leave him be and see if he can self settle which will also help him to sleep longer stretches.

@SouthLondonMum22 he's actually really good at going down exactly when he's supposed to during the day (like clockwork, every 90 minutes, sometimes just before bed it's 2 hours but not every night). With naps, If he's in the pram outside it's a 30-40 minute nap, the wrap is either 30-40 minutes or sometimes I can get two cycle naps. In my lap on the sofa is always a longer nap 90 minutes - 2 hours.

I'll try to leave him more, I do go over to him quite quickly but it's usually so he doesn't wake my toddler 😅 the grizzling is loud and constant from 5am and once the toddler is awake and hears it, he thinks his brother is awake so comes through to say hi😆

Gina Ford s book Contented Little Baby gives loads of advice on this.
Id post a pic but my books in storage.
Reading it will offer lots of advice and reassurance that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Also look at following pics and website.
Very similar to Ford

@DrPrunesqaullor thank you!

I've been making an extra effort to get him down in his bed between 7:30-8:30 these last few nights and I think that has been helping a bit. He's been sleeping more peacefully until 3am then it just gets difficult again but I'm persevering and just going to sleep early to get some hours in before the hard shift at 3

As an aside (and I wish I could find Ginas book for you in one of our book boxes, but there are 64! ). I remember Gina clearly noting that at 5/6months most babies have a growth spurt and hence need more food. I used to give mine some porridge aswell as milk at bedtime.

Might help.