Five month old sleep got worse AGAIN - what to do

[Springbaby2023]

My DS hit the 4mo sleep regression at around 3.5 months and went from only waking twice, to waking round the clock. This would improve for a couple of nights, only to get worse again. We recently went on holiday abroad and he went back to only waking two or three times a night which was amazing! He continued this for the first two nights we were home and I thought things were finally improving. But these last few nights have been horrendous again, waking hourly, taking forever to settle.

I am desperate for solutions.

He naps really well and in line with what most sleep consultants seem to suggest for his age. He is EBF and is fed back to sleep usually. This used to be just a quick feed to get him back off, but now he seems to be having five full feeds a night and just not wanting to rematch. He will sometimes self settle at bedtime but not in the night, although my partner does rock him sometimes when I’ve fed him on and off for ages and he’s still not back to sleep.

Any suggestions? I’m wondering if weaning will help? Or cutting his day time naps? But then don’t want to make things worse.

I know it’s normal I just feel like he’s proved he can connect his sleep cycles but something is making him wake and not settle easily

Personally this is where I’d do some sleep training (check and console method). Sleep is so important for development so I would not cut daytime naps and would try to promote better overnight sleep for you both. But I know some people do not want to do this!

@comfyshoes2022 I’m definitely not against it. I’m not sure whether it will work as well given he’s still in our room? But don’t want to move him in with his brother until he’s sleeping better so it’s a catch 22

@Springbaby2023 how did you get on? I have a 6 month old who is waking every 30m-2hrs if I’m lucky xx

@Gingham17 I’m afraid I now have an 18 month old who still wakes quite regularly! It absolutely has got better and more manageable - me and DP take it in turns who deals with the night wakes each night so we can have a few nights each a week of good sleep. But we’ve clearly just got unlucky with a bad sleeper. I really hope it improves for you though and please do trust me when I saw you’ll find a way through, six months is such a tough age.