Hello!
wondering if anyone has some advice they could offer me! I feel like a bit of a lost soul/really silly when it comes to my 5.5 month old’s sleep! I’m a first time mum and starting to feel really deflated that I can’t seem to get my son to sleep.
my son is bottle fed, he doesn’t feed during the night as, up until the first sleep regression, he was sleeping through from 7-6am. Since the sleep regression, things have gotten progressively worse. He currently sleeps in his own room, black out blinds with white noise, a dummy and a comforter. We do the same nightly schedule of bath, wind down massage, sleep sack, bottle and a cuddle in my room, before transferring him into his own room.
I try and stick to the 2.5 wake windows as well as going off of (subtle🙃) sleep cues for naps, before desperately trying to get him to have his last nap of the day around 4pm, ready for a 6.30/7 put down. He fights every nap with 20 minutes of persistent crying, me going into his room silently, replacing his dummy and popping his comforter in his hand, occasionally I rub his back. Bedtime is the worst, he can cry up to an hour of us going in and out, repeating the same routine. I’ve tried the 1,2,3 minute rule, tried staying in the room, shhing to sleep etc. when he eventually goes down, he wakes multiple times a night - I repeat the same dummy in process etc. he wakes at 5am every morning, really unhappy as clearly still tired! I feed him and then he usually goes back down 6-7am.
I am certain that he’s overtired. When I’ve tried shortening the wake windows to compensate, he just plays in his cot until he starts crying after around 10 minutes max. I even tried stretching the wake window to 3 hours, but the same 20 minute battle continues!
when he does nap, he usually does a full sleep cycle, before waking. Sometimes if I pop the dummy in etc, he’ll do another 30 mins to an hour. He never goes more than 1.5 hours. That’s a silver lining I guess!
he’s also teething, particularly in the last 3 weeks! None have cut through yet. I assume this might not be helping him, the poor boy! I have tried calpol at night but it doesn’t help the fact he can’t self settle!
any advice or similar situations?!
should I take the dummy away for sleep?! We use the glow in the dark dummies, have tried the rainbow dummy method but, because of his age, he isn’t quite there with finding them himself! he also throws his comforter when he cries so can’t retrieve it himself!
sorry for the long message!! Just a very desperate and tired mum!