Baby is never drowsy

[GerbR]

Hi mums,

you know that advice of “put baby down when drowsy but not asleep”… well my 5 month old doesn’t seem to have a drowsy phase. He’s never had one except for straight after vaccinations. Apart from that he’s always alert. When he’s tired he’d rub his eyes but he’s still very much alert and if not rocked or bounced on the birthing ball he can’t fall asleep.

Needless to say this is not something I want to do forever and he’s getting quite heavy anyway, but all the advice online is mentioning the dreaded DROWSY word and he is just never in that state. What am I doing wrong? 😑

Look at Lisa Clegg the Blissful Baby Expert, she’s a sleep miracle worker!

You are doing nothing wrong! Some babies are never drowsy but awake. I found that advice utterly infuriating with my first and, like you, felt I was doing something wrong.

Some babies need support to sleep. It’s developmental, not something you can teach despite what people in the unregulated sleep industry will try to sell you.

A 5 month old is still a tiny baby. I rock or feed my 6 month old baby to sleep, contact nap or just go out and about and she sleeps in the buggy or car. I know it’s hard when you want to be on a routine and it seems unrelenting, but when you are years down the line you will never regret time spent rocking or cuddling your baby.

If you need to stop bouncing/rocking, have a look at habit stacking to replace with patting/rubbing/ shushing.