Waking every two hours

[PurpleDiva22]

My little one is 5 months old and is still waking every 2 hours at night. This has never improved and I'm at my wits end.

Background info:
bottle fed
will only settle to sleep with a bottle
No soother
Have started weaning
Was in a next to me
Now in a cot
Cosleeping did not help at all
3 naps a day, sometimes for 40 mins, sometimes up to 1 hrs 30

Pleeeeeease help, I'm exhausted!!! I'm not expecting a sleep through the night, just an improvement on every 2 hours!!

I've come on the sleep forums this morning as I'm experiencing the same problem with my 9 month old and I've resorted to co-sleeping. I went to a cranio-sacral therapist yesterday to see if it would help but no changes at all yet! She recommended a sleep consultant. I have tried letting her cry a little bit but it makes me feel more tired in the morning as it stresses me out. I have nothing to offer but solidarity, and to bump your post!
Can your partner help you get more sleep by taking over in the morning or doing the late night feeds?

He works in a draining job and is gone early in the morning. We have a toddler so he looks after her if she wakes during the night. He does help at the weekends. But regardless of who's doing the feeding, I just really really want to help get the baby into better sleep habits anyway.

Mine had a terrible sleep regression at four/five months. I don’t think there’s much you can do, it’s too early to sleep train.

It's not a sleep regression though, because it has always been like this. It's like he can't get into the next phase of sleep.

Are you in the same room? I found with my eldest putting her in her own room helped to settle her as I was disturbing her by snoring. This has not worked with my second though!

@wearyourpinkglove I did move him into his own room, not sure if it helped or the bigger cot helped! But I end up spending about half the night in there just out of tiredness. I don't think its making a difference, except maybe I go to him quicker when I'm in the room instead of letting him try settle himself.

You have my sympathies, I'm currently sitting in my lounge, breaking down after my daughter's forth wake up of the night. I may try putting her in her own room again as the co-sleeping has just made her worse. But then I dread having to get out of bed several times in the night. I'm considering doing cry it out at this point. Or even hiring an overnight babysitter just so I can get four or five hours of sleep (my husband can't help at the moment due to health issues). Would you consider cry it out?

I'd try cutting nap times. Don't let baby sleep more than one hour at the time, especially as you can't nap too as you also have a toddler who presumably doesn't have naps anymore.
Or try get them both to nap at the same time so that you can catch a power nap too. The regularity might help with the sleeping patterns.
It's rubbish being sleep deprived, so full sympathy from me.

Was also going to add, do you have a comfy chair in the baby's room? You might dread less the getting out of bed if you can go and snuggle with baby half asleep in said chair.

@wearyourpinkglove how did the rest of the night go? Cosleeping didn't work for us either. Anyway I find I get lazier with cosleeping, and just let him settle in my arms more. Having to get out kind of wakes me up and makes me settle him back down in his own space.
We had a light that automatically came on when he cried and it was a bit bright. We swapped it out for a dimmer one which seemed to help somewhat. Still had 2 wakes by 12pm 🙈 and then 2 more wakes before he wome for the day at 7.30. That was a very very good night for us!

I feel your pain because my little boy has been crap overall but he’s almost one now and has turned a corner. I pay for the huckleberry app and it has helped a lot with the naps.

@PurpleDiva22 my mum came and scooped the kids up today so I could have a rest thank goodness as she woke another three times after my last post. Tonight's strategy is to give her a bowl of Weetabix before bed! Do you have a strategy for tonight?

@wearyourpinkglove I gave a big feed 1 hr before bed, topped up by a bottle, after I read that they digest milk really quickly. My plan of attack tonight is to try settle without giving the bottle until I think he is actually hungry. I will pick him up but rock or pat instead of giving the bottle. He only uses it for comfort to drift back to sleep.

@wearyourpinkglove how is it going now? I'm exhausted.

@PurpleDiva22 sorry I've only just seen this. No improvement from having the cranio-sacral therapy. I think her sleep improved a little bit now we aren't bed sharing. She did a long stretch for the first time in months last night (6 hours)! But I think this was only because she had her nap accidentally cut short yesterday. Have you seen any improvements yet?