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5 month old night owl!

2 replies

MsSally11 · 25/01/2026 08:21

My five-month-old is a very happy and content baby. She had been exclusively breastfed, but we are now combi-feeding. She has a good daytime routine and would nap on the go a lot due to dropping and collecting her two-and-a-half-year-old brother to creche. She has started napping in her cot recently when we are at home. At nighttime, I aim to put her down between 7:30 and 8 p.m. after sticking to her recommended wake windows throughout the day and keeping an eye on the last nap, making sure it is not going on for too long or too late. She settles in the cot easily, but without fail, will always wake after 40 minutes and is ready to party again. She is treating bedtime like nap time, and I'm finding it hard to get her into a better bedtime routine where she stays in the cot for the night. I fully expect night feeds to continue, and I am happy to do this, but I feel she is at the age where she should now be going down at an appropriate time and sleeping until the morning with her night feeds included. Last night, she was downstairs with us until 10 p.m. and did not fall asleep until close to 11 p.m. I feel like this is far too late, but I'm not sure what we can do to fix it. My toddler has a very good routine at this age, and he is asleep in his cot by 7 p.m. every night. My 2nd baby just seems to be quite the opposite with her sleep. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you !!!!

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
ellecf · 25/01/2026 08:25

I would maybe try reducing the amount of day sleep a little and stretching that last wake window to build more sleep pressure for the evening. How many naps is she on? Maybe if she’s on three she’s ready to transition to 2. My 9 month old has been an interesting sleeper and I’ve actually been using ChatGPT to troubleshoot it (habitual night feeds) and she’s responding really well to the advice so worth a try too!

MsSally11 · 25/01/2026 15:01

Thanks for your reply ans advice! She usually would have 4 naps... one an hour after she wakes in the morning and generally two catnaps maybe 11.00-11.40 , 2.00-2.40 and we go in the car to collect her brother so she will sleep 4.30-5pm as her last nap. If she started to extend her midday nap I could definitely cut one of the day times but the catnaps ate tricky as she gets tired after the 2hour-ish wake window. I actually mapped out a whole day with chat GPT and followed all of the recommendations to get to an 8pm bedtime but like clockwork she woke after 40 mins with zero intentions of settling back for the night !! I'll try play around with last wake windows to see about building up some more sleep pressure. Fingers crossed!!

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