Struggling with lack of sleep 5 months in
My baby girl is 5 months old on Weds and is quite a content baby during the day. She's only slept through to 6 a couple of times but until recently was waking at 4 for a feed then going until 6 then 7 and then 8. I thought that was quite knackering but for the past couple of weeks she's waking all through the night whinging or crying. Sometimes she'll settle herself but most of the time I have to feed her. At the first wake up she'll take a full bottle nearly but all the other wake ups she just needs a few sucks of her bottle and then she's asleep again but then can wake up an hour later. She can be waking up around 5 times and I'm knackered and thinking she's never going to sleep through. I'm the sort of person who can't cope on little sleep so I'm desperate for her to even just go back to the times where she woke at 4!
I've tried feeding her at 10pm but she still woke up early even though she wasnt hungry so I offered her water to which she feel asleep after but then woke up 45 mins later. I feel like I'm trying all sorts of things and it's just stressing me out as it's not working! Please tell me she wont always be a rubbish sleeper!!
Replies
My dd didnt sleep through until 7 months for the first time. She is now 13 months and we still have nights where we have to give her a quick feed at 4 in order to be able to sleep until 7!! We have a great bedtime routine and she is down by 7pm. My advice would be to only offer her food when she cries for it. The dream feed never worked with my dd and actually made things worse. You have got to stop letting her have a few sucks of the bottle because she is falling to sleep but then when she enters the 'light' phase of her sleep (sleep cycles last for 45 minutes) she is realising the bottle isnt there and calling you back again. I used a dummy with my dd but you might not want to do that, instead you might just need to pat her tum and encourage her to go back to sleep again. The other thing to consider is that she might be teething. My dd cried in her sleep when she was teething. A dose of baby nurofen at night times really helped. x