Hi
I have an almost 5 month old girl (will be five months on 1st November). At 3 months she learnt independent sleep (self soothes by sucking her thumb/fingers) and has been going to sleep for naps and BT by herself since then. We have had some issues with 30/45min naps but I seem to have sorted most of those except the 30 min nap has started again for her second nap of the day. She wakes up and is all chatty and cheerful so I leave her until she gets cross that I haven't come in to pick her up and then I start PUPD. I have only been using PUPD for 2 days with her now. When she is crying I pick her up and as soon she calms/stops crying I put her right back down and tell her it's sleepy time (her sleep cue word she knows). On the way down she always starts crying again and i let her cry for a few seconds and pick her up again unless she is doing her mantra cry or trying to roll onto her side and suck her thumb which is how she falls asleep these days. However she can’t seem to be calm enough to relax and keep sucking her thumb as she does at the start of the nap but instead rolls around, gets frustrated (me too haha) and starts crying proper again so I start PUPD. The last two days I have given up after around 40 minutes but today I decided to keep going with PUPD as above. However today this went on for 2 hours till she fell asleep again, so maybe it was all her A time?? Am I supposed to go for that long? When should I give up and take her out of the room? How much A time should I give her at this point considering its only been a 30 or 45 min nap?
My back was killing me today - she may only be coming up 5 months but she is 70cm and nearly 9 kgs!
Here is our EASY from the past few days - night sleep is still a little messy
She is EBF
E: 7:00
A: 7:30
S: 9:00 (usually 2 hour nap, sometimes 1.30)
E: 11:00
A: 11:30
S: 1:00 (here we get the 30 mins sometimes 45 min nap!...used to be 1.30)
E: 2:30 (Have to pick her older sister up from kindergarten at 3 so feed at 2:30)
A: 3:00
S: 4:30 (45min cat nap)
E: 6:00
A: 6:30 Bath/Bed routine
S: 7 OR 7:15 bed time
Bed time is sometimes early in the last two weeks as sometime she has fought her catnap or it has only been 30 mins, not 45
Nights, she wakes 2-3 times. I normally feed her each time as they are not at exactly the same times. First NW is usually between 3.5 and 5.5 hours after bedtime and the second one is sometime between 4:30 and 5:30. This is possibly where I am making a mistake because I am so tired so I take her into my bed and feed her and fall asleep with her there and her and I dose from 5:30 to wake up at 7. Her eyes are closed but she is moving around quite a bit and restless. If she has 3 NW per night the second one is around 3amish and then the third is normally at 6am with the same pattern of fitful sleep.
So one more question: How many NW should she be having at 5mo and EBF. Should I try PUPD and not feed her at the first or last one and only feed once in the night? I get the feeling that she is actually only hungry at one of the feeds as she takes a full feed both sides but the other one(s) she just takes one side. Normally at the first two I feed her and then while she is still awake but sleepy I put her back in her co-sleeper bassinet and tell her its sleepytime and hear her start sucking her thumb back to sleep easily.
Any help or advice on any of the above is welcomed with open (albeit tired) arms!
THANK YOU.
Camilla
