5 Months Old in One Week

[Melissah814]

Hello, my son is exclusively breastfed, sleeps in his crib, & is up almost every hour at night. He nursed back to sleep each time. He will be 5 months old in one week. I have tried getting him on a schedule but it just isn't working. I've also tried a bath before bed, an earlier bedtime, later bedtime, Woombie, & Zipadeezip. I feel like I've tried everything & nothing is working. He eats about every 3 hours during the day & is awake for 2 hours before he needs a nap. He only naps for 30-45 minutes though. I'm willing to try almost anything because this mommy needs some sleep!

[Kasianie]

I won't help a lot cause I don't have experience (I have my first baby and it's a bit younger than yours) but are you feeding your LO to sleep on the naps and bedtime or is he falling independly? Does he need pacifier? When awake - is he eating a lot?

I had similar problem with my LO last couple of days. My DS is falling asleep independly and he was waking every hour or so. It was the pacifier - it was a prop and he couldn't sleep without it. So I took it away. We had some nice nights and then he started to wake a lot again. He was crying every two hour or so. He was hungry. I needed to increase my supply. Now I'm feeding a lot during the day and nights are better.

[Melissah814]

He won't take a pacifier so that isn't the problem. Sometimes I wish he would take one! Haha. He doesn't fall asleep independently. I have to nurse him to sleep.

[Kasianie]

With my LO the problem was that he couldn't fall asleep winouth pacifier, so if he was waking in the night he needed it to fall back asleep. At the begining he was waking twice (to feed), then every three hours, then every two, then every hour.... Then I said STOP and took pacifier away. It's two weeks since then and most of our nights are better (still not perfect and not every one of them - but there is a big difference).
And your LO can't fall asleep winouth brest... I think that's the reason. Maybe there are other problems, but falling asleep during feed sounds like one. And hard one to stop.

Maybe somebody should move this topic to the sleep forum?

[becj86]

Hi

I agree entirely with Kasianie - probably the main issue is your breast to sleep prop. 2hr may also not be enough A time at this age - you could try increasing that to see if you can get a longer nap though if the prop is still there, you're unlikely to get longer naps without resettling at 45min.

Can you please post what you last day and night have been? Eg.
7 - WU, BF
9 - nap
9:45 - wake
etc.

Biggest thing here is to start removing the breast-sleep association. There are a few ways to do that, so please have a read and think about how you'll feel most comfortable doing it:
Gentle Removal Plan
Props vs Comfort items. Whats the difference?
Shush-pat - How to

Given you're just starting out on this sleep training thing, PUPD is inappropriate - it is a method of last resort to be used only if you've consistently used shush/pat for at least 2 weeks and seen no improvement. Gentle removal will probably take longer again than shush/pat.

To be really frank with you, sleep training with no routine is harder than if you have a good routine that suits LO before you start. You don't know if LO is actually tired, so how can LO know its sleep time and he's learning a new way to sleep? For this reason, I often suggest getting your routine sorted out and watching LO for cues before moving straight to sleep training.

Anyway, lets have a look at your day and see what we can do to help

[Melissah814]

Here is what today looked like. He's all over the place. I did shh pat & it worked for all of the naps with minimal or no crying.

7:00- Wake, Nurse
8:45- Wind down time
9:00-10:10- Nap
10:30- Nurse
11:40- Nurse
11:45 Wind down
12:00-12:30- Nap
12:45- Nurse
1:00-2:20- Nap
3:00- Nurse
3:45-4:15- Nap
4:30- Nurse
6:00- Nurse
6:10- Wind down
6:20-Nap

[Melissah814]

I'm not sure about nights because he wakes up at least 5 times or more & by then I'm so tired I lose track of when he woke up.

[becj86]

Ok, so really if shush/pat is helping, I'd stick with that

That very first A time is far too short and giving you an undertired nap - not restorative, so then he can't manage as much A time thereafter. Best way to get your day on track is to get that first one right and get a good nap. I see he has slept through the transition a few times, so that's great, you know he can do it so it hopefully will be a matter of getting that first A time right and then using that through the rest of the day if he takes reasonable naps.

So, you can probably just increase by 15min every 3-4 days until naps lengthen and stay that way. 2hr is average A time for a 4 month old and by 6 months, average is 2:45 to 3hr, so you can see it increases a fair bit in that month.

[Melissah814]

So what time should he be asleep by then? 9:30 am? He gets tired around 8:45 so I don't want him to be overtired. Do I keep him up anyway with light activity?

[becj86]

He gets tired around 8:45 so I don't want him to be overtired.

Yep, this is often habit and becomes really entrenched if you don't increase regularly, leading to early waking in the morning.

Just have him asleep by 9:15 initially, so just do WD 15min later.