My 5 month DD wakes every 2 hours & has been for over 2 months now. At first I thought it was her routine was out due to Xmas & being so busy. So for the last 2 weeks I have had her loosely in a routine from Save Our Sleep. I haven't done the control crying aspect as I have a 2 y.o & don't want to wake her up & I think DD is too young.
DD is breastfeed so I thought she might be waking up due to hunger as she does feed when she wakes up, I have introduced a formula feed at 10.30pm which my husband feeds her. She still wakes up 2 hours later.
She is not showing signs of teething, she sleeps in an ergo cocoon (with arms out) she is warm enough. She is a really happy baby all of the time.
I'm really tired as I haven't had more than 2 hours sleep in a row for 2 months now & as I already have a 2 y.o, sleeping during the day is not an option. My baby does go straight back to sleep 90% of the time so I'm not walking the floor. Should I just know that this isn't forever & just deal with it or persevere & try to fix it for her & for me?
Someone said 'Sleep School' but we live in Cairns & I'm pretty sure we don't have one.
Thank you reading & responding xoxoxoo
4 Replies
Sorry but it sounds quite Normal to me at that age. My only advice would be of she isn't crying don't go to her. That way she may learn to self settle herself back to sleep.
Maybe look at other things like a pump switching on or off every two hours, or an air con kicking in etc. that keeps disturbing her. I couldn't work out why my son kept waking every hour on the hour night after night, and it turned out our bore pump switching on and off was stirring him. Once I figured that out, I put white noise on in his room to drown out other sounds and it helped (took a few more nights to break the habit but I got a 3 hour block of sleep the first night). Then I just gradually decreased the volume on the white noise over the next few weeks. Also around that age there is a sleep regression period, a growth spurt, and she may even have the beginnings of teeth moving and shifting around causing discomfort. The other thing you could try is putting her to bed 15 minutes early - if you're reading SOS Tizzie explains it all in her book. I agree with the not crying it out/controlled crying, some babies just need that comfort. It is exhausting, but us women are built tough and you will get through this. Just make sure you still take a bit of time for yourself so you don't burn out completely.
My girl did this until I started her on solids n she was formula fed.
honestly to me it sounds like hunger. I almost guarantee she will settle in a few days if u start with 1-2 meals.
we used save our sleep too, my daughter who is 2 still has a great routine now.
This doesn't sound normal to me. It sounds like she is having trouble getting her self back to sleep every second sleep cycle (the first sleep cycle can be easier to get through as the don't wake as much but the second is harder).
If you don't want to continue feeding every 2 hours you will need to look into some self settling strategies as it sounds like feeding is the sleep prop. I highly doubt at that age it is genuine hunger and 2 months is too long to be a growth spurt.
There are a variety of strategies that range from crying to no crying. No crying sounds like it goes with your parenting style but it does take longer to achieve results. Good luck, sleep deprivation is terrible xx