Can't get my 5 month old to sleep for longer than 5 minutes! help!

[[M]umma[M]ia]

Jess - the night sleeping is fine prob 5 out of the 7 nights. She co-sleeps. She has her last feed at 6pm and goes down at 7 and then i give her a dream feed about 10ish and she wakes about 6:30-7am. See i havent put her in that routine, she did it herself. By 9am shes getting real whingy same with the 12 and 3 one. Shes one of these bubs that only really cries when shes tired. So the way it goes atm is...

7am wake
730 bottle
9am sleep
11am bottle
12pm sleep
2-230pm bottle
3pm sleep
6pm bottle
7pm sleep
10ish pm bottle

so which one do i try and stretch out?? see if she goes down too much later than 3pm.. we have hell trying to get her to sleep at 7.

[Tish]

Hollye have you tried taking her for a walk in the pram or slinging her at about the time she would be due for a sleep? When DS has terrible won't sleep yucky phase sleeps I usually find that things that put him to sleep a month or two ago start working again, almost like a regression until the yucky phase passes.

Or, and this is a big OR... what about some loud music or loud vaccuuming? I take DS to the gym with me once a week where there is loud blaring music and he usually sleeps the 30 min walk to the gym, through my 40 min session and the 30 min walk home. This is very unusual behaviour for him, as he will normally only sleep 30-40 mins at a time at home. I'm too scared to try it myself though, but it is interesting!

*big hugs* to you hun,*you must be feeling shattered and just awful. Is there anyone that can look after DD for an hour or two so you can have a bit of a rest? Or if not maybe try napping with her so you can get some rest - you must really need it.

Tish
xx

[Je$$_84]

Is she getting more active? Could u maybe start by stretching her out til like 9.30 instead of 9 (slowly slowly) But if she is generally tired i was going to suggest most of the above next. I used the sling and it was great. Now DD is too heavy for me to use while vacuuming.

I found that when DD gets worked up being hot makes her less likly to fall asleep so if she has been upset and is hot i put her to bed with the fan on low so she is cooled down to sleep. (i turn it off once she is sleeping

[Arcadia]

Oh hun...huge hugs! I know how painful sleep issues are. My dd has 4-5 30min naps in the day, BUT it can take 45 mins of settling to get her to sleep! Its so exhausting! (Plus she wakes 3-5 times a night!!)

Do you put her to sleep in your arms and then put her down? Or comfort her in the cot/on the bed? If she's waking after 5 mins she might not actually be in a deep sleep yet. I found I had to wait that extra bit longer before I could creep out of the room/transfer her to her cot.

Hmmm...if you find a solution I would love to hear it!!!

[LimeSlice]

Hope you arent going too insane!
Are you still giving her solids hun? what times and how often? have you changed how often she is being fed at all? Charlottes sleep often gets erratic when we change her meal times or something.
Perhaps worth having a look a any new foods you have introduced in the last week or so to see if they are affecting her.
Taking her for a walk is definately a great idea, or the car is usually a winner for us.

Oh, is she teething?
Good luck! I hope she comes good soon

[[M]umma[M]ia]

Tish - yep tried the pram. Shes too busy looking at everything. The car does work sometimes, but im not into getting in the car everytime she needs to sleep. Yep tried the vacuuming.. if shes crying she will just cry over the top of it. Nope cant get anyone to look after her except DP and he works 40 hours a week..

Jess - yes she is getting more active. Shes quite insane atm.. rolls everywhere.. is trying to crawl, squeels at everything and just has to be near everything. lol. Yes i think im going to try and mayb stretch out her awake time. Even if she does scream at me for a week or so, she should get used to being up for longer yeh?

anna - she gets comforted in the bed. Thats the thing.. even if im laying with her, she will still wake in 5 mins time and i still have to lay there with her rocking etc for about an hour to get her to have 5 more mins.

Lime slice - Mia started solids sorta today. She had a little munch on some pumpkin about 1:30pm. She is chowing down her teething rusks tho and its grinding them real hard on her gums. She is also pulling her hair and her ears too. She gets her fingers in her mouth and pulls at her gums. Today she actually started chewing on her dummy.. which is unlike her. I cant feel any teeth tho... she also has had some wopper poo;'s today! like everywhere runny poo's and they stink to the high heavens.

[LimeSlice]

Poor little thing! Sounds like those teeth are trying to make an entrance!
Dont know if it will work, but try giving her a cold face washer to chew on, or some ice chips. Charlotte doesnt have it often, but if she is teething and cant sleep I give her some bonjela - she hates the stuff, but it works for us!

They can teeth for a while before the teeth appear...Charlotte would have bouts of every few weeks or so from about 4 months. She didnt get her first teeth until she was 9 months. Turns out she was cutting both bottom teeth at once...has cross cut two or more at once ever since! Hang in there hun, lotsa cuddles and she may settle down again in a few days. Hopefully the teeth come through soon and she can get some proper rest. (And so can you!)

[Tish]

By 9am shes getting real whingy same with the 12 and 3 one.

I did a sleep school day program, and they suggested that by the time they get to whingy they're into overtired already where it can be harder to get to sleep and stay there.

Maybe you could try putting her down half an hour earlier?

Weird sleep signals they told me to look for were grabbing at clothes, a little cough, hiccoughs, a little vomit, movement then pause then movement, avoiding eye contact, then the obvious rubbing at eyes and yawning meant overtired was going to happen soon. They said the subtle signs on their own didn't mean tired, but 3 or 4 in a cluster could be tired.

HTH