Can I ask you what your bedtime routine was/is at 5 months...?

[ProbationProbationProbation]

Because clearly I'm doing something wrong!

DD was a fab sleeper at 10 weeks, in her basket, out for the night.
16 week sleep regression has bought us to our knees. She's now 21 weeks and showing no sign of giving in, getting her to sleep is a constant battle, yet we have had the same routine every night pretty much from day 1. 5.30 is bathtime, 6pm another feed of she wants it, in a dark room, quite, warm etc, then when she starts looking sleepy, in her cot. Then the battles begin.
We have white noise which sometimes helps,( more in the day) she's a front sleeper so dribbly which doesn't help. I'm not a fan of controlled crying so not an option. PUPD worked for about a week now doesn't seem to have any affect.

I have ordered a copy of the no cry sleep solution, but just wondering if anyone has any insight?
We have also ended up co sleeping again after her first wake up at night (usefully around 12) as she is still BF, I can't handle being up and down all night.

[KatAndKit]

Have you tried feeding her to sleep and putting her down in the cot already asleep? 5 months is quite early to be able to self settle in my opinion. If co-sleeping works then go with it for the time being.
Your bedtime is quite early so perhaps she isn't tired yet? What time does her afternoon nap usually end?

[ZuleikaD]

Yes, we just did sleepsuit and feed-to-sleep too. There's a lot of stuff talked about bedtime routines but as babies of this age aren't really forming memories the routine is usually for the parent's benefit. I certainly wouldn't be bathing a baby this small every night, their skin can dry out so easily.

[LaCiccolina]

5mths? Dd glowered at us from a manically rocking car seat as we tried to eat. She went to bed when I did.

6mths, she sat up. I began bath and beds. She went to bed around 8-9. She woke every few hours to 6am ups.

At 12mths she went from 8pm-6am.

She's 2 now. She finally does 7-7.

Good luck. Truth is everything and nothing is worth trying. No magic in the end, she just got better as she grew up. Hard, tough, sometimes I cried over it. Nothing but time changed it.

[ProbationProbationProbation]

It seems I'm getting worked up over nothing. It's good to hear though. I should probably put my watch down and maybe go back to her lead a little bit. and block out everyone else bleating in my ears about what she should be doing

[countryhousehotel]

Agree with everyone else, also she might not be as tired now as she was a few weeks / months ago at the same time in the evening. HAve you tried putting her to bed a little later? The amount of time they can stay awake for in one stretch changes quite quickly in the first year. Not sure if I properly understood your routine but are you trying to put her down at 6pm? That's quite early (depending on the rest of your day - but I think my 2 were going down more like 6.45pm or 7pm at that age - with a couple of sleeps during the day).

[Weezie85]

We have had the same routine since about 3 months. Go upstairs, have a story for some quiet time, bath, feed then bed. She goes down up at 6.30pm. We let her find her bedtime though. It used to be 9pm but kept coming down to this time as this is when she seems happiest to go down. She normally has an afternoon nap 3.30-4.30pm.
We had to start with rocking her to sleep, then putting her in cot when asleep. Did the no cry sleep solution and now we feed her and just put her in her cot and she sends herself to sleep. Normally 10/15 minutes of her 'chattering' to herself and shuffling around. I also didn't want to do CC. I also think it isn't advised till they are 6 months?
Doesn't sleep through the night though, she is bf as well. Never has slept through the night but hey ho.

[HKnight]

My baby girl is 5 months, and had always been a good sleeper until about 1 month ago. We were seeing a paediatrician for her cows milk intolerance and I mentioned that she would get really grouchy all day, felt like she breastfed constantly and not nap properly or go to sleep as easily she used to. He told us to start weaning which I was never going to do because it's been drummed into me not to wean until 6 months. It worked! She loves food and she sleeps a lot better. Maybe you should ask your doctor/health visitor about weaning?

Also someone told me that sleeping through the night is not really expected for breast fed babies at this age but i can't remember if this is official advice or not. My little girl still has one night feed, but she falls back to sleep now straight after.

[Fishandjam]

I could really do with some advice. DD is now almost 6 months and has always been a rubbish sleeper (waking to feed at least twice a night, and very very colicky - screaming for 3 hours every evening and plenty during the day too), but the 4 month sleep regression combined with (I think) teething is just dreadful. She seems to wake and not be able to go back to sleep. Not always crying and distressed, just wide awake! Was up with her since 2am this morning, and just as I got back to bed at just gone 5, DS (2.11) started as well. There's no point going back to bed now.

I have tried to get her into a routine - get her into her nightclothes at 6.30pm and give her a feed, then DS to bed at 7-7.30pm, then a final feed for DD. If I'm lucky she'll nod off while feeding (she's EBF) and be in her cot by 8. More often she'll refuse to nod off for another hour or two, sometimes screaming the whole time until she zonks out. I can't get her to nap reliably in the day either - have tried putting her in her cot at roughly the same time esch day, stroking her, singing etc, or just leaving her.... no luck. Sometimes she does nap, but usually she doesn't. She then might have several 10-minute naps instead of one long one. And she is always waking in the night, always. She has never, ever slept through in any way.

I am in despair and can't see how it's ever going to get better. People would say to me in the early days "Oh it'll get better" and it hasn't, it's got worse. DS has also dropped his afternoon nap (even though he still really needs it, I cannot get him to go down). So I have no catch-up time, and he's then tired and horrible come the late afternoon. I end up shouting at him for the smallest thing and I hate myself for being so unable to cope. Just don't know what to do next and I'm so tired I feel permanently sick.

[ProbationProbationProbation]

countryhouse we normally have an hour after bath of generally winding down, so in her room, quietly, it's normally dim and we'll feed of she wants or read or just chat. That normally takes up to 7pm. We last nap of tw day is normally about 3.30/4 and will take us to around 5pm. So if I keep her up any later, over tiredness kicks in and we have full on meltdown!!
I'm pretty Acceptant of her not sleeping through the night, I've got back into the swing of it, it's just sometimes spending hours getting her to sleep makes me feel vey drained!

fish our DD has never self settled in the night, but I do find that the daytime naps have been better since we introduced white noise (just a low hum in the background). Rather than her napping for maybe 20 mins, we often get an hour and a half out of her, and she now has 3 decent naps a day. You may have already tried this of course. Also i know others on here have metioned for me to put her down later, but have you tried earlier? by 8pm DD is normally way overtired and will fight it for hours. Other than that, I'm not a great one for advice in this field. Does colic improve with weaning?

[teacher123]

At 5mo, DS had a bath at 5.15pm, pajamas, cuddle, big feed, into bed at 6. He found his own bedtime, and has never had a tea time nap. Now at 7mo he is eating three big meals a day, and has a cup of formula downstairs at 5.30, bath, bed, still usually by 6pm, though we can now push it to 6.30 if we really need to! He usually only has about 1 and a half to two hours sleep in the day though, so makes up for it with an early bedtime. Suits me, I like my evenings!

[Lucylucy57]

My DS is five months and I take him upstairs for some reading and playing about 5.15 followed by bath at 5.30. He has his bottle after that and is usually calm so I pop him in his cot and wait for him to settle, with the light off, before I leave. He can't see me during this time though. I give him a dream feed at 11 and he usually sleeps till about 7. He did used to wake up but since I've been weaning him over the last two weeks, this has stopped. He was only waking for hunger. Maybe this could be the case for you? Perhaps push bedtime back by an hour? It can be so difficult to know what to try. I'm lucky with DS as he developed a very good sleep pattern but this hasn't always been the case and his progress has been more down to his development than anything I can take credit for I think!

[Jayne266]

I think it depends on your day naps as well.
But my sons routine is
6am feed then bed
8am awake for the day
9am feed
10am 30-45min nap
12pm feed
12.30 ish long nap (2.5 hrs)
3am awake
4pm feed
5pm 30 min nap (still struggling with this one a bit)
6.30pm bath and pjs
6.45 feed and story
7-7.15pm fast a sleep until 6am (when we do the night time routine it stays the same a night light in the background and a LED rainbow light on the wall, this turns itself from bright colours to dark colours to off)