Reply To: Multiple night feeds (and very early wake time) – 5mo

[Jill Deberlanger]

Hi Emma,

1. (Final) wake-up between 6:15 to 6:30. Only then I get him out of bed, every wake up before 6am I treat as a night waking and try to get him back to sleep again (endless walking around usually works).
2. Settling with the naps is still more difficult, he needs more comfort and sometimes he cries so much it seems it’s hunger and so I breastfeed and then he sleeps no problem.
3. At bedtime, no settling necessary. I just put him in his bed with his eyes open and after 5-10 minutes he sleeps.
4. Bedtime routine is fairly simple: I put on his pj, feed him downstairs with the lights on, then we go upstairs and I put on his sleepsack, turn the white noise on and sing a little lullaby. I then put him in bed and I leave the room immediately and he settles himself to sleep. For naps it’s the same routine without the feed; but since I breastfeed, i’m not always sure he has had enough so eating intervals are sometimes off, and if he’s inconsolable when I try to put him in his sleepsack (I can’t even console him in my arms alone), I feed him anyway but that happens in the room and then he falls asleep at the breast. If he isn’t hungry, I still have to resort to picking him up a fair bit and then suddenly when I put him down again he settles and sleeps.
5. No pacifier, he doesn’t want one, he just sucks on his arm
6. He shares his room with me. Since last week in his own bed, before it was next to me in the co-sleeper, now he is a meter or more away from me in his own crib.
7. During the night and during naps he sleeps in the same crib.
8. Bedroom is pitch black, cool and quiet
9. Night wakings I do in pitch black too, I don’t even use a night light anymore. Just feeding and immediately in the crib afterwards. No nappy changes necessary.
10. Only three naps during the day when he goes to daycare, four with me. Last nap ends around 4:30pm-5:00pm. But nights are the same no matter where he has been that day.

Thank you in advance.

Jill