is a schedule possible at 5 months?
jasrun80
member
my daughter sleeps well at night, wakes at 1 & 4 and i dont care,,, i will keep feeding her as long as this doesnt regress.
she slept last night 7pm-8:30am (waking at 4 & 7 to eat)
i was surprised she actully went to sleep after the 7am feed and stayed asleep.
i try to watch her very carefully but she shows NO SIGNS of being tired but from all the input on here i have learned that i must be missing her sleep cues so i put her down after feeding & playing nearing 10am & she screamed her brains out for 45 minutes. never slept. we have WN, no swaddle & dark room.
i went & got her & brought her down to play where my son & i were, she seemed tired, so i put her down nearing 11 & she screamed her brains out til 11:30. still no sleep.
I went & got her & brought her outside where we were getting some air & she enjoyed watching us play although i know she was exhausted, she was desolate.
i brought her in, gave her a bottle & put her down, she was asleep instantly.
for 20 minutes.
WTF am i doing wrong.
my first kid was a breeze.
im walking in circles around her & i have PPD & ever day i cry at how ill confident i feel about it all.
'she is screaming in her crib now.
im at a loss.
Re: is a schedule possible at 5 months?
YES! A routine I meant !! How do you "get" them to sleep? I am comfortable with CIO, but it doenst seem to work for her. I do try to "catch" her nearing sleep & am MORE than willing to just go on a schedule but she NEVER naps longer than 20 mins. It honestly has only happened once. She napped for one hour.
& now she is just fake crying occasionally. im tempted to just get her & feed her, then put her down asleep. she honestly HAS to be EXHAUSTED. i feel like an idiot.
honestly i would rock her to sleep for every sleep if i could but i cant because i have a beast of a wild man son who needs attention too.
I pretty much continue "on demand" with her (and if I pump bottles as I'm trying anything to understand her needs, i make sure she gets it all in) so I want to be sure "she's not hungry" but I could up her oz and see if it helps. I went in and fed her a bottle: she's up and ready to go so, so far she's napped 20 minutes since 8:40 this morning.
she's smiling & happy as can be. laying on the ground as i edit photos... she is crazy. my 2 year old naps 3 hours !
This is almost exactly what I do with my 5 month old. I didn't really put her on a schedule, I just followed her cues and this is where we landed. Thanks for posting this! I kept looking for a good guideline for what they should be doing at this age and couldn't find it anywhere!
yes, you can do a routine. My one thing to point out to you is that from the baby sleep book I use, is that a child should start their day no later than 7:30am. So we have started waking our LO at 7:30 if she isn't awake yet. Then we feed, play, and are reading books by 1.5 hours from waking up. In crib by 1h45min at latest. Also the 4am feeding can begin to be dropped as at this age it is starting to just be a comfort-nursing. You don't have to though if it doesn't bother you. Up until about 6 months of age a child should never be up more than 2 hours straight. (obviously sometimes you can't help it) It took us about 2 weeks and now she is so set on her routine that if we try to keep her up a little longer and then read her a book, she fusses and pushes the book away and wants to be put in the crib immediately. One other tip, if she sleeps less than 45 min, leave her in there for one hour, if she falls asleep let her sleep until she next wakes up or if she is awake the whole time get her after one hour. She may cry, and if you can't take it it is ok to go get her, but try to keep leaving her a little longer each time.
Also keep cheked in with your doctor on your PPD, I know it is hard and you have to take care of you too. The book I am referencing is "healthy sleep habits, happy child" and it helped us with 3 foster kids and now our LO
Honestly - I don't think there is anything you can really do to get your baby to take longer naps. It sucks - I'm in the same boat as you. I have a 4 month old that takes 3-4 cat naps during the day and a toddler that needs my attention as well.
Some babies just don't have their self-soothing skills developed enough at this young age to be able to transition in between sleep-cycles and take nice long naps.
My first son took 45 minute naps (I could time it down to the minute!) until he was about 6 months old. Then one day he just magically started sleeping longer during the day and that was when I was able to get him onto that easier 2-nap-a-day schedule. I stressed and struggled with so many things trying to get him to nap longer (more awake time, less awake time, letting him cry when he woke up, etc) and nothing worked. He just did it on his own one day.
Now his little brother seems to be following in his footsteps with the cat-naps. We can usually get 30-45 min naps out of his 3-ish times a day. It sucks, but oh well. I am just really trying hard not to stress about it and am going to revisit some sleep/nap training with him if it doesn't get better by 6 months.
Hang in there mama! I know how frustrating it is - especially when you have a toddler to tend to.
ITS SO NICE to know im not alone!! thanks!!