fretful? cuddle monster 5 months

Hi,

Ii am looking for some advice for my 5 month old baby. She has always been a big cuddler, the first night I had her in the hospital she would not sleep in her cot and the midwifes had to keep coming in in the middle of the night to take her off me and put her down (I had C-cestion due to breech position and I was not able to move around very well)

 My problem is that she will not stay in her cot for very long at all, if she is asleep and is disturbed by the slightest thing she starts crying to be picked up. she wants to sleep on me - this was ok when she was little but she is getting to big and heavy now. (I know that also its not recommended because of the dangers)

I think that she is fretfull as we have made the mistake of rocking her off to sleep in our arms. So when she does wake she wonders why shes still not in our arms.

I understand that  if she has always had this to get her off to sleep, she will continue to want that. I know the tips about put your baby in her cot awake and let her learn to settle on her own and I have tried it however it is not good to see the state that she gets in if you do this.

 I have read all the tips about making a routine and tried most of them - my question is how do I break this ?

Also she is feeding all the time at night - is this normal?

I read in the magazine today that it may be ok to start weaning at 5 months as she is showing all of the signs and I wonder if this could also help. Even though they recommend 6 months my baby is looking at our food, making chewing actions, sitting up (with assistance) she is very alert energetic.

My husband is having to sleep in another room as the lack of sleep has been making him ill - I want to sort this out, any thoughts?

 many thanks

K 

Hi K,

How are you? I know all about lack of sleep as my soon to be three year old doesn't sleep through the night although things are better than they were.

I know what you mean about leaving them. I tried the contol crying with Charlotte but she used to get herself so wound up she'd be sick and so I'd have to go in and change her bedding and bath her so it wasn't worth it.

I do recommend the Johnsons baby bath with lavender, it calms Charl down and relaxes her at bathtime. Also I found that playing classical music ( a soothing cd that helps her fall asleep) is great and I have it on repeat so it plays all night that way it acts as background noise so she doesn't get disturbed by planes or cats fighting, etc.

As for the rocking...I'm not sure how to wean this out of her nap time routine. Maybe put her down but stay with her as she's sleepy but still awake. Try stroking her hair or something instead to get her out of the motion getting her to sleep habit?

I'm not sure if any of this is of use to you, but I do wish you luck in finding a solution.

Take care, Zoe xx

My little man would always fall asleep on his bedtime bottle and went to the cot asleep but would scream later, we couldnt wake him after the bottle he was just to dosy to realise we were leaving the room etc so we tried the gradual with draw technique at night 1st time a cuddle until calm 2nd time quick cuddle 3rd hug in the cot (he was standing so maybe tricky with a younger baby) 4th stroke hair face until calm 5th just sit close by now all it takes is one hug and he goes in the cot awake it took a month or so, very frustrating but we got there.

My little girl is the same she is only 4wks though but we get her in the crib by swaddling her, have you tried sleeping bags they often help them sleep longer?

My son was weaned at 4mnths same time as we learnt baby massage so i cant say which one helped but he slept through after around a week of both and as zoe said the johnsons stuff works a treat,

best of luck xx