Possible for baby to sleep more than 2 hours while roomsharing & without CIO?

[danish84v]

My just-turned 5-month-old has been waking every 1-2 hours each night after his first wake-up. He used to go 3-4 hours between wakes but ideally he can learn to go even longer! These last two weeks have been brutal on me and my husband. I exclusively breastfeed.

Schedule:
7 AM - Wake / nurse

9 AM - Nap (has to be a contact nap for him to do longer, usually 1.5-2 hrs)

1030/11 AM - Wake/nurse

1230/ 1 PM - Nap alone (always wakes at 35 minutes)

1/130 PM - Wake/nurse

330/4 PM- Nap alone (wakes up at 35 minutes)
430 (sometimes 5) PM - Wake/nurse

630 PM: Start bedtime (nurse, sometimes bath but always a warm cloth wipe down, lotion, PJs, song, bed).

730 PM (sometimes closer to 8): In bed, falls asleep pretty quickly. Wakes around 830 PM but can be quickly soothed back to sleep with tummy rubs. Might wake another time, but sucks his hand and falls back asleep.

First “hunger” wake: usually around 1030 PM, yells and doesn’t soothe back down; I go in and nurse him, hold him for 5-10 mins (reflux) but not always, then back in his bed.
Subsequent wakes: every 1.5-2 hours after that. Wakes up crying, sometimes sucks on his hands, but if not responded to will escalate to loud wailing until fed.

Sleep environment:
-Is in a pack n play next to our bed.

-Wears a Merlin swaddle

-Occasionally uses a pacifier (he can fall asleep for naps or sleep without it, but we use it in the middle of the night to try to get him back to sleep).

-69-70 degrees F, sometimes with the ceiling fan on (we live in a hot climate)

-Hatch noise machine with a a very low night light on (I like to check on him sometimes and it’s easier when I nurse him to be able to see a bit).

-We have tried letting him fuss on his own for both naps and his night sleep, and for naps he seems to be able to fall asleep after fussing for 5-10 minutes each time; for night sleep he escalates to full out screaming and wailing for 40+ minutes (I did it once and do not plan to do it again).

 

[john127]

@danish84v Yea it’s possible, but doesn’t mean it will happen for your baby. Sounds like a strong sleep association. Falling asleep independently will greatly reduce your night wakes.

 

[csara]

@danish84v This sounds a lot like my baby. It's getting better now but he still wails every 2 to 3 hours. Sometimes 4 hrs at 7 mo, and i feed him. He seems so hungry overnight but goes to sleep on his own with minimal crying at the beginning of the night. 5 months was every hour for 2 or 3 weeks.

 

[tyty]

@danish84v I’m no expert, but have been struggling with my 5 month old’s overnight wakings as well. I recently adjusted his schedule to be 2/2.25/2.5/2.5 and capping his total nap time at 3 hours and it’s seemed to help.

Naps are tough and from what I’ve read you can’t push nap training until night sleep is better. And for some babies they may not nap well until they’re 6 months or older.

It also sounds like he’s having false starts which is usually a sign that baby is under or overtired (I think overtired is more common).

With his first feed do you give him any time to cry a little before you feed him to see if he actually needs food? It sounds like baby has a lot of sleep associations and it’s playing into his frequent wakes.

I read Precious Little Sleep and with her tips we never had to do full CIO with our son because I started letting him fuss some at like 12 weeks. I’ve never had to let him cry longer than 15 min. Now for bedtime if he cries it’s no longer than 2-3 min and recently his protests during nap time have been like 2-3 min as well. It’s been slow but I feel like it’s worked!