u/Interesting_Item344

I currently bedshare with our almost 5 month old. We do have a Snuzpod 5 beside our bed but she doesn’t tolerate it at all currently so I am solely bedsharing for now as she still wakes around 8 times a night so it’s much easier. I do like bedsharing but I am a little nervous about continuing as she gets more mobile with the risk of falling out of bed, and I would like my husband to be able to move back into our bedroom as he often sleeps in the spare room currently so that baby and I have more space. I also do miss spending some evenings with my husband as I go to bed at the same time as baby. So I do think once she is over 6 months I would ideally like her to sleep in her own space, but I’m obviously happy to continue doing what she needs!

The issue with the Snuzpod is that there is still the mesh barrier between my mattress and baby’s so I still have to lift her out to feed her or give her a cuddle back to sleep? Plus she will outgrow it soon! Are there any alternatives that would be level with my mattress and don’t have the barrier/side, and of course will last as she gets bigger?

She does have a nursery but we already naively got a standard larger cot which converts to a toddler bed in it before baby was born 😅 So there is limited space for anything like a floor bed there!

My 4.5 month old baby girl has never been a great sleeper, however things seem to be getting more difficult. We hoped things were improving as she does occasionally do a 3-4 hour stretch near the start of the night, and she had started doing some 2 hour stretches after. However, for the past couple of weeks she has been doing about a 2 hour stretch at the start of the night and then waking every hour or less afterwards. I am starting to really struggle with fatigue, but I want to continue supporting her sleep.

Baby is combination fed. She has about 100-150ml formula during the day and is breastfed the rest of the time. We have a bedtime routine of nappy change, sleep sack on, bottle, book and upright cuddle (if she isn’t too tired/cranky) and sleep. She does need to be bounced to sleep although the intensity of this has reduced a bit. Bedtime varies based on her last nap but most often fall around 8pm.

When she wakes during the night, I breastfeed her back to sleep. We cosleep.

During the day baby naps for around 3.5-4.5 hours overall. We don’t follow a strict routine and go by baby’s cues but her wake windows tend to be about 1.5-2 hours on average. Sometimes stretching to 2.5 hours recently. I have wondered if she is getting too much daytime sleep but she seems genuinely tired and is just upset if we try to keep her awake for longer.

Any advice or suggestions are very welcome!!!

My 4 month old baby girl needs to be bounced to sleep for naps and bedtime - this has to be standing and the I gradually reduce the intensity until we can sit down and bounce, although she sometimes still wakes up and we have to stand again. At nighttime she is fed back to sleep when she wakes.

I am totally happy to continue helping her get to sleep but am finding the bouncing really physically challenging, especially as she is getting heavier and the weather is getting warmer here. She also has nights where she is awake every hour so I have limited energy for bouncing! I have managed to reduce the intensity of the bouncing since she was younger but don’t seem to be able to progress any further. I’m wondering how I can switch to an alternative settling method or any other advice people might have.

Any advice is very welcome!

My 4 month old baby girl hates the pram, car seat and carrier which is making it so difficult to go anywhere, even a quick trip to the shop or for a walk! Any advice is very welcome, or if anyone had a similar experience when did it pass?

For context, we have the iCandy peach 7 pram. She has never liked the bassinet - when she was very small we used to be able to get her to sleep before a walk and then put her in and she would sleep for a while but cried when she woke up, now this is nearly impossible. We changed to the stroller attachment (just up a tiny bit from the lie flat position and she has good head control so her chin isn’t on her chest) so she can see around more but she has only tolerated this for about 10 minutes max before screaming.

Again she has alwaaaays hated the car seat. I have tried this in the car and also attached to the pram. She will scream to the point of almost choking often for the whole car journey which is so stressful. We did do one longer car journey and I sat in the back with her so could keep reinserting her dummy etc which seemed to help and she did fall asleep. But my husband works during the week so this isn’t an option then.

She used to tolerate the wrap carrier and I would get some housework etc done when she was in this, now she hates it too. We have a structured ergo baby carrier which she cries going into but I can get maybe a 10-15 minute max walk done before she cries again (again with support of shushing, singing, reinserting dummy).

We have tried so many things. We have a white noise machine. I have tried music (including the happy song by Imogen heap). We have tried with and without a toy arch in the pram and car seat, teethers, toys on her lap. I have tried going when she is asleep, when she just woke up, when she is due to go for a nap. She has a dummy. We have experimented with different temperatures and layers. If she is just fussing a bit I try to settle her with shushing, pats, dummy etc but this basically never works, and if I take her out to resettle her she cries as soon as she goes back in. She just wants to be carried all the time but this is getting really difficult the bigger she gets. I’m continuing to practice everything at least 1-2 times a week for short periods, more often with the car seat as we do to out somewhere nearly every day.

In the past couple of weeks she will also try to sit up and push against the straps so I think she doesn’t like being restrained, but again she has always struggled basically since she was born!

Help please!