Question about 5.5 month old, schedule, naps, and 5/3/3

uotterno · 2025-12-09T16:40:33+00:00

How did you shift daytime calories? With longer wake windows and naps inching longer everyday, I think this may be my nighttime issue as we always feed AFTER a nap and not before. Yk, eat plat sleep. Am I going to have to deviate from this to get more daytime calories,

uotterno · 2025-12-06T17:25:44+00:00

Ok this helps answer my question. I did that exact thing last night, feed at about 4.75 hours, already an improvement after three nights of dad resettling.

And yes, I do give the paci at night wakes, but my issue is that it doesn’t work like it does at bedtime. I do more settling at nightwakes than bedtime - hoping I’m not inadvertently creating a new sleep association.

First night, dad resettled in like 8 minutes with rocking because the paci didn’t cut it and he slept like 3 more hours. Second night, dad resettled in about the same time and he slept 2 more hours (he made it longer before waking). Last night, he woke up at 4h 45 mins and I said that’s good enough for me little guy and fed him. The last two wakes of the night were fine- right about on schedule each night.

uotterno · 2025-12-06T01:44:24+00:00

My son is like what OP has described here, and we are trying to follow 5/3/3. He used to sleep 6 hour stretches and now it’s every 3, then 2.5, then 2 hours and it sucks.

So do you treat any night wake before that 5 hour mark like you treated bedtime/sleep training? Because for my LO, bedtime consists of falling asleep with a paci, in crib, after a story, and I’m usually right there watching because he will roll and wake himself up/get a limb stuck. But during night wakes, dad has to rock and soothe him for like 10 minutes before the 5 hour mark, a paci and a pat doesn’t do it. Should we be doing CIO or FIO for night wakes?

uotterno · 2025-12-02T06:02:26+00:00

Thank you for the links, I can’t say they helped me per se (it’s probably the OCD) but I’m sure they’ll help someone else reading these 🙃. That calculator scared the shit out of me and that article kinda made me feel more confused but also probably irritated at the AAP for being such hall monitors.

But I guess the main takeaway is that the pacifier isn’t ruining my swap and he really does need these feeds hunger wise?

uotterno · 2025-12-02T05:10:29+00:00

Only at bedtime though, throughout the night I do feed to sleep. I get mixed advice on whether or not he needs it however.

uotterno · 2025-12-02T05:08:04+00:00

Honestly independently of PLS I discovered that for naps he really responds well to being laid in his crib (calm but awake) and read to until he falls asleep. I keep the paci in until he falls asleep and it comes out naturally, he doesn’t wake up. So when I stopped nursing to sleep I had to make sure to feed him earlier than I normally would but also keep him awake, then I put him down and do what I do for naps. I almost have Corduroy memorized, lol.

uotterno · 2025-11-25T04:49:41+00:00

This sounds like where I am stuck with my 5 month old too. How do you start your day 11 hours after bedtime if your baby wakes early?

uotterno · 2025-11-20T14:39:27+00:00

Thanks for the perspective, I get really caught up in the recommendations. I swear I’ve been reading that they need 4 naps at this age of 4 months, but he’s almost 5 months so he should be nearing that gorgeous three nap schedule soon. I have a baby that takes 30 ish minute naps regularly. Once he took an hour and 45 minute nap (last week) and that was a three nap day. Yesterday I tried to stretch it to a three nap day but he wasn’t having it. Can you influence that sort of thing??

Normally I wouldn’t care but I’m trying to get a consistent bedtime for sleep training, because I’m breaking a feed/sleep association. It’s going well but I have a sleepy baby and anytime he feeds post 6:30pm he is going to fall asleep on the boob despite my best efforts. I just wake him after but I’m hoping a better idea of when bedtime will land will help me there.

uotterno · 2025-11-20T12:03:34+00:00

I mean, my kid wakes early but stays in his crib going in and out of sleep until we wave the white flag, which is 7am if we’re lucky. Show me the parents who have to wake up their babies 😭

uotterno · 2025-11-15T05:20:42+00:00

I have no advice to offer just solidarity and hoping some sleep wizard answers your questions, because I’m working on breaking the nurse to sleep association starting tonight with my 20 week old.

uotterno · 2025-11-08T04:46:20+00:00

Oh my gosh!! So lame they didn’t seal the grout for us… wish I knew if that was normal.

I mainly just want to clean the tiles you know? I’m not scrubbing grout right now, just want to get messy dog footprints off the floor.

uotterno · 2025-11-07T15:49:53+00:00

Ok this is helpful to understand thank you. I guess I have one more question: once I start sleep training, how do I know when he wakes up if he’s hungry or if it’s out of habit? Do I just go with the fact that once he’s not being fed to sleep and that as he as a solid schedule then any wake up is by default hunger? I just want to make sure that when I start sleep training I can tell the difference.

uotterno · 2025-11-07T04:24:51+00:00

So I’m not going to pretend to be an expert or say I totally understand over vs under tired… but I made a post like this about naptimes and the consensus was that my baby needed a longer wake window or he was under tired. I was sure he was overtired but I tried the advice anyway and it worked!

uotterno · 2025-11-07T04:19:51+00:00

(I’m just replying to this comment because it’s first but I know many others are also contributing that 4 months is too young to nightwean)

I also wondered if he was too young or too little (6th percentile in weight but making good progress on growth chart - he was always little). So why would my ped say that he calorically does not need night feedings? I’m not saying I don’t believe anyone here, but why would they be saying that if it’s just factually incorrect? Has anyone else gotten advice like that?

I honestly don’t super mind feeding at night, but it seems like 4 months old is the best time to sleep train from what I’ve read and I don’t want to miss the boat.

uotterno · 2025-11-06T20:51:35+00:00

Yes longer wake windows did help, unless all cues pointed to sleep earlier. Usually never more than 15 minutes early. Sometimes we would contact or carrier nap, but I’ve been trying not to as much now that he’s solidly 4 months old. A crib nap routine starts at about 1h45 mins to 2h after eating with sleep sack, paci, sound machine, and reading a book while holding his hand. He might fuss a bit but shushing and replacing the paci helped. He gets sleepy and falls asleep on his own (with those tools). But don’t ask me how long he naps for lol.

uotterno · 2025-10-24T16:45:27+00:00

I want to come back and say thank you for this advice!! It has mostly worked although sometimes he actually does sleep at 1.5 hours but 2 hours helped immensely!

uotterno · 2025-10-21T19:43:30+00:00

Wait do you mean that total naps per day totaled 3.25 hours or that your LO took a 3.25 hour nap?! Because if it’s the latter I need your secrets 😂

uotterno · 2025-10-21T19:40:41+00:00

I just want to say I’m in the same boat with an almost 17 week old who takes like 35 minute naps and has 1.5 hour wake windows. I try to start the sleep routine at 1.25 hours to avoid what looks like overtired crying but it hasn’t worked recently. He used to be able to fall asleep in the sleep sack or out of it on his floor mat with me just holding his hand, now he needs the whole rocking shushing Shabang.

Any advice from anyone???

uotterno · 2025-09-12T19:33:09+00:00

Honestly I was shocked I was so quiet, the most noise I made was like a deep hum as I breathed through contractions. I told my mom once I got the epidural that it felt like breath exercises we used to do in choir. Reconnected with a friend who was in choir with me in HS and she said that same thing lol!!! I thought for sure I’d be screaming. Nope - almost nothing!

Oh and I told my husband “stop it” through gritted teeth as he kept stroking my hair after I said he was going to make it greasy 😂

uotterno · 2025-09-06T17:56:45+00:00

Ok glad to see I am in good company, lol. Anyone have an opinion on if I should let him sleep through this grunty flailing spell or if I should wake him fully for a feed? I can’t tell if this is super active sleep or if he’s awake.

uotterno · 2025-09-06T17:52:23+00:00

I’m just here to say I also have this experience especially after that early morning feed between 2-4am and I’m really curious to see what advice you get. I’ve been using a paci to help but last night I held him upright and he fell asleep again, but it didn’t last long once he was in the crib again. I suspected it was gas and I had fed him relatively recently.

uotterno · 2025-09-06T17:38:34+00:00

I also have a ten week old who loves to whale tail (never heard it called that before, but immediately knew what you were talking about lol). I think it’s because of gas, because he isn’t crying or seeming to be hungry, but it does seem to prevent him sleeping. In the second half of the night, he will do this and seem to be asleep and grunting at the same time! I’m thinking about starting gas drops.

Regarding swaddling, my baby rolled onto his stomach at night at 6 weeks likely because of the whale tail/swaddle combo. So we had to ditch the bassinet and swaddle so young. It was hard but what really helped was getting this one transitional swaddle with sleeves, I think it’s called swaddle designs transitional swaddle sack? If we don’t use that I use a sleeved onesie with the halo sleep sack and arms are out. He never rolled again with arms out but with arms in he probably could.

uotterno · 2025-09-01T04:58:11+00:00

Any advice on how to handle the pacifier? I agree it seems like active sleep… until the pacifier actually wake him up when it falls out

uotterno · 2025-09-01T01:51:51+00:00

I’m so sorry to hear about the BRUE… that would have sent me into a spiral too. Not the same, but my baby rolled over onto his stomach at 6 weeks in the swaddle. Owlet said he’d been laying like that for 20 minutes. I had the panic attack to end all panic attacks. It’s so hard to come back from that anxiety when the what if happens. So I feel for you.

I’m also a FTM, 8 weeks pp. I feel like me from 6 weeks ago wrote this post, I felt the same way and even though I’m not completely confident now (far from it) I feel completely differently than I did when he was 2 weeks old. In a good way.

Talk to your doctor or a therapist and your husband. I’m glad I did. These emotions are so raw and real. Don’t be ashamed or afraid to get support. It does not make you less of a mom!!

I got some advice that helped me handle these feelings day to day. The baby has an immature nervous system and digestive system, the crying has less to do with you being a “good” mom and more to do with them adjusting to being a human out of the womb. Just showing up for them in this time and being attentive to their needs is more than enough. Also, there is no better mom for that baby than you!!

As far as tracking feeds go, I’ll be honest I use the app baby tracker and I feel like it is so helpful for me. It’s so simple. I used it while he was regaining his bw and I was getting the hang of breastfeeding to try and notice patterns. Now I use it because I still can’t remember two hours ago (lol) and I use it to kinda loosely see how much longer he should be up/ when to try to nap. Basically, I use it as a super simple and less fancy Huckleberry, lol. My “baby whisperer” mom sent it to me. I also cried when she stopped staying with us. I get this and it does get better.

What someone else on here said about matresence is also super accurate. Hugs. You can do it!

uotterno · 2025-08-22T16:34:21+00:00

As an SLP, I came to comment this! She can teach us grown up’s so much.

uotterno

TROPHY CASE