Hey Everyone, I am new to the hive here and need some advice. I have been looking through some sleep training posts and such but just wanted to put my situation out there to see what you all think and what advice you have. (Sorry if this gets long)

I have a 5 month old son (born 1 month early) and we have been having some sleep issues. Nothing too extreme, but enough to break up our nights a lot. He used to be swaddled all the time and that is the only way he would sleep well. Within the past month he started breaking out of the swaddle and we tried un-swaddled sleep which did better for about 2 weeks. He was still waking up about 2-3 times in the middle of the night, but I was able to just give him his pacifier and he would go right back to sleep. Now, it's almost as if he is too busy that when he started to wake up in the middle of the night, he just wants to chew on his fingers, etc and won't get settled. I've tried swaddling him in the middle of the night and tried the one arm swaddle but he is still waking up every couple of hours. We debate about sleep training, but he just gets so mad sometimes and it is so hard to hear and almost wakes him up more. (Also, he hasn't been eating in the middle of the night for about 2 1/2 months) He is still napping 3-4 times a day and can't make it more than 2 hours awake usually. His naps have been inconsistent too, but he can take a good 2 hour afternoon nap some, but if he is swaddled.

I am just not sure what to do. I am scared of sleep training but am wondering if that's what we need to do. I wouldn't care as much if it was just a matter of giving him his nuk, but recently he's been more unsettled when he wakes up. He's stuck in between swaddling and not swaddling and that makes it hard.

Any advice is welcome! Thanks!