Hi,
Hoping to get some help on my 4 1/2 month olds night wakings (he'll be 5 months next week). We were doing so well for a few weeks! !2 hours sleeps and consistent naps (1st around 9am for about an hour, next around 12pm for 2 1/2 hours, 3rd around 4:30 for 30 minutes, with a 7pm bedtime). But then out of nowhere we went way off the rails and I can't figure out why.
Starting a few nights ago he started waking at erratic times (first night 5am, then 2 nights at 3am, then a night at 12am, then last night 10pm) and not being able to go back to sleep for 2 hours. He has a very distinctive mantra cry (my last post was a question about it) and when he wakes, he immediately starts doing that cry and trying to suck his thumb to go back to sleep. We've been leaving him, but the problem is that he'll do it on and off for an hour! He'll fall asleep but then wake back up 5 minutes later and start all over again. So we've been going in (either after about 45 minutes or when he starts escalating) and putting our hand on him to try to settle him back down... that seems like such a long time but I worry that we'll just disturb him if we're in the room! He still does the same cry when we're in the room but I don't feel quite so guilty if I'm in the room with him. I tried feeding him and he doesn't want it. Checked his temp, diaper, etc.
I've thought about several things it could be:
- Needs more awake time. I don't think it's this because he's crying trying to settle himself, not babbling or wanting to play.
- Too much awake time. I don't think it's this because when he was doing his good sleeps he was at 2 hour awake time and we're the same now.
- Prop. He goes to sleep without swaddle or paci and always settles himself for bedtime. It usually takes him 5 minutes or so to go to sleep and a little crying.
- Teething. I have no clue how to tell if this is what the problem is! He does seem a bit more grouchy during the day, wanting to be held more than usual, but I'm attributing this to being so tired from the night.
- Developmental. He isn't turning over in his sleep or during the day. He does sometimes turn himself to a 90 degree angle in the cot. He's working on turning himself from front to back during the day (he can do it by accident but now he's really focusing on it).
Our Easy looked like this today:
- awake and E 7:15
- S 9am - 9:30 (I tried settling him around 8:40 bc I was worried he was overtired from the night but maybe a mistake bc he woke happy)
- E 11am
- S 11:45 - 2:15 (AP'ed this as desperate for some sleep myself! Tried settling him at 11:30 but he kicked around happy as could be for 15 minutes before going off)
- E 2:45 (usually 3pm but he cried for it early)
- S 4:10 - 4:45 (in the pram)
- S 7:10 (took him longer to settle tonight although he was fairly happy up until I put him down to sleep)
Any help would be greatly appreciated! I know it's a phase and I know lots and lots of babies have sleep problems around this age but I was hoping we would avoid it because we've been so diligent about letting him always settle himself to sleep and not jumping up the minute he made a peep at night. Thanks in advance!