my LO is waking every hour at night!!

[Amandamom]

My LO will be 5 months old on Thursday and has been a great sleeper since 6 wks old--waking once per night to feed and going right back to sleep.  However, around 3.5 months she started having a few more night wakings.  I transitioned her to 4 hr EASY at 4 months and saw a decrease in the night wakings again--she would sometimes only wake once to feed, but not consistently like she was before.  Then two nights ago she slept until 2:00 a.m. when she woke up to feed and then after that she was up every hour like clockwork until 7:00 a.m.  Last night I tried putting her to bed without being swaddled for the first time as she has been fighting the swaddle and trying to roll onto her side while sleeping so I thought she would sleep better without the swaddle.  She slept fine until her dreamfeed at 10:00 then woke up every hour after that.  I fed her at 2:00 and then swaddled her thinking that would help her sleep, but it didn't, she continued to wake every hour.  I am unbelievably tired and so is my LO so I need advice on what to do about night wakings and swaddling.  If it isn't going to make a difference in her sleep I think I should stop swaddling since she is 5 months?  She is napping right now without a swaddle because she rolled onto her side as soon as I put her down.
A typical day for us looks like this:
E: 7:00
A: play in pack 'n play, car ride to take brother to school, sit and play with mom
S: 9:00 (until 10:30 or 11)
E: 11:00
A: play on activity mat or in bumbo seat, tummy time, play with rattle (some days we do errands at this time)
S: 12:30 or 1:00 depending on when she woke up from first nap (until 2:30 or 3:00)
E: 3:00
A: play on floor or lay on blanket outside
S: 4:30 or 5:00 for 45 min
A: quiet play or held by mom, walk in the stroller
6:30 bath and bedtime routine including feeding
10:00 dreamfeed

About 15-30 min. before naptime whenever she starts to get fussy I stand up or walk around the house with her then 5 min. before nap I sit in her room with her and then put her down.  At both nap and bedtime she has a paci and listens to an ocean sounds aquarium which runs for 10 min.
Her bedtime routine is a bath at 6:30 for 10-20 min. depending on her mood, feed, story, then in her crib around 7:00.
I exclusively breastfeed.  She is a very efficient eater-she usually eats on one side for 5-10 min. for each feeding.
When she wakes up at night I just have to give her the paci and/or turn on her aquarium and she goes right back to sleep.  I only feed her once during the night other than the dream feed, usually between 2:00 and 4:00.
When she wakes up she cries, but not hard.  I admittedly do not wait very long before going into her room, but I don't go in after the first noise or two.  However, last night, two or three times I went in because she had been making quite a bit of noise and when I went in she was asleep so I didn't do anything.  Her mantra cry is more of a grunt when she goes down at night and this is not the noise she makes when she wakes up in the middle of the night.
I have not started cereal or solids yet and as far as I know she isn't teething.
This seems really long, but I tried to answer all of the questions posed by the moderators above.
Is it possible that she needs more A time now that she is 5 months?  Is the paci causing the problem?  Oh...I should say that after the dreamfeed and after the middle of the night feed I do not give her the paci and she almost always falls asleep without it.
A few weeks ago I tried rocking her with the paci when she woke up to feed to see if she would resettle without eating and it didn't work.  I have not tried since then to eliminate the night feed.
Any help or advice at all would be really, really appreciated.

[momofclaire]

When she wakes and you don't feed does it only take the paci to get her back to sleep?  If so, I would bet the paci is the problem.      
You routine looks really good. 
How long has the waking every hour been going on?  Do you think she might be going through her 6 mo growth spurt a bit early? 

[Amandamom]

She has woken every hour for just the past two nights.  The paci is all it takes to get her to sleep and that is true whether or not she originally fell asleep with the paci.

[momofclaire]

In that case I think the paci might be the problem.  She may feel as if when she wakes she can't go to sleep without it which has caused her to be dependant on it.  I would suggest either weaning it or getting used to replugging.     At this point she probably can't find it and replace it herself.  Do you agree that it is a prop?

[Amandamom]

I'm not sure that the paci is a prop.  It probably is, but she can fall asleep without it, she does after her night feeding, and it usually falls out after 20-30 min. and she sleeps without it until two nights ago for hours at a time before waking up.  She also fell asleep for one nap today without the paci. 
So...is it a prop??  I was wanting to wean her off by 6ish months anyway, but I have no idea how to do it.  I've read the props FAQs and still don't know what to do.  My older one stopped taking it at around 6 months so I never had to wean.

[momofclaire]

I would pop over to the props forum and read some info over there.  They have a sticky which discusses the difference between props and comfort items. 

Could she be teething or going through a growth spurt and genuinly hungry.  Repeated waking like that is generally overtiredness or hunger althoug if she is in pain that would wake her as well.

[Amandamom]

I will check out the props page.
Last night she started waking every hour at 11:00 which was one hour after her dreamfeed so even if it is a growth spurt she couldn't have been hungry that soon.  She has been chewing on her fingers a lot but so far I haven't seen any signs of teeth.  I really don't know what the problem is.
I just put her down for the night and tonight I swaddled her.  Last night it didn't make a difference either way.  What's your opinion on the swaddle?  Should I keep doing it or try to stop especially if it doesn't matter in terms of how well she sleeps?  Although she had a 3 hour nap this afternoon while she was swaddled.
Thank you so much for your help!!!!

[WB]

Just to let you know.  My DS (8 months old)  would wake up every hour latetly and he used to sleep through the night.  After 2-3 nights like this, I brought him to the doctor.  Turns out, he had a ear infection. He never had a fever or anything.  I felt so bad...he probably had it for a while.  He had been fussy lately but I thought he might be teething.  Now he is doing better since being on the antibiotics, but still wakes up a couple times.  At least it's not every hour.

[momofclaire]

WB makes a good point.  Ear infections can be very painful and the pain is worse at night because they are lying down.

I didn't swaddle Claire that long because she hated it.  She would break out and cry and scream when I tried so she was unswaddled from about 8 or 9 weeks.  She just didn't take to it.

Have you tried a dose of pain meds before bed to see if that helps.  Teething can really mess with sleep and sometimes it is so hard to tell because they start to bother them before teeth can be seen. 

Hang in there and I might call the doctor to have him check the ears.  Thanks WB, good thinking.

[Amandamom]

Thank you!!!
Last night she slept great again, so maybe it was just an off couple of nights??  I called the dr. and am waiting to hear back and am going to work on getting rid of the paci.  We'll see how tonight goes...I'm hoping for another good one.

[momofclaire]

Keep us posted.

[Amandamom]

I just wanted to post to let you know that she has been continuing to sleep well at night, only waking up once to feed.  Thanks again for all of your help!

[momofclaire]

That is great news.