Help my 5 month old to sleep better at night

[nataliebabich]

My question is about my 5 month old little girl, Ava. She has many night wakings and I dont know why. She has never slept through the night and every night is different, sometimes she wakes once and other times its 4 times a night. We are on a 4 hour EASY and its going very well, (after battling 45 min naps for 2 months) Her schedule looks like this.

Day starts a 8AM

E - 8AM
A - 8-10AM
S - 10-12:15

E - 12:15
A - 12:15-2:15
S - 2:15

E - 4PM
A - 4-6
S - 6-6:45 (I wake her at 45min.)

E - 7:30
S - 8PM for the night

DF - 11:00pm
E -  2AM
E -  between 5-6AM
Most of the time she will wake up once or twice before her dreamfeed and we can settle with PUPD and her pacifier. Then she will wake around 2 am and then 5 or 6am to nurse. Then she wakes at 8am for the day.

She never wakes at the same time at night, it always varies. On a good night she wakes a 3:30am to nurse and than sleeps until 8am but most nights its wake a 1 or 2am and then every 3 hours after that. Lately she is wide awake and want to be picked up. (she picks up her head when she wants you to pick her up, its so cute

I know that some babies need to eat at night but not every 3-4 hours. I dont mind feeding her once but 1 am feedings are so ridiculous. Is this normal? Will she just start sleeping through the night one of these days? Thanks.

~natalie

[Tweakster]

Hi there, a couple of things.  When is the last time you increased her A time?  She could be ready for an increase and less day sleep.  She is actually getting a lot so might be wanting to party at night.  Also Tracy felt that the DF should be no later than 11 - perhaps you could move it back a bit so she's back down before 11?  It may be interfering with her sleep cycles in the latter part of the night.  Is she teething?  Do you suspect a growth spurt?  Finn had 2 night wakings until around that age. 

I would love to tell you she will just start sleeping through, but this first year there is just so much going on, teething, growth spurts, development, it's not a linear progress.  But it does get better :-)

[nataliebabich]

I will try to feed her earlier than 11; I always waited until after 11 thinking that she would sleep better but maybe it is messing things up.

Also she is teething, she just got her first tooth 3 days ago and I can see the one beside it is about the pop through, so maybe thats whats bugging her.

I will try to increase her awake time slowly, although today I increased it to 2 hours 15 minutes and she woke after sleeping 45 minutes, but I was able to get her back to sleep for another hour.

So do you think she needs to eat that often or maybe its something else.

[Tweakster]

Hi there, yes teething is a routine killer.  Are you offering pain meds or remedies to help her out?
Definitely increase A time slowly, if at all, while teething.  And yes continue to extend your naps if they are less than 1.5 hours.

I think it's a combination of things...so most often in cases like this we just try to keep routine as age-appropriate as possible and hang on to your hat hehe.  It's often a bumpy ride this first year.

[nataliebabich]

i think i will stop extended A time until her tooth comes through.  I extended it to 2 hours 10 minutes today and she had a meltdown. I gave her some teething relief stuff and I helped her fall asleep with some shushing and holding my hand on top of her tummy.
I think its the teething thats keeping her up. I can see the tooth under the skin, its just hasnt popped through. Poor baby.