Where to start ?? - 5 month old waking all the time

[mtperryatl]

Hi - my daughter is 5 months this week and we are having an extreme hard time with sleeping.  Right now she is waking every 2-3 hrs all night long.  Naps happen sometimes but often she gets so upset that I can't calm her - I've been trying to get her to nap 2 hours after wakeing. 

She starts out every night in the crib and then arounnd midnight/1AM - I move her to my bed simply so I can get some sleep - she sleeps next to me, wakes every 2-3 hrs, nurses, and goes back to sleep.

She has never really been on a good schedule - she is bf and I've always tried to feed her every 3 hours.  She is taking cereal twice a day now and has gotten very distracted when bf.

Until about 3.5 months, she was sleeping good at night.  Around then, I moved her into her crib from a rocker and that's when all the waking started.

She is a very Spirited baby and had issues with Reflux since birth.  The reflux appears to be calming down but she is still on medication for that.

The past 2 weeks she has had a cold and then an ear infection.  I thought the infection was getting worse (lots of crying and swatting at ear) so we went to the pedi yesterday - her ears are completely clear.  He really couldn't find anything else medically going on - her bottom teeth are there but don't appear to be coming through yet.

So - I ask - what do I do with this child - I know that she can sleep through the night - she slept 10 hrs every night at my mom's a couple weeks ago.  She is also a big baby - 17 lbs yesterday.

Here what I think I need to do - any suggestions / ideas would be great.

1) Establish a 4 hr EASY - use pu/pd for naps and nights consistently - keep her in her crib and cold turkey on the paci (she only really takes it right before she falls asleep)

2) Somehow get her to nurse better during the day - perhaps when she sleeps more at night, she'll be hungrier during the day.

3) Use a good long windown routine for naps - any ideas.  Her room is dark already.  I just have such a hard time getting her to calm at times.

We currently have a bedtime routine although it ends with nursing to sleep so I know that needs to change.  Right now, we go for a walk, have some cereal, take a bath, jammies, nurse, sleep (hopefully).  Often the walk gets omitted and cereal often doesnt happen either as she is too upset (overtired I think).

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Little Bear's Mum]

Hi Marie, I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination. But when I have 'issues' with my son who's 5 months, I look at when it went right, and try to replicate that. Do you remember what you did differently (if anything) at your mums? Was the awake time longer? More stimulating/less stimulating? Different bed? (I found when Daniel was 6wks old the mattress in his cot at home was too soft for him and he slept wonderfully on a firmer mattress at MIL's. I brought the mattress back with me! :lol: )

It does sound a bit like she's got used to the rocker to get her to sleep.

Also, do you 'tank her up' before bed? If she keeps feeding on a regular schedule thru the night maybe she's still hungry. Or is she feeding for comfort? Try timing her for the first feed, then give her a little bit less time the next feed, if she still wants more then she's probably hungry. If not, it could just be she wants your cuddles.

Just some ideas, hopefully some of the experts can pass on some more advice for you.

Oh finally, is her day awake time quite stimulating? I find the last 30mins at least has to be fairly low key. Otherwise it's harder to get Daniel to sleep. Also, when Daniel doesn't take a full feed (bf both sides) I struggle to get him down as he suddenly decides he's hungry. Even though if I tried to feed him before he saw his cot, he wouldn't take any. On Daniel's good days he feeds happily both sides 4 hourly.

Gotta go he's just woken up. Hope there's something useful there for you.