5 month old waking through night- could this be developmental?

[mrsfabmoretti]

Hi,

I've just been reading through some of the other posts, trying to find some advice on my 5mo, who has started waking 4-5 times through the night. I've noticed that there are lots of other posts about 5 mo babies and frequent night wakings- does anyone know if it is a developmental thing?

Keeping fingers crossed that it is, as we have gone from one waking for a feed, to lots! LO likes to lay awake and practice rolling and kicking in the middle of the night. Naps are fine, and getting longer, and he seems happy enough through the day. Wondering when my good sleeper will be returning!

xx

[jjgeorge]

My DD is also one of those 5 month old NWers...  Our NW problems go back at least a month, but for the first three months of her life she was an awesome night sleeper.  Now we are up 4 or 5 times a night!  At 5.5 months she is getting her 6th tooth.  Four happened in the last two weeks causing much of our NW misery for sure.

She is still swaddled - though I am trying to wean that at night right now (not fun  ) and she uses a paci when she sleeps.  Sometimes she will go back to sleep after a NW if I give her back the paci, but definitely not the majority of the time which makes me think that its not the paci's fault.

We have a video monitor and I can tell that she is trying to roll A LOT when she is trying to go to sleep at night.  All of her naps are on her side and she doesn't seem to try to roll then just at night. 

I was just over on the nap board because I was curious about the CN and it looks like that gets dropped somewhere around 6 months.  I'm wondering if my LO is getting too much daytime sleep.  A new phenomenon for us as naps have been a hard battle for us until the last month.  Now we take decent naps and nights have gone crazy.

I don't know the answer to your developmental question, but I agree there are a lot of 5 month old NW posts aren't there?  I would love to hear what anyone else has to say.  In the meantime I'm going to work on getting rid of our CN to see if that helps.

Jessica

[~*erin*~]

Sometimes she will go back to sleep after a NW if I give her back the paci, but definitely not the majority of the time which makes me think that its not the paci's fault.

i'm with you on this one ... having the exact same problem and feel like i'm losing a bit of my sanity!   hopefully this passes for both of us soon! best of luck!

[AngelaF]

I was coming on to post the same problem! My guy was such a great sleeper until the last week. Now he's waking at 3 for a feed (after a HUGE DF at 10:30) and then again at 5...he used to only wake at 5/6. 

Anyway, seems like there must be something bigger going on at 5 months. I'm going to try to extend his A time during the day and see if that helps our nighttime issues. Good luck!

[bumblemum]

Same problem! Although we've always had a few NW's so I think it's just a coincidence that my lo is 5 months.

A new phenomenon for us as naps have been a hard battle for us until the last month.

This made me laugh - I spent 2 weeks obsessing about 30 minute naps and now I'm obsessing about them running on too long and messing up night sleep. Does the obsessing ever end?!

I'd love to just chill out about enjoy the day but at the moment if someone asks me to go out for a coffee I just think the disruption will be too much! She might sleep in the car outside of nap time and then I worry about cutting the next nap or just letting her sleep.

Also a spot on EASY day doesn't always equal a good night - so maybe it's something else that I can't control. Yikes not good for me because I want to know I can do something to improve the nights.

And then there will be teeth.....!

[mrsfabmoretti]

Hi again,

To be honest, our EASY is a bit all over the place at the minute. Naps are getting longer, but still inconsistent. He usually has about an hour on a morning, sometimes two hours on the afternoon, and then a catnap. Some days we have four short naps. It is hard for me to post a typical day as I am back at work part-time, so my mum looks after the little fella. She does follow our routine really well, so not putting it down to that. Feeds are usually four-hourly (half six- half ten- half two- half six). He goes from 11pm DF through the night without a feed.

When he wakes, it is usually because he has rolled over, so I go in and just flip him back over. I have tried wedges and a sleep positioner, but he always manages to get over somehow! Between 2 and 3am, he'll usually be awake for an hour, kicking his feet and trying to roll. To be honest, I don't think we really use any props.

Not that I would wish the NW on anyone else, but it makes me feel better than I'm not the only one experiencing these problems. Please someone tell me that it will just fix itself. I'm sooo tired!

Hugs to everyone.

x

[mrsfabmoretti]

Meant to mention- we've also recently starting weaning. Wondering if this could be contributing to the NW. x

[jjgeorge]

Hi Jane,
It sounds like there are several of us here who could use some support!  Our EASY has been really good for several weeks and it just hasn’t equated to good nighttime sleep for us.  As I said in my first post getting four teeth in two weeks has not been good for NWings, but now that we are on our last one she doesn’t seem to be nearly as bothered.

I know at some point the paci will have to go, but as it is she sleeps most of the night without it ( I can see her on the monitor).  I know she wants it when she wakes up so again I know it has to go, but honestly at this point I don’t think I can deal with OT DD during the day in order to wean it on top of rough nights.  If we can get to a place where she will fall asleep when I give her the paci then I’ll get rid of it, but in the meantime she is obviously waking up for another reason.  She rarely falls asleep when I give it to her at night anymore…  The other prop issue is the swaddle.  I just spent the last two nights bedtimes trying her with one arm out and eventually she will fall asleep, but its an hour past bedtime at that point.  Then she is impossible to get back to sleep unless I feed her and or swaddle her again.  I’m expecting my “woombie” to be arriving in the mail tomorrow.  I’m hoping that will allow the added movement that she wants without allowing her to attack her face and pacifier.

She just rolled over from back to front for the first time this morning (yeah!!) and I know that she has been working on it at night too.  She is also a terribly distracted eater!  We have to sit in the dark to get anything done and even then it only takes her ten minutes to eat.  She is an efficient eater, but sometimes I know she isn’t eating all she could because she gets busy trying to look elsewhere.  I’ve been pumping and giving her a bottle to see if that helps and it hasn’t.  We also do solids three times a day.  I’ve messed around with those amounts (even getting rid of the last meal)and less doesn’t make her nurse more and larger quantities doesn’t help her sleep through the night!

Our EASY from yesterday looks like this:
E: 7:30 right after she woke up(normally we do start closer to 7, but I let us sleep in a bit…) after just eating at 4 she was hardly starving.
A: 7:40 – we are always low key in the morning because she does get tired faster in the a.m.
8:20/30ish – solids – usually oatmeal cereal and apples or pears (about two tbls total)
S: 9:30 – I’ve been working on increasing this first to 2:15 A time and today we did 2:30 and she is still sleeping after an hour
E: 11:30 (1.5 to 2hrs) of her two big naps this is the one that usually involves waking up completely at 45 minutes and needing me to put her pacifier back in.  OT probably…
A: 11:40 – about the same activity as a.m. A, but this A time I put her in her bouncy exercise play gym for a little while.
12:30 ish more solids – about two tbls
S: 1:45 again trying to get this closer to 2:30, but right now we are probably closer to 2:15 A time
E: 3:30 This is our best nap usually about 1:45 or 2 hrs
A: 3:40 if I have errands to run this is when I do them.  This is when most of her major stimulation for the day happens. ( I don’t have to work (outside the home I mean )so I have the luxury of working around her schedule)
S: 5:30 on days of really good earlier naps this nap is a fight, but I usually let her sleep for 45 minutes if she doesn’t wake up on her own at that time
A: 6:15
7:00 Bathtime/bedtime wind down
7:30 nurse and then bedtime about twenty minutes later (eyes open, but really sleepy)

The last week she has not fallen asleep when she normally does for bedtime.  Instead its taking an hour for her to fall asleep.  She isn’t really crying so I just leave her in there to fuss until she does start crying in which case I go in and flip her to her side and sh/pt.  The last two nights have been worse because of attempting to break the swaddle.

DF around 10pm I just started this up again a few nights ago as she was always waking at 11pm sure that she was famished. 
NW sometime between 12:30 and 1:30 – back to sleep with much shing/pttng then awake again 2:30-3:30 when I try to sh/pt and then eventually just feed her around3:30/4am.  She seems to take a full feeding.

It seems like I am up every night from midnight until I feed her again around 4am every 30 minutes to an hour.  Mommy is not getting very much sleep!!  Neither is DD I’m afraid.

So… that’s a ton of information, but if you have any thoughts I’d love to hear them.

Bottom line: I know the paci will have to go.  I’m also working towards increasing A times without getting OT at nap time in an effort to getting rid of the CN.  Should I just wake her up after a 20 minute CN instead of 45?

To all the other Momma’s who posted to this thread: good luck to us all!!!  We will get to sleep again when they go to University. 

Jessica

[AngelaF]

She just rolled over from back to front for the first time this morning (yeah!!) and I know that she has been working on it at night too.  She is also a terribly distracted eater!  We have to sit in the dark to get anything done and even then it only takes her ten minutes to eat.  She is an efficient eater, but sometimes I know she isn’t eating all she could because she gets busy trying to look elsewhere.  I’ve been pumping and giving her a bottle to see if that helps and it hasn’t.  We also do solids three times a day.  I’ve messed around with those amounts (even getting rid of the last meal)and less doesn’t make her nurse more and larger quantities doesn’t help her sleep through the night!

This is us EXACTLY! And when DS wakes at night, he acts like he's famished and eats a lot, so I know he's hungry. He just learned to roll too, and I remember reading that when they learn a new skill, it can disrupt their sleep.

It really does help to know we're not alone!

[jjgeorge]

You are so right!  I can't tell you how much it helps to know that I'm not the only one up scratching my head at night as to her current NW cause.

After all those early weeks spending half my day feeding her comfortably on the couch watching what I wanted on TV, its hard to believe I'm begging her for 10 minutes of good eating in the dark!!

[samsmam]

Another severely sleep deprived mum of a 5.5 month old here.  Interested to hear anyone's suggestions/solutions/outcomes over the coming few days/weeks.  Like everyone else on here, we had great night sleeper in the beginning but we struggled a bit with short daytime naps.  Now daytime naps have gotten much better (still some are shorter than I'd like) but night time has gone to pot!  What is it with the 5-6 month stage?  Will be keeping an eye on this one   Thanks all

[mrsfabmoretti]

Well, I am happy to say that the NW situation is improving (a bit). We've gone from 5-10 times a night, to 2-3 times. So there is some hope! Definately must be a 5-6 month thing, as my friend's 5 month old has just started doing exactly the same, and he is an angel baby who loves his sleep!