My baby wakes ever hour through the night. Any advice?

[emmac1979]

Hi everyone

My 5 month old wakes every single hour through the night from bedtime (maybe goes 2 hours first of all) right through til 6 when he likes to wake up.

This has been going on for a long time. The only time he's really slept longer is when he's co slept with Dad and me out the room (we all co-sleep together now).  But that was a couple of months ago...

I started EASY to establish naps during the day and it was working well up until a couple of days ago but I'm trying to get day naps under control again.  I read that day naps helps night time sleep but this hasn't been my experience although day naps are so important for me getting him down at all in the evening.

I confess I've nursed to sleep from day 1 and I'm in the process of breaking this habit using Pantley's gentle removal (from no cry sleep solution) tried PUPD but prefer not to go through the screaming.  The last few nights I've only nursed back to sleep a handful of times (as opposed to every single time he wakes) so I'm moving in the right direction with this.  But even without nursing him back to sleep when he wakes he still wakes every single hour.  I shh and pat and lay beside him until he falls back asleep again but if he's really screaming I do nurse as it's the only thing that settles him.

I realise I need to work on not nursing him which I'm doing but is there any way to get him to sleep longer than an hour and not wake every hour?

It's really taking its toll on my health, emotional wellbeing, relationship, mood with baby.

Anybody been through this?

Like I said, it's been hourly wakeups for months.  He has occasionally surprised me by going 4 hours on the odd night. No idea why.

Thanks so much!

[beappleman]

My 5 month old does this a lot too. What is your current EASY?

[emmac1979]

Followed the guidelines for getting started 4-6 months old.

First nap is suggested at 8.35am following wake up at 7am but according to wake times for age, he should be awake 2 hours - 2 hours 15 before sleeping again?

[emmac1979]

well it's a bit all over the place..

yesterday

he woke at 6ish
I got us up at 6.30am
E:7am
A: 7-8.15
S: 8.15-9am then 9.05-10.50 <--- that is the longest nap he has EVER taken, not sure why...
Y
E:11
A:11-1.00
S: 1 - 1.45 <---- he usually always takes 45 min naps
Y
E:3
A:3-4.45
S:4.45-5.20
Y
E:6.40 then bed. usually put him down or try to at 7 but he was really fussing and hungry i think

day before was a total disaster - 2 cat naps of 45 mins, one at 9am one at 5pm - but i was out all day more fool me

not sure if his awake time is long enough if that's why he's only taking 45 mins naps which is why he's so underrested and waking every hour...

[emmac1979]

could this be why his first nap is usually only 45 mins?

just battled with him to get him back down again. probably should've jumped in prior to 45 min wake up but thought he might resettle... no such luck

[Ima shel Alon]

He sounds Ut to me and I think he is ready for some more A time. His first A time seems almost certainly too short and the rest of the day you'd say he is doing about 2h? I would try and increase it by 10-15min every 3-4 days. You'd need to be consistent, though, when increasing the A times and stick with them for those 4 days - that will prevent him from getting Ot and will give him enough time to get used to the new A time. If after 4 days you still get 45min naps then I would increase it again the same way.
But TBH, I don't think the problem at night has to do with his routine. My experience was that when DS was UT or the routine was off then sure, we had NW, sometimes really long ones, but not every single hour!
I do think that it's the co sleeping and the feeding to sleeping that is making it difficult. If you are doing the gentle removal plan then it's great, but just keep at it, because it does take time to work, like with anything else.
He is still waking up every hour at night even though you are not feeding anymore (or partly not feeding) because he has been used to that for so so long, so it will also take some time to get rid of this prop.
Hugs, hun, I know how hard it can be

[Ima shel Alon]

Just noticed you had another thread so I merged them together
At 5m the guidelines are 2-2.5 A time, but every baby is different so your LO can be somewhere in between there. If you start and offer 2h A times and then increase from there you should be able to find out his A time.

[emmac1979]

Thanks so much! Will try  extending the awake times. So scared of making him OT! Will keep plugging away with nw. last night he woke every hour after 1am but i only fed him once so progress!

[Brittanym526]

I am in the same boat with my 6 month old! I just discovered this website yesterday and I am just now trying to track EASY to sleep what our routine is. We co-sleep and bf too. I feel like my boob is out all night. She can fall asleep with it (which I think is a good sign?) but she wakes up about every 1.5 to 2 hours and I think she just associates boob=sleep.

[emmac1979]

yeah i think mine does too although he can fall asleep without it for naps if he fusses for a few minutes and i'm in a good window of time of him wanting to sleep.

night wakings are just ridiculous though. i was trying the gentle removal technique the past few nights but they've actually been horrendous! i got about 2 hours sleep last night (not in a row). he seems to wake up after 20mins sometimes.

I'm going to try again tonight to not offer him the boob every waking. I must be confusing the hell out of him. I get in to days of trying to break the prop and then backing down when i can't handle his crys... it's pretty awful.

[Ima shel Alon]

If you read Tracey's book, she says something very important there: "start as you mean to go on". If you are going to cave in then rather don't start at all. If you are going to let him cry and for a while and then give up because you can't bare it anymore then you just let him cry for nothing.
You are right, you *are* confusing him. I am not saying this in a judgmental way at all, believe me, I've been there myself. But you can't give in and confuse him and then still hope that things will improve or that NW will improve, you gotta put the work for that to happen.

[Erin M]

Just going to lock this one as emmac currently has a newer thread here: someone please, please help me. i don't know what i'm doing anymore!