Increased NW's in 5 mo. old!! Is sleep training going to help?

[nolansmommy]

I am reading through the newest threads and there seem to be many posts by mommies of 4 - 6 mo. olds.  My almost 5 mo. old has been increasing his NW's to 7 times a night within the last week.  I have NO idea why.  Nothing in our routine has changed.  In fact, I am very good about consistency in his schedule.  We are on a 4 hour EASY waking at 7 am and bed at 7-7:30 pm.  He is breastfed and average weight.  Could this just be developmental?  I wanted to start pu/pd but I have a few concerns...1.)reading posters that have been doing it for over 2 weeks with no results, 2.)it's 90% my responsibility to put him to sleep and I don't think I have the stamina to commit if there are no results, 3.) If this is a developmental phase and it is going to continue regardless of the sleep training I would rather wait until after 6 mo.  Any advice out there? 

[brenda2]

how does he fall asleep?  on his own, with a paci, rocking?  what do you do when he wakes at night? how do you get him back to sleep?

also, pu/pd is a last resort, you should try comforting in the crib and shhh pat first.  i've found that the shhh pat works better than the pu/pd anyway with my 5 m.o.

[claires mum]

It could be developmental ...any teething/starting to move around a lot in the cot at night???  My LO started waking up a lot due to movement .. so I started to re-swaddle.  This eliminated a lot of the NWs.  If it's teething...then he's in pain and will need pain relief/comfort to go back to sleep. 

It could also be a sign of being OT..particularly if the NWs are random and becoming more frequent. It sounds like your routine is working well.. but do you want to post your schedule just in case there might be some tweaking required?

Claire's Mum

[LucyA]

It may be caused by his age/developmental, but that's not to say sleep training won't help.
Usually, if there are no results after a couple of weeks of pu/pd you find that it's not being done consistently, eg using pu/pd at the start of the night but in the middle of the night giving up and feeding to sleep or whatever. If done consistently it is pretty unusual not to see improvement fairly quickly.

[nolansmommy]

His routine:
7am  wake and BF
8am  cereal
8:30am activity
9am  wind down and nap (1 hr to 2 hrs)
11 am wake and BF
11:45 activity
1 pm wind down and nap (1 hr to 2 hrs)
3pm wake and BF
3:45 activity
5pm sometimes a catnap if earlier naps were short
5:45pm partial BF (for some reason he likes a little appetizer before cereal!)
6pm cereal
6:30 pm activity including bathtime
7:15pm 6 oz bottle
7:30 - 7:45 pm sleep

Unfortunately during the day I rock to sleep for his naps.  He just needs SO much help going to sleep and has since birth. He DOES NOT take a paci and never has.  i've tried sh/pat since he was born as well and it isn't as charming with him as other babies on this site!    Sometimes shhing works and sometimes just a hand on the back but you never know until you go in to tend to him.  He will always cry (fuss turn to cry) if I put him in the crib sleepy.  At night you can see I put him to bed by feeding.  I am thinking about changing that because some of his early wakings are gas/digestion.  I feel like giving him a full hour after he eats might combat that problem.   When he wakes at night I try to shh/pat.  His fussiness almost always turns into cry and leg kicking in his crib.  That is when I pick him up and rock him back to sleep.  He usually fusses on my shoulder and it turns to mantra cry and then sleep.   I can't do pu/pd right now because I work part time while taking care of him so I feel like I need to take a week off to concentrate on sleep training.  We are also going on vacation in 2 weeks so I don't want to start something and then have to abandon it b/c of a weird routine. 

I don't think it's OT because he has had early NW when he's had all his naps and a catnap.  It might be movement.  He is starting to get the hang of rolling over and we are working on sitting up but he hasn't done it in his crib by himself yet.  I hadn't thought of re-swaddling because I was so happy to pack those things away finally.  It might be an option but we went to tummy sleeping and when we did that (3 mo) he slept a million times better.  Who knows if its teething. I don't see any buds yet and he doesn't cry during the day so I assume he isn't in pain. 

Last night was actually much better.  Only 4 wakings.  (2) were food and (1) was gas and I gave him mylicon and the other was spit up and he was laying in it.  He also proved to me last night that he might be able to go with only 1 overnight feeding instead of 2.  He fell asleep during one of his feedings and then continued to sleep another 3 hours. 

Anyway, I guess I am looking for the magical answer and I don't think it's out there.  I do know that I do A LOT of accidental parenting when it comes to his sleep because he has never been a great sleeper and mama needed to get some rest during these first 5 months.  I will tackle pu/pd after vacation to see if that will help the accidental parenting that I have caused!   

[LucyA]

I think the 'magical answer' is doing some sleep training and getting him sleeping more independently. Your routine looks pretty good.  Bear in mind he may be ready to start stretching his A times a little longer soon.

My DS started waking more at night at around 4-5 months, possibly just because as they continue to get more mature and alert they can fight sleep more. We did pu/pd and things improved considerably.

I think you are right to just roll with it until you get back from vacation and tackle it then. Let us know if you need help when you're ready to get started.