5 month old never slept more that 3 hours

[angelina'smum]

My daughter, Angelina, is just under 5 months old.  She is a croos between a touch and spirited baby.  I was reading her night waking always as a hunger cue so I nursed her.  I was at my wits end of getting up every 2.5 hours to feed & then she would thrash around when i put her back to bed so it tokk another 15 min to get her to sleep after the feeding. 
I called my pediatrician & she said stop all but one feeding. I also bought the Secrets of the Baby whisperer book. I have reduced her to 1 feeding but now she is waking after 2.5 hours for first wake up then every 45 min to hour.  She is screaming & it takes multiple attempts of sh, sh, sh and patting to get her to stay calm for more than 1 min. 

My husband trys to help but he can't even getter to calm for 1 minute without picking her up to comfort her. 

She may be starting to teeth I am not sure.  She only sucks on hands but she always does that.

Anybody have any suggestions for me,  I need sleep

[Katet]

How does she fall asleep for night & naps
What is her day routine like?
That might help me see if there is another reason.

Also How long is it since you dropped the night feeds (it took me at least 4 nights for the wakings to stop & I only ever dropped one at time).
Also if you are bf it is going to take a while for your supply in the day to balance out if she has been feeding lots at night. So you might get over a week of unsettled nights... it might be an idea to only drop one night feed at a time, every week for how ever many weeks at a time.

[angelina'smum]

she usually fusses a little for the initial night bed time and naps vary sometimes she goes right to sleep without a peep and some times she fusses a little.  I give her a pacifier and pat her butt for a minute or two and usually she stops thrashing and falls asleep.  sometimes she starts fussing again after 5 to 10 minutes. 

Last night she was back to the waking every 2.5 to 3 hours.

day routine:
she wakes at different times depending on how long she sleeps between wakings.  usually she wakes around 8:30-9am.  I breastfeed her then we play for about 1 hour,  she then gets cereal and vegetables,  about 1 tablespoon of each. We then play for another 30 min by then she is starting to get tired and I put her down for nap,  that lasts 45 min to 1 hour,   the cycle continues through the day until about 6:30 when I give her cereal and breast feed,  I then get her ready for bed and breast feed again around 8:30.  I then put her to bed.
I tried a dream feed but she will not start nursing while she is asleep.
She is usually in bed by 9pm  and wakes up between 11:30 and midnight and the cycle starts again.   

I first cut down on the number of minutes she nursed at easch night feeding.  when I got down to 3 minutes.  I dropped all but the middle of the night around 2:30 am feeding

I just can't figure out why she always wakes up after 3 hours.

[Katet]

If I'm reading correctly, she uses a pacifier to go to sleep?
Then I think that is the problem, she wakes because she needs to be sucking it if she "wakes up too much in a light sleep phase"

Looking at your routine that looks ok, but the 45min naps could also be the cause (possibly paci related too)

I think you may have to look at whether the paci has become a prop & if not extending the day feeds to 4hourly & working on extending the naps out to 1.5 -2 hours... she should be able to have an awake time of 2-2.5 hours sleep at this age. my ds (5mo last week) might do 1x2.5 & the rest 2 hour awake times a day if he gets good naps - also gets a good night sleep. On the days when my 2yo's activities mess it up he naps shorter & then awake shorter & bad cycle & this can sometimes result in him waking at night

Feeding/hunger is not always the cause of waking & it sounds like either the day routine or the paci might be the cause in your dd case.

[angelina'smum]

I think you ar right about the paci, last night was another rough night,  bed at 8:15 slept till 11:45 woke at 1:10 woke at 2:09 woke at 3:10 when I bf, woke at 5:10 was up until bf at 5:45, and wke for day at 8:45 fussy.   the 11:45, 1 and 2am wakings all I had to do is give her the paci and she went right back to sleep.

I started actually writing times down to see if I can track why some nights she wakes more. 

I just put her down for a nap at 10:35,  I tried after 5 min to take paci away she fussed so I waited another few minutes tried again this time she let me take it,  then at 10:55 she woke up again wanting the paci.  I am going to try again to seeif I can get her to nap with out it if not I will try again at next nap. 

I think she was so used to nursing herself to sleep that she thinks she has to suck to go to sleep.

Thank you for your advice I will let you know how things are going

[angelina'smum]

Things are finally starting to get better.  Last night she only woke up twice.   She went to bed at 7:45 woke at 1am & at 5am.  She got up at 7:30 am. 

On tuesday night she kept trying to roll on her stomach.  I kept rolling her back onto her back.  This made her very mad & she wouldn't go to sleep for atleast 20 minutes then sleep for 30 min and wake again.  I needed some sleep so my friend took her wednesday night.  She said she slept almost the whole night.  Bed at 7:45 woke at 2:0 then slept until 6 am.  She said she slept on her stomach.

I was weary about letting her sleep on her stomach because of all the SIDS scares.  I called the doctor and she told me to let her sleep on her stomach.  nights have been much more peaceful since then.

Thank you for all your advice.

ps.  She also sleeps without the paci.

[Beata]

Hi ladies - hmmm...It's dawning on me that dd has a paci addiction. Guess I will start trying to cut it out TODAY  :roll: Ob boy... I am ready to sleep though, so PLEASE let this be the cure  :shock: I think we will go cold turkey. I have more patience for pick up put down than for the gental removal plan. Any other suggestions?

Update soon!