My 5 month old wakes up lots during the night

[tiny]

Hi I could really do with some help! My beautiful baby girl E is waking up repeatedly during the night and I am exhaused! She has never been what you'd call a good sleeper but I felt like we were getting somewhere recently when she would have her dream feed and then wake at 3 and then 5:30. Now she is waking hourly at least!
E's routine looks like this:

6:30   milk
8        nap  (1.5 - 2 hours)
10:30   milk
12:00 cat nap (usually in buggy)
2:30   milk
3:00   nap (1 hour)
6:30   milk
7        bath and quiet time in bedroom
7:30   bed
11      dream feed

I put E in her cot awake with a comfort blanket and a dummy and she usually manages to go off to sleep althogh i have to pop the dummy back in sometimes. I now don't put the dummy back in when she wakes in the night as she was becoming dependent on it so I use sshh pat and PU/PD to get her back to sleep.
She rarely seems hungry in the night.

Ant ideas would be welcomed!

[Layla]

Hi there & welcome to the boards!!!

Looking at your schedule, I would say that the naps (or should I say timing of) is whats causing the night wakings.
At 5 months, she should be able to stay awake for 2-2.25hrs so you want to aim for something like this:

6:30 - wake & feed
8:30 - morning nap (1.5-2hrs)
10:30 - wake & feed
12.30ish - afternoon nap (1.5-2hrs)
2:30 - wake & milk
4:30-5pm - catnap (45mins)
6.30 - milk
7pm - bedtime
11pm - DF
Possibly another feed in the early hours of the morning (4 or 5am)

The night wakings I believe are because her afternoon nap is too short, so the catnap is in the late afternoon rather than early evening & she is then awake for 3.5hrs before bedtime. Thats the av A times for an 8mo so I would think she is extremely tired by bedtime.

How does she fall asleep for naps? Are you able to stay at home for the afternoon nap to work on it & try to extend it beyond 40mins?

The schedule is the ideal for a 5mo but naps don't have to be as long as 2hrs. But it would be more ideal for the afternoon nap to be longer so if you wanted to, you could mess around with the nap length & maybe wake her from the morning nap 1.5hrs later so that she is more tired come afternoon & might sleep longer as well. The catnap is a freebie so can be taken in the stroller/buggy/sling/car. That was the 1 nap I didn't really care much about (in regards to being in a cot) so if I had to run errands, I would wait for the evening.

See how you go with that & let me know if you have any q's

Layla

[tiny]

Thanks for the advice, I think I could definitely adjust some of her naps and make sure she gets a late pm cat nap. It may be a bit of a struggle to make sure she gets the long afternoon nap at 12:30 because we usually go out straight after the 10:30 feed, but I could give it a go.
Edie goes down quite well for naps if I make sure I get her there at the right time (ie not too early or when she's overtired) but she will fuss about with her dummy. As she gets older I think she realises that I come if she spits it out and cries. Should I scrap it altogether and and re-teach her how to fall asleep without it? it feels a bit harsh because it really comforts her but I can't keep putting it back in all the time.
When Edie was little she slept really erraticly during the day and never for more than 30-40 mins so I'm worried that if I take the dummy away she will stop having good naps and that will make her nights even worse.

[Layla]

Well if you are having to pop it back in for her to actually fall alseep then I think its a prop & I would rather take it away now than later. The naps might be out of sorts but it shouldn't take you any more than 2 weeks to get her back on track (or at least see improvements). You can wait until she is putting it herself but... its really up to you. I was there and at 4 months I was running in and out of her room plugging the dummy so I took it away and started sleep training her with shh/pat. 2 weeks later, I would lay her down, she would talk to herslef, play with her hands, move her head from side to side and then fall asleep. Personally it was the best thing I did!

She If you are going to sleep train her, I would look at the props forum to get some support (there are plenty others that are doing it as well). If she's not responding to shh/pat anymore, you might consider pu/pd to sleep train.

hth
Layla

[tiny]

Hi again, just to say i've been trying really hard to be more consistent with E's naps and she is going to sleep more often without her dummy. She really varies with her naps and the afternoon nap and cat nap can often be very short but i'll keep trying to extend them.
E is still waking mostly every hour in the night but is sometimes just fussing around for 10 mins then going back to sleep so I don't always have to go in to her which is a bit of an improvement. She has just learnt to roll over this week and keeps getting stranded on her tummy which also makes her call out.
I'm going back to work 2 days a week from next week and am really worried as I'm never getting more than 4 - 5 hours sleep a night and in small chunks. She has also started waking throughout the evening which is new as she always used to go straight through to her dream feed. I feel like I'm trying so hard to keep her o a good schedule but nothing is making a difference at the moment. xxx

[Layla]

Hang in there! Putting herself back to sleep sometimes at night is a great improvement & she will learn to do thatfor naps as well. If she's ahving a short nap & you can't extend it, bump up the rest of the day so that she doesn't get overtired.

[tiny]

Hi, just wanted to say E is doing better at night and i'm having to go in to her much less although she is still crying out quite often. She has come down with a horrid cold this week so we have gone back to 3 - 4 wake ups between 12am and 5.30 (which is usually when she seems to fully wake up). Still can't extend pm naps so she is going to bed at 7 rather than 7.30 which will hopefully help.

[Layla]

I hope she is feeling better soon. Thanks for the update