your help please, kinda long-weird sleep habit of 5 month old,

[mctlaw]

I know I could post on the 411 Board-but it doesn't seem to get much traffic, so here goes: My DS, 5 months tomorrow, in the past 6 weeks, has developed a sleep behavior that I have a hard time dealing with. I put him down for the night between 6:30 and 7:30, sometimes he falls asleep during the last feeding, sometimes I put him down awake (we have been following the Weissbluth HSH, HC method and there is usually some minimal crying or chatter for a while, but no major problem there). However, 45 minutes to 1 hour into sleep, he suddenly begins screaming frantically.

When this first began, I immediately began responding to him. The only thing that would calm him down was to nurse him to sleep, and then he would be down for the rest of the night, usually. However, the more I did this, it seemed the more he started waking, so that he started doing this practically every night. Then he began waking more throughout the night. So, we made the decision that we would try allowing him to cry. We have been doing this for about the past 10 days and he usually falls back to sleep abruptly after 10-15 minutes of crying (and I mean, the blood-curdling stuff the whole time). If not, I go up and nurse him to sleep (my crying threshold for the time being is 20 min. at the advice of my ped.) My parents were visiting this last week and we went to dinner, DS did his thing and it took my mom 1 1/2 hours to get him back to sleep.

It seems like he is not waking as frequently since we started CIO for this, but it is still happening 2-3 times a week, and it is really hard to take. I don't mind CIO so long as it doesn't take long to work, but I'm not sure how much longer I can endure this. I have searched the Weissbluth book and Web and haven't found any explanation for this behavior. Has this ever happened to anyone else, and if so, or even not, any advise/tips are welcome. Thanks so much.

[jenjenfirenjen]

I have not had this happen and I'm not sure what is causing it, but I think that he is too young to be doing it deliberately. In other words, I don't think that you going in to nurse him is the reason he seemed to be waking more often. If that's what works to get him back to sleep, I would do it. Especially since it sounds like he's doing it relatively early in the evening when you're not having to get out of bed or anything. If you don't want to do that, could you try having DH go in and comfort him?

It could just be that he is going through some developmental leaps right now (learning to sit or crawl) or teething and he may just need a little extra soothing to sleep. I assure you it will not last. If nursing him gets him back to sleep without tears, I would do it. I'm pretty sure you're not starting a habit you can't break. FWIW, I never stopped nursing DS1 when he woke in the middle of the night. He eventually just stopped waking.

[matthewsmom]

I read your post and I just wanted to let you know that my DD went through it also. My DS went through it also. It was quite strange. At the end of each night, a lot of times he would wake up crying exactly after 45 minutes (one sleep cycle). I found that going in didn't really help. Eventually it just phased itself out. She still does it sometimes and she's about 6 months old. I found that when I put her down later (her bedtime is now b/w 8-9pm) it doesn't happen as often. I don't know if she was mistaking the 6pm nighttime as nap. So now I give her latest nap at 6pm and she usually naps for about 45 mintues. Then her bedtime is 9pm when that happens. I hope this helps you. But wanted to let you know that both of my DD and DS went through it.

[newbelly2002]

Could it be a reflux episode? One of my twins has been doing the same thing (4.5 months) for the past few weeks. At first I thought it was teething, but now am thinking it might be reflux related. I hope you can clear it up soon for both of your sakes.

Paula
Mama to Dante, 8/02
And 2 sweet peas in an April pod

[cbm]

It sounds like reflux. At least that is one possibility you may want to explore. One thing that may help is to wait about thirty minutes before putting him in bed after the last feeding. You should keep him in an upright position.
I am not sure what you mean by "crying frantically", does it sound like pain? Does he sound scared? In either case I wouldn't leave him alone to scream. There are other ways you can comfort him without nursing. Alternative ways may cause some crying at first, since he will be expecting nursing, but he'll get used to it. Yes, there may be somewhat of a habit in his pattern, but I would explore all other possibilities as well.
I empathize about how hard it is to deal with it, especially when you are tired and sleep deprived. Call the pediatrician, he/she should be able to help you with this problem and put your mind at ease.
Here is a website with info on reflux: www.reflux.org
Look at the symptoms and see if it sounds like your child is having any of them.

Claudia
DS 12/18/04

[mctlaw]

This sounds exactly the same, if I am able to put him down later at night depending upon when the last nap was taken, he is less likely to wake, though he still does on occasion.

Too bad this is still going on for you...hopefully it is less often for you at least.

I am just grateful to know there are others out there-none of my friends and family thought it sounded normal, and I couldn't find anything out there.

[mctlaw]

DS DOES have reflux, so that is possible. However, he rarely has spit up episodes once he is down for the night, so I was thinking that was not the problem. Also, this behavior started much later than the reflux problems had reared their head originally.

It's hard to describe the crying, but to be a little more detailed, what happens is that he is still and silent one moment, and then the next is screaming at the top of his lungs; in other words there is no normal wake-up stage as with a regular waking where he would otherwise coo or fuss quietly before any crying. When I go in to him, it is almost as if he is not awake-his eyes are usually shut, and he does not really acknowledge me until he is on the breast-at which point he will suck frantically for a few minutes before returning to sleep.

To clarify my OP-I don't think this behavior is at all purposeful-my concern is rather that my efforts will ultimately hinder his ability to self-soothe from this wakening and make the problem worse. It's not really inconvenient for me-it usually is still rather early at night-I just feel bad for him.

[cbm]

He doesn't have to spit up in order to have acid reflux.
I think you should talk to your pediatrician about it.

As far as hindering the ability of self soothing, it may. That is why I suggested you find a way other than nursing to comfort him.
Of course you feel bad for him. I hope you don't think I was implying otherwise.

Claudia
DS 12/18/04

[mctlaw]

Not at all, to answer your concern...actually, I was referencing another PP who said the behavior couldn't be deliberate (and I agree).
Thanks for your suggestion-reflux was not something I had thought of as a possibility, so I will tell the Ped. about it to see what she thinks.

[kbudsberg]

It sounds a lot like reflux to me. My dd slept the worst from about 5 mos to 11 months due to reflux. Sometimes I might hear a slight cough and then screaming but it would be quiet and then screaming. Crying it out usually makes the reflux worse. My dd had to sleep in her carseat the reflux was so bad. She is now 2 1/2 and still has it. In fact I was up w/her last night w/an episode. She rarely spit up. She swallowed it back down. It's called silent reflux and gets missed often. It helped us to make a night log. I put every waking down w/how long she was up, how she woke up, and any physical observations. After doing this I realized her longest avg. sleep span was 1 1/2 hours. Try not to put him down until 30 minutes after eating. You can try elevating the head of his crib. I would talk about it w/your ped. There are meds that can help. Also check out reflux.org like pp mentioned. It's a wonderful site that help me tremendously!! Good luck, sleep problems are very difficult.

Kim and Emma 1/14/04