5 months wakes up many times per night

[simba]

Hi! My DS is almost 5 months and still wakes up many times per night. For example last night (whioch was particulary bad) he went to bed at 8:30 and woke up at 12AM (no food, DH soothed him), 1:30AM, 3:30AM and 6:15AM!
I know I could do many things other than BF him (CIO, soothing w/out BF, I am also reading Weissbluth, etc.), but honestly I am so tired at that point that BF is the easiest thing for me to do, as it is fairly quick. No matter how determined I am during the day, I honestly lack the willpower to do anyhting else than BF at night.
The good thing is that I have the napping business down, it's pretty much stable! I learned how to look for sleep signs and am able to have him sleep +/- 1 hr three times per day.
I am not really looking for advice, I am just sharing my discouragement and exhaustion. And of course I have friends whose babies sleep 8 or even 12 hrs per night at the same age!
If you are in the same situation, please share it with me....or if you were and it did get better....I am so tired I am losing my mind....

Thanks!

Silvana
Mom of luca
May 30th, 2004

PS: Could my one Coke a day + my significant intake of chocolate milk be the culprit (I don't drink coffee though)?

[Chelsey333]

I have a 5 mos. old also, and I have one coke a day and am breastfeeding and I have a coffee in the morning. But my little guy is an awesome sleeper. My ds sleeps from 7:30/8pm to about 6:30/7 am without waking up and he takes 2 long naps during the day - I just got lucky. Hang in there, it will get better. Have you tried giving an extra feeding during the day? I know what you mean, about wanting to nurse bec you know it is quick and effective. It is so hard when you are tired and will do anything for sleep. I hope it gets better for you soon.

[hellosmiletoday]

My 5 mo goes to sleep easily, but also wakes up alot. She falls asleep around 8:30 pm, then wakes up between 11pm-1am, then again 4-5am, then at 7-8 (she wakes up permenantly about 8:30 am). She also naps 2-3 times. One ped. at the group practice said she should be sleeping 8 hrs and to give her water...but she doesn't want water...she wants MILK...so we gave up that b/c BF is the easiest thing to do in the middle of the night. The other ped (older, with children himself) said not to worry ... that his kids didnt sleep through night until 8 mo or so.

Personally I think DD actually needs milk on many of those occasions, as I have found that when I am slightly engorged (if DD nursed from only one side during a previous nursing session), she tends to sleep longer, on occasion even 5 hrs straight. I have a small cup size, and I read somewhere that that can affect the quantity of milk she receives per nursing session. We've tried bottle feeding EBM, but she tends to drink *less* than with nursing.

Oh...and I do not drink soda nor coffee, only chocolate cookies just about daily...its my post-partum crave.

Mommy to baby girl 5.8.04

[missmelis01]

My best friend has a 6 month old who was doing the same thing as your DS. She is a nurse, and it got to the point that she could barely make it through an entire shift. At her DD's 6 month appt, the ped told my friend to throw out the monitors in the house and let her DD cry it out.

My friend and her DH came up with Operation Sleep, gave themselves 1 week to mentally prepare and then let their DD cry it out. My friend said it was heartbreaking, but after 2 nights, her DD started sleeping through the night and has been ever since (2 weeks now).

I obviously don't know how you feel about such a technique, but I wanted you know that there are other Moms and babes going through the same thing as you.

Hang in there.

[Timmersmom]

You really have my sympathy! It is kind of annoying to always get that question "so is your baby sleeping through the night yet?" All they need to do is look at the circles under your eyes :)

My DD is almost 4 months and has nights like the one you described. Sometimes I'm only up once a night, but I never know from one night to the next what it'll be like.

I try to take heart in the fact that my son started sleeping through the night at 4 1/2 months, and he just did it on his own naturally. When I look back at journals I kept, I can see that just a few weeks before he started sleeping through, he was still getting up at 1am and 4am for feeds.

One of the things that worked for me with my son was to wake him up before I went to bed for a "dreamfeed", which I'm sure you've heard of. He ate, but he was still asleep, and I did this until he was a year old. I think that really helped.

I don't know what will happen with my DD, but if she is not sleeping through by 6 months, I will be taking active steps to make it happen. I guess I'll be slogging through my days until then.

Good luck, I know what you are going through. And you are not the only one. Keep going. . .you are doing great!

Elizabeth

Timothy 3/11/02
Caroline 6/25/04

[janandmike30]

We are also in the same boat. Troy is just about 5 months old. He usually falls asleep around 8:30 PM. I will usually nurse him around 11pm before I go to sleep. (I didn't know that there was a word for it - dreamfeed).

Troy will stir about twice per night after that. In the beginning I woud run in and nurse him becase I was afraid he would really wake up and wake hubby. Then, I noticed that sometimes he was crying with his eyes closed. I decided when his eyes are closed he gets the pacifier, and he will fall off to sleep right away. Now, he doesn't feed at all between 11pm and 6:30am.

I am still afraid to cut out the 11 pm feeding or eliminate the pacifier for night whining, but they will be goals to work on. Good Luck!

Janet
Mom of Troy
5/31/04

[mullerck]

I also sympathize...My 5 mo DD has been waking a LOT more in the last 2 weeks. She used to sleep 2 six hour sessions, with 3 or 4 one hour naps a day. She is now waking every few hours, mostly for gas-related issues (ie. to pass gas or burp). I am hoping this is transient while we are beginning the solid-food phase, but am not sure. I may try more CIO, but I feel bad if she needs a burp...
And I agree it is difficult when we compare our situation with parents who happily get 8-12 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Like you, I also subscribe to Dr. Wiessbluth's philosophy of sleeping, and find that the more DD sleeps (especially if I soothe at first sign of sleepiness), the more happy and predictable she is during the day. But I am mystified (and frustrated) by the night waking.
I wish I had a suggestion, espeically since I am returning to work tomorrow for the first time since DD was born. In the meantime, at least we're in the same boat...
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily....? I'm so tired I can't remember the rest of the song. LOL

http://lilypie.com/baby1/050522/2/13/0/-8/.png

[sntm]

Your baby is more the norm than the babies who sleep 8-12 hours! And remember that a lot of those babies who were made to CIO ARE waking up, they just aren't calling out to mom and dad, so don't worry about your baby losing sleep, especially if you get him back to sleep with nursing.

If nursing back to sleep works, why give it up? It works best for you and for DS. You could try a dreamfeed before you go to sleep to maximize the stretch. Just take care of yourself (nap if you can, consider crib in your room or cosleeping if you aren't already to minimize how much you wake up to nurse him, send DH to bring your DS to you...)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_gold_12m.gif[/img][/url]
Breastfeeding 16 months and counting

[westchicagomom]

I can understand your frustration if you are having to get out of bed to nurse several times a night. We never intended to co-sleep but ended up doing so at around 3 months or so because night-time nursing was sooooooo much easier that way. At 5 months, DD did still woke up a few times a night and I agree w/ Shannon that is probably much more the norm.

W/ my dd, she gradually started waking up less thru the night and then all of a sudden around 8 months or so, started sleeping through the night.

Sleeping does get worse when they are teething and when they are learning something new it seems. Regarding the latter, when she was 6 months or so old, she would wake up in the middle of the night and practice her pre-crawling moves - it would have been quite amusing if it weren't 3am.

Good luck - I hope things get better sooner rather than later....

[hellosmiletoday]

DD practices rolling over (to her belly!!!) and "talking" in the middle of the night.

Mommy to baby girl 5.8.04

[JustMare]

DS is almost 9 months old and goes to sleep 10pm every night, wakes at 2:30am, 4:30am, 7:30am stays up watches Sesame Street has breakfast then naps from 9:30am to 11:30am with a nice 3 hour nap in the late afternoon.

I thought for sure he'd be sleeping through the night by this age, but he still has no teeth. We are using the teeth as an excuse. When a tooth pops up and he's still not sleeping through the night, I might pull my hair out!!!

I've spoken to many people about sleeping patterns and in the end, they will sleep when they are ready.

DH and I could NEVER let him CIO. We just don't have the willpower for that.

[eb1]

Just wanted you to know I empathize! My 7-month-old wakes up at least once per night (and nurses), which isn't too bad, but he has nights where he wakes up three or more times and then gets up extra early to boot. He was nursing twice per night until he was six months. I am so tired and crazy-desperate for a full night's sleep that I've been considering putting him in bed, leaving DH with the monitor, and going to spend the night somewhere else. (I could never do this.) But I wonder if I night-weaned him if the night wakings would stop?

I doubt your caffeine intake is the culprit, but some babies are more sensitive to caffeine than others. You could try a week without and see if it makes any difference. It didn't, in my case.