5 mo waking every 20 - 60 min all night. help!

[~Sara~]

Brenda, so happy that the past few nights have been better for you.  Here's hoping you'll have a great night

[Lori0508]

Yay Brenda!!  Hope it continues.  Please send those good sleeping vibes my way please!  Our nights are still crazy

[brenda2]

spoke too soon...last night was terrible again.  i think the messed up naps caused the bad night. 

sleepy vibes sleepy vibes...

guess i'll keep trying to get naps back on track.

[JAY3]

Big hugs You will get back on track 

Keep us posted

[mmeears]

Hi Brenda, and everyone else who is having night wakings - it is absolutely hell I know!! We have been having lots of night wakings on and off now for about 4/5 weeks. DS is just over 20 weeks old and has never slept particularly well although the early weeks were heaven compared to now   The last 2 nights I have been up every 60/90 minutes and it is killing me

We've had numerous issues which i've blamed for the NWs - the dummy, which we successfully weaned him off, possible low milk supply, short naps, illness and possible teething... we've sorted out the dummy (I think - as HV told me to give him back to him due to SIDS but actually he's not as keen on it as he once was) he has recovered from his illness and the naps are back on track. I've started to address the milk issue today but will keep the 7oz formula DF for now until I've built up enough to give EBM then. I've also started baby rice today as I wondered whether hunger was an issue and he absolutely loved it so I am going to give him a little bit more shortly (still keeping BF as main calorie source though).

I dont think the naps or OT is the issue as he can have up to 5 hours sleep a day and then have 3/4 a day and it makes absolutely no difference to his night time. I have fed him once or twice in the night but not every time as I dont believe it is always hunger that is waking him? Like you Brenda I feel as though he is waking and doesn't know how to get himself back to sleep. I will shhh/pat him or rub his back if he turns onto his side (he has just learned to roll over) but sometimes I feel as though this just annoys him and it winds him up when I touch him! And is he now becoming reliant upon having his back rubbed to send him to sleep - how can he learn to do it by himself???

Funnily enough, when I got my DD home from school I took him up for his nap. He didn't settle and cried the minute I laid him down but I had to come out of the room as my DD isn't well and needed me. I could hear him crying (not hysterically though) but I couldn't go straight back in and within 4/5 minutes he'd gone to sleep. After 45 minutes he woke up crying and when I went in to shhh/pat him he became even more agitated. I came out of the room and came downstairs and within 4 minutes he'd gone back to sleep. So, do I leave him for 4/5 minutes at night before I go in?? Have never left him to cry before but having tried everything else I'm not sure what else to do!

How have things gone for you today Brenda? I'll be thinking of you tonight hun when I'm stood at the side of his cot at 2am, 3am....!!! Big hugs.

Michelle.

[brenda2]

hi michelle
i think it is getting better for us.  i say think because we will have a couple of good nights, then a terrible night and then an ok night.  but i think we are getting there.  she hasn't woken up every hour for over a week but we have had nws, just not as bad.

i started letting her fuss and even mantra cry a little more than i was and i think this made a big difference.  i still went in if she was really crying hard but then i would leave again once she was calm - sort of walk in walk out.  also i think her rolling better has helped.  she is a side sleeper and in her sleep would roll onto her back and not be able to get back onto her side so she would cry for me to do it.  now she can do it herself - i have watched her on the video monitor wake up, cry out, then start sucking her thumb, roll onto her side and go back to sleep.

i would let him fuss and mantra cry for sure and see if he can calm himself down, this will help your nws.

yesterday and today we have had way better naps.  actually saturday was good too, so 3 out of the last 4 days we have had good naps - like 2 long ones and a catnap.  so that is huge progress for us.  i think it helps the nights, i think part of her wakings were ot related.  so last night after a good day of naps she woke at 12, resettled easily, 1 and i fed her and 3:30 and based on what happened the previous night (crying and not settling for a long time and finally falling asleep only to wake 30 min later and me feeding her) i fed her and she slept until 6:15.  so maybe she is also having the gs and only 1 night feed wasn't enough for her right now.

anyway, if the good naps continue i think the good nights will follow.  fingers crossed and good luck to you too!

[Lori0508]

oh Brenda, I'm going to have to try that...DS was up every hour last night.  He sleeps on his side, half swaddled in a positioner.  Every hour he was waking up and crying and we'd go in there and he's on his back unswaddled.  I feel torn waht to do about that...let him fuss and learn to sleep on his own?  Keep rolling him over?  Help!!!

[brenda2]

might be time to wean the swaddle.  if he keeps getting himself out of it that easily but needs to be wrapped to sleep then i'd just get rid of it altogether.  once he learns to sleep without it he won't wake so often (hopefully).  he may want to be rolling around now too in his sleep.  we weaned dd1s swaddle at 5 mo - but not because we had problems, it was because it was too hot.  but she did sleep better after we got rid of it.

[mmeears]

hi Brenda, yes I agree with you about leaving him to fuss a bit. I sometimes think I just make him worse when I touch him - it certainly seems to escalate his crying at times. I also think he's definitely a side sleeper too and he'll more often than not settle himself on his side when he can. He tries to suck his fingers too although unfortunately he cant quite manage to do it consistently yet - fingers crossed it happens soon though, am sure it will make a big difference.

oh blimey I can hear him crying now...only went down at 7pm, hope this isnt a sign of things to come tonight - am so desperate for some sleep. just cant figure this little guy out at all

[Lori0508]

My little guy goes directly to hardcore crying, or he "talks" for anywhere up to 1 hour..so exhausting!  In regards to sleeping on his back, if we leave him on his back, he has NEVER gone back to sleep that way.   I may need to work on him sleeping on his tummy

last night doesn't count...had a cold, so he was up every 30 minutes.  I am dead.

[brenda2]

michelle - he should be able to suck his thumb by now - my lo born june 2nd has been sucking her thumb for 2 months.  it was easier for her to do when i wedged her on her side and she sucked the thumb of the bottom hand iykwim. keep working on it, now my lo can suck her thumb in any position - even sitting up which has made car rides so much nicer.

lori - will he sleep on his side?  can you wedge him there?

[*Natasha*]

Lori i feel your pain we went through this exact same thing with DD2 when she was 8weeks old. After talking it over with my DH we decided to try sleeping her on her tummy and she has been the best sleeper ever since then. We tried the sleep positioner to get her to sleep on her side but it didn't work.

[brenda2]

is he rolling yet?  dd2 has been a bit better since she started to roll herself.  now she will roll herself onto her side to go to sleep.  i am still wedging her there because she doesn't like to sleep on her tummy but will roll onto her tummy and can't roll back onto her side or back yet.  sigh.  can't wait until this rolling milestone is behind us!

[brenda2]

last night was better...in bed at 7:30, awake at 2:30 to eat, awake at 5 am...shh pat...slept 15 min...shh pat...slept 15 min...fed her at 5:30...dozed until 6:15 and then awake for the day.

first nap at 8:30 (wasn't sure how long to keep her up due to awake at 5, a little bit of sleep after this and sort of dozing during feed so watched for cues and this is when she looked tired) it is now 9:30 and she is still sleeping so i think it will be a decent nap.

so...how do you work in feeds around longer A times girls.  can't remember what i did with dd1.  i think there's a lot of splitting of feeds around naps when they can do more A time but aren't taking in a lot of solids yet?  dd1 was behind in A time so by the time she was on 2 naps and doing 3 hours A time she was 8 mo and taking a lot of solids so it wasn't as much of a problem.

mixed up morning:
5 awake but a little bit of sleep on and off until 5:30
5:30 E but dozed until 6:15
7 solids
8:20 top up feed (didn't want her waking early due to hunger)
8:30 - ? nap 1

what would you have done with E with that morning?  i plan to feed her when she wakes from nap.

[mmeears]

Hi Brenda, I've just moved DS on to a 4 hour routine so have stuck by the eating every 4 hours regardless of when the naps/sleeps are. I think we are making progress although you do sometimes feel like its one step forward, two steps back! Our nights are much better now though - we are having a good stretch from 11pm dream feed through to 4am. Last night he fed at 12am and woke at 4.40am when I shhh/patted him back to sleep. He woke again at 5.40am and then at 6.20am so I fed him at 6.20am and he went back to sleep until 8.30am which completely threw his routine out! Trying to get back on track now and feed him at 11am so we are back to 4 hourly. He has had some baby rice though so I'm not worried about him starving!

How have your nights been? I just wish we could get past the 4am waking...