My 5 1/2 month old son is just a horrible night sleeper. He goes to bed at 8-8:30 p.m. each night without any problems. Around 11 p.m. (it is like clockwork!) he starts to wake. You can hear him fussing, tossing, turning, until he fully wakes himself up. I go in as soon as I hear him fuss and give him the pacifier and put my hand on his back so that he doesn't fully wake. From this time on - sometimes he is awake every hour to hour and a half!!!!

Is this teething or just a baby who doesn't want to sleep? I am at my wits end. I feel like such a bad mother b/c last night I yelled, "GO TO SLEEP!" I was so angry! This has been happeneing for about 2 months straight.

We had 3 nights last week were he slept right through to 4 a.m. without a wimper. But now he is back to waking up. UGH!

I am hoping someone can sympathize and offer me some support. I get an hour of sleep here - and hour of sleep there and it is really starting to get to me now.

I can feel your pain! Both my boys were the same way! I had to take the monitor and shut it off. This allowed me to not be disturbed by the whimpers. They would eventually put themselves back to sleep. Sometimes I would put them in their swing to sleep if they kept waking. Some might not agree with it, but it gave me and my boys some shuteye. My youngest is 2 and still wakes up at least 4 nights a week whimpering. I have to go in and cover him back up and rub his back for about 2 minutes.

Good luck!!!

Well, I have tried turning the monitor off, but then DS will fully wake up and be WIDE awake and ready to play if I ignore him and let him stir. He doesn't seem to be going back to sleep on his own. That is why I run into his room when I first hear him - to try and keep him sleepy so he will go back to sleep.

Ugh, I can't imagine going through this for 2 years!!!

Most babies don't sleep through the night. It's a survival instinct. At 5 1/2 months they're still doing so much growing that night time feedings are important. Are you nursing? Breastmilk does digest more efficiently and faster so I would try doing some nursing when he wakes up.

I try to look at the world through our babies eyes. At 5 1/2 months you are your baby's world. He doesn't understand that you're just in the next room. So when he stirs and you're not there to reassure, it can be scary. You want your mommy. You want to feel comforted. It's natural.

One thing that has helped out our sleeping situation is co-sleeping. When DD wakes up or stirs in the night, I'm right there. I don't have to get up and out of bed, I can turn to the side and nurse her and she falls back to sleep. If she isn't looking for food, sometimes all she does is reach out with her little hand, feel that I'm next to her and she'll fall back to sleep.

Thanks Misschic.

Actually, I never had to co-sleep with DS because he was a decent sleeper, but I have started bringing him into bed with me - esp. at 4 a.m. when he doesn't want to fall back to sleep. I want him to fall asleep in his crib each night and don't want to co-sleep exclusively. I feel it is important for him to sleep in his crib. However, I am not opposed to bringing him to bed with me when he won't fall back to sleep.

try using a fan in the room.

We did it all.

Fan.
Swing.
Co-sleeping.
The list goes on. Our problem was enlarged tonsils and adnoids aggrevating my sons obstructive sleep apnea. A very common and undiagnosed problem in 2 out of 100 children. If OSA runs in your family or is suspected get it checked out immediately.

Things you child should not be doing in there sleep. Snoring, gasping, choking.. if they do before the age of 8 they have obstructive sleep apnea. Snoring before the age of eight is not natural and can have serious long lasting effects.. and even has been linked to SIDS incidences.

It is natural for you child to get hungry and wake every three to four hours in the night time sleep cycle. Especially if they are growing. However after 18 months if they wake more than once a night there is something wrong and the child should be evaluated by and ENT and/or sleep specialist. Pediatricians are not specialist and in the case of a sleep disorder often have only recieved a 15 minute seminar on symptoms, and problems pointing to a disorder. Always get a second opnion. I feel my child is worth it, don't you?

Sincerely,
MG

Not sure why you would think a 5 1/2 month BABY should be forced to sleep from 8-8:30pm till morning. Yes they will wake up a couple of times a night till about 12months or so maybe longer. a 5 1/2 month old that wakes Is hungry. Give him a bottle, burp him and play for a few minutes. Make sure he is changed and put him down. He should go to bed or fall asleep on your depending on how you do it.

My DD9months is a great sleeper has been since 6 weeks. She usually goes to bed at about 6-9pm or 8-11pm and gets up and has a bottle maybe sometimes with a little cereal in it and then she burps and goes off to sleep. She is growing like a weed right now so she is getting up at night to try to crawl. It is all normal and you should really give the bottle so you can get some sleep right afterward. Not all babies sleep all day then sleep another 13 hours at night. You'll get the hang of it.

Some babies take longer to sleep "through the night" than others, and YES, teething does interfere with that. :( Poor things...

My DD is 5 months and goes back and forth every few days from sleeping from 6 pm to 5 am with only a midnight "pacifier re-plug" when she wakes up a little, and other nights she'll be up at 3 am, wide awake and playing and giggling and holding her feet in the air and thumping them on the mattress so they bounce (over and over and over). When that happens, I just shut off the monitor and since her room is on the other side of the house from ours (can't here her without the monitor unless she is screaming for dear life) I then go sleep in the room next to her's... where I can hear if she starts crying, but she can play for 30-45 minutes before she falls back to sleep and I can get some sleep, too.

Since she goes back and forth between these two "norms" we never know what to expect at night. And when I wake up at 3 am and look at the clock, I get anxious and don't know whether to go back to sleep (only to get woken up in 10 or 15 minutes??) or not...

It also sounds like your son is just having a hard time going back to sleep on his own. He's probably been through 2 sleep cycles when he wakes up at 11 pm. He will eventually learn to soothe himself and fall back to sleep. It just takes time... sorry!

Not sure why you would think a 5 1/2 month BABY should be forced to sleep from 8-8:30pm till morning. Yes they will wake up a couple of times a night till about 12months or so maybe longer. a 5 1/2 month old that wakes Is hungry. Give him a bottle, burp him and play for a few minutes. Make sure he is changed and put him down. He should go to bed or fall asleep on your depending on how you do it.

My DD9months is a great sleeper has been since 6 weeks. She usually goes to bed at about 6-9pm or 8-11pm and gets up and has a bottle maybe sometimes with a little cereal in it and then she burps and goes off to sleep. She is growing like a weed right now so she is getting up at night to try to crawl. It is all normal and you should really give the bottle so you can get some sleep right afterward. Not all babies sleep all day then sleep another 13 hours at night. You'll get the hang of it.


Please read my post again. I do not expect my baby to sleep perfectly through the night! Waking 5-6 times a night is NOT sleeping. The tone of your post is very demeaning!

SInce your baby has been sleeping so well since 6 weeks, I think it is hard for you to understand what I am going through.

And - by the way - I do feed my baby at night, change his diaper, etc. - don't know why you think I didn't do this.

Some babies take longer to sleep "through the night" than others, and YES, teething does interfere with that. :( Poor things...

My DD is 5 months and goes back and forth every few days from sleeping from 6 pm to 5 am with only a midnight "pacifier re-plug" when she wakes up a little, and other nights she'll be up at 3 am, wide awake and playing and giggling and holding her feet in the air and thumping them on the mattress so they bounce (over and over and over). When that happens, I just shut off the monitor and since her room is on the other side of the house from ours (can't here her without the monitor unless she is screaming for dear life) I then go sleep in the room next to her's... where I can hear if she starts crying, but she can play for 30-45 minutes before she falls back to sleep and I can get some sleep, too.

Since she goes back and forth between these two "norms" we never know what to expect at night. And when I wake up at 3 am and look at the clock, I get anxious and don't know whether to go back to sleep (only to get woken up in 10 or 15 minutes??) or not...

It also sounds like your son is just having a hard time going back to sleep on his own. He's probably been through 2 sleep cycles when he wakes up at 11 pm. He will eventually learn to soothe himself and fall back to sleep. It just takes time... sorry!


Christine, I am so jealous that the pacifier works so well for your daughter! Sometimes it does for my DS, but often it does not. DS is not too good at soothing himself back to sleep and he often ends up crying if I try to ignore him. That is when he ends up in bed with me! Rarely does he play himself back to sleep. Bummer! :rolleyes:
I was thinking the same with his sleep cycles. I have been reading all kinds of books on sleeping, and I am starting to wonder if maybe some babies are wired to sleep better than others.

I have had the same experience. We put him down at 8:00 pm and he always woke up around mid-night to 1 am. When he woke up in the morning he always took his first nap 1.5 hours after waking. The doctor told me to always keep him up at least 3 hours after he wakes up in the am and after naps. She also said to only allow him 2 naps a day. She also had us reduce his bottle count but I don't know if that helped the sleep issue. We changed all this about 1.5 weeks ago. He now goes to bed between 7:30 - 8:00 and wakes up at 5 am. I usually have to get up at 5 anyway so it works for us, but over the weekend I let him fuss a little and he went back to sleep until 6:30.

I totally sympathise but unfortunately don't have any advice just also a cry for help. Our son is now 18 months old and still wakes on average 3 times a night but sometimes more - last night was about 6, I lost count.
We've tried giving an extra bottle of juice after dinner so he's not so thirsty (he kept waking up for a drink), installing a blind outside his window so his room doesn't get so warm, putting loads of dummies in his bed in the hope he will find one himself when he wakes, getting his adenoids removed (that was what finally worked for our eldest when he was 3.5 years), giving him an extra nappy change before I go to bed. I don't know what else to do and after 18 months I am getting to the point of complete exhaustion. All the helpful tips seem to be aimed more at babies that wake at night and then continue crying - which he doesn't do. I can feel my patience with both my kids being at a very low point which makes me feel awful. Does anyone have any tips - please?

ljw137,

Look into childrens obstructive sleep apnea. Your child is getting to the stage they should not wake more than once at night. If your childs breathing is being cut off by enlarged tonsils/adnoids you need to get it taken care of.. it will only get worse.

Look to my post on sleep disorders in children. (Parenting Issues Board - Title :Sleep Disorders in Children - Some Facts and My Family's Story) My son woke every two hours a night until he was diagnosed and treated for sleep apnea at the age of four.. the pediatricians played it off as he is a big boy and just can not eat enough during the day to sustain himself..

Turns out he was stoping breathing 20 times an hour! Most OSA in children can be fixed with a simple tonsilectomy and adnoidectomy.

Sincerely,
MG

I can totally relate, and I'm sorry you're going through this. My son is 4.5 months old and won't sleep in his crib for longer than 1 hour at a time (he doesn't have sleep apnea). The only thing that works for us is cosleeping. When he's next to me, he can sense my presence and it keeps him calm enough to sleep for 3-4 hours in a row. If I hear him wimpering, I reach over and touch him and hold his arms down so he doesn't start flailing. If that doesn't work, I nurse him a couple minutes until he falls asleep again. The trick is to make sure his eyes stay closed. If he opens his eyes, all bets are off. When he's awake, he's AWAKE, so I'll do everything I can to prevent him from waking up. Good luck, and I hope you can catch a few zzzzs tonight. :)

KeltoKel-I know exactly what you're going through. (i keep trying to post in your thread but my computer shuts down). DD is just about 7mo and fromt he time she was born until 2 weeks ago she was up ever 30-minutes to an hour at night. She sleeps in her crib now, but this also happened in the beginning when we co-slept. It was absolute torture. I was the only one getting up to help her at night. During the day she is extremely high needs and requires constant entertainment and body contact. I wasn't getting any rest and neither was she. She rarely napped and could not play alone...at all.

We tried all the tricks people suggested. The car seat, the swing, inclining the mattress and so on. The problem is if a baby stirs awake they need all of the same elements that were originally there to fall back asleep, so if you are there when she falls asleep the first time in the night.....she will cry for you everytime she wakes up. My DD always wanted the bottle or the breast.

Her doctor told me she needs to fall alseep in the crib on her own or she will keep waking up and develop bad sleeping habits. I ignored this recommendation because I didn't want to let my daughter cry for a second. I held on to faith that things would get better, but they never did. Finally I let her cry. I sat next to her and rubbed her back and reassured her the first night. It only took 25 minutes and she was not crying the whole time. (sometimes she would stop and play and then cry). That night she slept for 8 hours straight. It was amazing. After that each night it took less and less time. Sometimes I would leave the room for 2 or 3 minutes and come back and check on her. After 4 nights she was falling asleep as soon as I walk out the door and sleeping from 8:00pm-5:00am. I know a lot of people don't agree with this method and neither did I, but it turns out it was exactly what she needed. Yay! Can you imagine going from waking up AT LEAST hourly to actually getting 8 hours or more of sleep? It's great. And now she is playing GREAT by herself too!

I hope you find something that works for you!

mkgbrook
Thanks for your reply. I live in Holland where a tonsilectomy isn't carried out under the age of 2 - however, his next check-up is just before his second birthday and I will definitely bring it up with the ENT surgeon. My eldest had both his adenoids and tonsils removed at the same time - maybe that was why he slept so much better afterwards. Thanks again.....I live in anticipation of him turning 2.

Jo - Hooray for you! I am not opposed to letting DS cry a bit either. You seemed to do everything perfectly AND it worked. You give me hope.

We have had 3 nights of DS sleeping 7-8 hours straight without waking up. I can't say I have done anything differently, but I am making sure he is awake when I place him in his crib at night. He has been falling to sleep on his own. One night I also gave Tylenol b/c I thought his teeth were bothering him.

As for medical issues - I know this isn't my DS. He has no signs of apnea or other problems. His issue tends to be that he just doesn't want to stay asleep for long. Some nights he sleeps well, but other nights it is just awful!

LJW - I hope you can find out what is bothering your son. I feel for you! Best of luck.



Here's hoping everyone's babies sleep through the night!!!!!!!! :blob_fire

Hi,
so glad you posted about this problem. We are going through the same thing with my 6 month old DS right now. Made worse by trying to introduce the bottle as I am back at work. He wakes up every hour to 2 hours throughout the night. Have been reading this book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child that goes along with the last few posts about letting him cry some and learning to soothe himself back to sleep. I can't say that I've tried it all well. We finally let him cry some last night 4am after he'd been awake every hour. Not sure if it will work but am going to try. Good luck to you. so far other things in this book have worked really well.