waking every 1.5 at night

S

stamcel

Registered User
Please help.....

My little darling has been waking up every 1-2 at night for the past 5 days. This is not his usual sleep pattern..he usually sleeps from 7h30, DF at 10h30, 2am nurses for about 30 minutes and then sleeps again until about 5-6 am...

Something is going on...and I don't know what or how to help him. He goes to bed at 7, awake at 9, then 11, 12.30, 2, 4.....I feed him (BF) when he wakes up...i know he his not hungry cause he ate only an hour ago (but he latches on as if he has not eaten in days)....I cuddle, rock, sing, and...shhh and that settles him some but as soon as I put him in his crib he begins to cry....last night i let him cry for 10 minute intervals....and then i went into his room and settled him....put him back to bed..slept for about 5 minutes awake again... it is just crazy....I can feel or see any teeth..he has 1 tbsp of cereal in the later part of the afternoon and is BF every 3 hours..he is 5.5 months old.


Nt sure what to do.....
very tired mom,
stamcel
 
Hi Stamcel

I find my 5.5 month is extremely unsettled at night if I give her cereal in the afternoon. I now give it to her after her morning nap and she sleeps so much better. She has some veggies in the late afternoon and that doesn't seem to worry her.
 
You must be exhausted! I have that exact same problem with my 5.5 month old. In my case I am pretty sure it is due to teething. He has just got his 1st tooth now but was waking very frequently about 1 month b4 the tooth popped up. He is still sleeping badly most nights and I still think it's because of teething pains. That's my thinking anyway! It may not be the case for you. Or could it be gas related because of the afternoon cereal?? I hope bub starts sleeping better soon!!
 
I was in the same situation for the past 2 months! Baby is now 5.5 months. So around 2 months ago, he started waking up every hour, sometimes every half hour.... First I think it was his gums hurting but after a few days, it looks like he had just taken the habit of waking up and was unable to fall asleep on its own. Since he was also very nervous / fussy / active during the day, people advised me to give him solids and at 4 months he started having 2 "meals" (rice cereal & fruit or vegetable sauces). He suddenly was much happier during the day, not so nervous, not so much crying but he still was waking up at night all the time. I was so miserable I started to let him cry. Honestly after only 2 or 3 nights, he stopped waking up - well probably he still wakes up but he falls asleep easily & on his own without crying & without his pacifier. He now wakes up only once for feeding or sometimes not at all. And even better, when he wakes up in the morning at around 6am, he stays in bed without crying, he plays with his teddy bears (and he "talks" to them!) for a pretty long time. He barely cries now even during the day when previously he was spending all of his time awake crying... I can't explain what happened but it certainly worked for us! He really looks much happier, always smiling, laughing & playing and we are also much happier :) I hope you find a solution soon.
 
That's interesting Sophie! How long did he cry for after waking up? I'm getting a bit desperate too. So tired! But a bit nervous about letting him cry.
 
Well I understand how you feel, we were very nervous about it too, but after 2 months of NO sleep, I thought I had to try! Honestly we tried so many different things but nothing else worked. We didn't do the usual "after 5 minutes, go cuddle him, then leave, etc". I know it's harsh but we followed our paediatrician advice, we closed our bedroom door, we closed his bedroom door - even though we could still hear him - and we just let him cry. The doc said he might cry for hours so we were prepared for the worse and it actually was not so bad. Once or twice he has been crying for around an hour before falling asleep but most of the time only around 15 minutes. It is heart breaking not to wake up but we thought we had to be disciplined, if you go check on him, then he will always expect you to go see him when he cries, right?

Anyway we did this because we were miserable but also because the doc explained that 4 to 6 months is a very crucial time, this is when baby "builds" his routine, when he tries to understand how things work & also when he starts to "test" different things. For example the doc said if you let him wake up all the time between 4-6 months, chances are he will keep doing it for a very very long time, if you hold him too much, he will always ask for it, if you let him cry during the day, he may become a cry-baby, and so on, you get the idea...

So it was like a revolution suddenly! we started not to hold him anymore (previously we had to hold him all the time), we kept him very busy & we changed activites as often as necessary (to make sure he won't cry so much), and we try our best to stick to a routine throughout the day. I realised that at home he was always crying, and whenever he was outside he would stop crying. So as soon as he started to cry, i would put him in his stroller / baby bjorn and we go out. For maybe 2 weeks, I have been doing all these things plus letting him cry at night, and he is just totally transformed now! Honeslty the first 5 months have been really hard for us - and maybe for him since he always looked so unhappy -, and now after doing all these things, we can finally "enjoy each other", Baby is happy, always playing & smiling to everyone, sleeping well, napping (which he wasn't doing previously) and he even became very tender / loving with us. Of course each baby is different but it worked for us - so far :)
 
Hi LisainHk and SophieHK,

While my little one did not nap well today, so we went out for a long walk and then he fell asleep for almost 1h30. I gave him cereal this morning instead of the evening and gave him two doses of homeopathic teething medicine...

We will have to see what the night entails...I know many people suggest to let babies 'cry it out' I can't...10 minutes is my limit...so I will need to find another way to help my son...
thanks for you advice...wish us luck and a good night rest,
stamcel
 
I agree with SophieHK, some babies of that age are very 'suggestible' and can go from being great sleepers to waking all the time so quickly.

Around 4 months, my son was going through from his DF to 5am - we thought we were on the home straight! Then he suddenly started waking every 2 hours ... I would BF him to settle him, and from there he 'forgot' how to put himself to sleep and developed a strong waking habit. I also would BF him to sleep for all naps and bedtime which didn't help his sleep associations.

We did controlled crying also and because I wanted to rule out hunger and pain we gave him a big bottle of expressed milk on the night we began and also some baby paracetmol. That gave us the strength to go through with it as we KNEW there was nothing wrong. Took 3 days or so and he is a champion sleeper now - a huge release for all of us and a much happier and well rested baby.
 
Hi again,
I was so hoping last night was going to be different and my little one would go back to sleeping more than 2 hours interval....darn it...it did not happen. He went to bed at 7, woke up at 9, fed him, back to sleep, woke up again at 11 fed him and gave him some infant Tylenol, (thinking maybe he is teething), woke up again at 2h30...fed him and put him back to bed...and he cried for over a hour on and off...it nearly killed me ...I am not a 'cry it out' type....
my husband got up with him a little after 4am...I fed him again at 5...and he has been up ever since..
i have ruled out pain and tried 'cio'...where to go from here....should I let him cry every time he wakes up out side of his feeding times...

I am really struggling...and I go back to work on Wednesday....
any advice????
 
Hi Stamcel,

I am SO exhausted too, you're even better than me bec. my baby is now 10 months old, i always blame teething but i know it's his habit now to BF everytime he wakes up and cries...i read that they don't know how to fall back to sleep on their own.

I did the no-cry solution of elizabeth pantley for few days now, did all that was suggested - music, soft light an hour before, quiet time, lovey, etc....but things just goes from bad to worst as i shorten the feeding time as suggested and he is so mad with it. Anyways, i got no advice for you as i'm going crazy now with the situation. I'll post in another thread which one works the crying out or no-cry solution. Good luck to us!
 
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