My daughter won't sleep at night?

Question

I have a 5 month old daughter, she will soon be 6 months. She is perfectly healthy and is growing so much. All of a sudden her sleep pattern has changed dramatically. I have a routine with her, she gets a bath, I feed her, rock her for 10 mins, and then put her to bed. In that 10 mins she falls asleep completly, but when I go to put her down, she wakes right back up. This will continue for about 3 hours or more. I continue to rock her she will fall back asleep and then wake up the second I put her down. I will even feed her again and this does not help. Then when I finally put her down she wakes up 3 hours later and the same cycle continues. This all started about a week ago and before that I had no problem putting her to bed. Has someone had the same problem? Can anyone offer advice on what to do? And the worst part about it is she refuses to take a nap during the day. Her doctor is no help. Can someone please help?

Answer 1

I'm actually going through this right now. I've been trying going in at intervals and increasing the space between each time i go back.i also don't pick her up I'll pat her back or stroke her hair.she used to get up 4 or 5 times a night but now I'm down to 2. but it was really hard letting her cry for even just the little bit.
Maybe her lack of daytime napping is the reason.maybe you can try the same thing with that.
good luck

Answer 2

Hon.. I know you don't want to hear this, but my sixteen month old doesn't sleep through the night. My oldest daughter slept thru like a charm from the day I brought her home from the hospital, my second daughter isn't so willing. There's not anything you can do, except wait for her to eventually grow out of it. Right now she's little- not walking- probably not even crawling yet and doesn't burn a whole lot of energy throughout the day. Even without taking a nap, she doesnt really wear herself out like grown-ups do. Maybe when you get done feeding her, play with her for an hour and THEN try rocking her to sleep. Maybe if you get her tired before you lay her down, she'll go to sleep easier and, even though she'll probably still wake up during the night, Mommy can get some rest before it happens. Good Luck!

Also, people telling you to let her cry it out need to consider the fact that she is not yet a year old. It is not advised to allow a baby under the age of one year to "cry it out" because their lungs are not fully functioning and if they get out of breath crying it increases the risk of death from SIDS when they do finally fall asleep. Even five minutes of crying can overstress a baby's lungs.

Answer 3

I personally dont believe in torturing such a small baby by not responding to its crying, I follow Dr. Spock (don't laugh he is a veteran of baby rearing ) and he says that such small babies dont get spoiled already. Anyway I greatly benefited from exercising my daughter and a baby massage, after her bath at night I massage her gently with some baby oil, then I make cycling actions with her legs and raise her arms slowly 10-12 times, I also make her knees touch her stomach (awesome for gas), within about 15 mins she is soooo pooped, she sleeps like a lamb. I have been doing this since she started giving me trouble to sleep at 5 months or so, now she is 10 months.
All the best though.

Answer 4

Babies donot have a fixed pattern of sleep. You should not get worried about the sleep pattern of ur baby. Some babies are like that, they will sleep during the day and remain awake at night. May be after her bath u should massage ge complete body which will increase the blood circulation and will make her fall asleep.
If she is not sleeping during the night then nothing can be done about it. I think as she grows older this habit will change

Answer 5

Well ive raised two babies up until they were around 1... so i know how to help ya..evn though im 15.
OKAY first. Its normal. You need to leave her how she is, in her crib and ignore it. Its hard yeah..but shell get tired,maybe cry. bUT wil fall asleep. If she wont go to sleep, then take a hot bath with her, not too hot but nice and warm. Try putting a moving fish thing in her crib, or something for her to look at. This should help, also when you bathe her at night, use the huggies soothing bath stuff it works.

Answer 6

I thought for a second you were asking about my 9 month old! Continue to do what your doing. Relax and go with the flow. That is how I am handling it. Last night I even had to drive him around for a little bit. At first I was confused to what was going on becasue he was doing so good with his routine, but suddenly changed his pattern. I am sure that until our babies are one, patterns are going to change because they change so much in the first year. good luck and try to rest when he does, even if it's for a few minutes.

Answer 7

my oldest didnt sleep at all we tried doctors baby health people but nuthing worked so i went against my principles and tried the crying therapy i started at 10.30 am every day id feed her and then lay her in her cot and tucked her in then say my good nites and leave her for 5 mins id let her cry for 5 minutes then go in calm her down and lay her back down and leave i did this for 2 hours the first day[ increase the intervals by 5 mins every day] but after the first week i layed her down and she would just sleep i did the same at nite time to it is hard really hard to listen to ur baby cry if u have a friend that can help keep u sane and stick to it would be good get them to come over for a cuppa tea i hope this works as well for u as it did with my 3 kids

Answer 8

Some babies change theyre sleeping habits. After you rock her the first time and put her down let her cry for a little while then go back in and reassure her that you havent left her.

If you keep rocking her and picking her back up everytime she cries you will be giving her that night time routine rather than sleep. I know it hurts to hear your baby cry but she needs to learn how to soothe herself and put her self to sleep. You will not be considered a bad mother you just have to let her learn not to be dependent on you rocking her to sleep everynight until shes 20

Answer 9

try waking her every time she falls asleep for about ten minutes then put her down this will help her get used to movement and make her very tired!! if this don't work try letting her cry for a few minutes than rock her than put her back down.

Answer 10

Insomnia (sleeplessness) is due to stress, dietary and medical
problems. By making small lifestyle changes like having a fixed
daily routine, relaxing and eating properly, insomnia can be
cured. I found the information at http://tinyurl.com/jfzpz useful
for getting sleep.