My 5 month old is waking in the middle of the night?

Question

My route starts out at
6 p.m. I feed him his solid veggies and cereal:7p.m. I give him a bath : 8 p.m. I dress him :830pm my husband and I read him a book : 9pm I feed him his bottle, while the lights are off and a soothing CD plays quietly in the background. He usually falls a sleep before the bottle is finished then I burp him and lay him in his crib. I have tried to keep him awake until the entire bottle is empty but it does not work. Waking up in the middle of the night started at around 4 1/2 months. Before this he would sleep for 9 to 10 hours a night. I have tried rubbing his back, sining, patting his back, swaddling him in his blanket before laying him down for the night and nothing is working the only thing that settles him is when I nurse him, or give him a bottle. He only nurses or drinks from the bottle for about 5 minutes or so and falls back to sleep, I am 3 months pregnant with my 2nd and I want to get him on a route before baby # 2 comes.

Answer 1

He's likely teething. My kids' sleep patterns went off the rails when they teethed.

Each time you take him out of the crib to nurse...he's learning a new habit. Stop it now.
After a few nights of not getting fed when he wakes, he'll figure it out (lucky but tired you will appreciate it in the long run.)

He is not lacking food at night. He's getting enough during the day to sleep all night, even if he doesn't finish that last night time bottle.

P.S. Keep reading to him! It definitely helps with brain development, language, and PRE-reading skillls.
Here's a link for REnate: http://www.makereadingfirst.com/infants_toddlers.html

Answer 2

What you are saying sounds soooo familiar!!! We have a 7 month old that still wakes during the night. The things that we have heard that could be causing night waking are:
Anything that may require extra comforting like;
He could be teething which obviously is painful;
He could be having a growth spurt;
He may wake and feel anxiety about you not being there (especially if he falls asleep in your arms - many sources suggest not letting the baby fall asleep like this and that you should always put the down awake but I don't agree with this at all!!! We have tried it with our 7 month old and it just doesn't work!!!);
He maybe not getting enough calories during the day (we found that our guy has longer sleeps if he has a good amount of food closer to bed time - try proteins and maybe a high fat content yogurt).
Good luck to you!!! You are going to be a very busy mum!

Answer 3

I agree with kjhall75 in that sleep begets sleep when it comes to infants. Try moving the bedtime up 30 min or 1 hour. Also, it sounds like your son is using the bottle/breast as a sleep "prop." The book the Baby Whisperer talks about this...when a baby needs something to go to sleep like rocking, you next to him, a bottle etc. There are a lot of ways to stop him from wanting a bottle, but ultimately, I think the best is to just not let him have it. It will be bad for a few nights, but he will catch on. I highly recommend reading the Baby Whisperer..she discusses this very issue and her techniques might help. Also, my son(20 months now)went through phases when he would sleep really well for a few months, then wake up a lot for a few months...back and forth. Good luck!

Answer 4

It may be as simple as giving him some more cereal right before he has his bed time bottle. It sounds like he's waking up hungry because feeding him will make him go back to sleep- even if he is only drinking a bit, it's enough for his tummy to tell his brain that it has food in it. Don't omit anything from your bed time routine, try a second helping of cereal. Otherwise, it sounds like you are doing everything right.

Answer 5

It sounds like he has a pretty late bedtime, and he's awake for a long time before he goes to bed. You should try putting him down earlier, like 7pm or 8 at the latest. Infants sleep better the more sleep they get. When they are kept awake they get wired and overtired and it's harder for them to stay asleep. How is his nap schedule? He should be napping for about 3 hours a day. A good guideline is he should be going down for a nap after being up for 2 hours, so if he wakes up at 7am, his morning nap should be at 9am, and his afternoon nap should be around 1pm. I have twin 7 month olds and this has been their schedule since 4 months. They sleep from 7-7 every night. We do solids at 8am, 12pm and 5pm.

Answer 6

Is he eating solids until he's no longer hungry, or until he finishes what you've given him? Sounds to me like he's just a bit hungry and having trouble sleeping through. Maybe load him up a bit more on the solids and see how that works?

Good luck... I know you're tired, too... being just 3 months along with the next.

Answer 7

He has probably started teething. I am curious, why would you read a book to a 5 month old child?? Maybe just sing him to sleep or rock him and then unless he is: hungry, wet or ill, let him cry if he wakes in the night. He just wants attention. Maybe he senses his time as an only child it doomed.

Answer 8

That sounds popular to me. My 19 month previous nonetheless needs to feed over nighttime, yet because of the fact he sleeps with us he would not relatively awaken, basically snuffles on over and attaches:) I additionally could desire to eat at nighttime each so often and can't sleep if i'm hungry, so it variety of feels unnecessarily merciless to no longer feed somewhat one in the event that they choose it. analyze instruct that the creation of solids has no result on babies sleep types. maximum babies won't have the skill to digest good nutrition formerly 6 months, is there any reason you have presented solids so early? Watch weight income, i be attentive to lots of people who've had issues via early creation of solids, and that's linked to (between different issues) person weight problems.

Answer 9

Welcome to parenthood. The first ten years you constantly try getting them to go to bed, the second ten years you constantly try to get them out of bed. The good thing to know is that it all passes by in a blink of an eye...

Anyway, your five month old is probably teething. He's also sensing your stress and tension about the new baby.