My five month old wakes up many times a night, but isn't hungry?

Question

My 5 month old daughter won't sleep through the night. She was sleeping fine around 3 months, then she got a cold around 4 months and was getting up because her nose was stuffy. And ever since, she cries anywhere from twice a night to 10 times a night. I am exhausted. Sometimes I can go in and pat her back until she falls back to sleep...but in a half an hour she might wake up again. Other times, most of the time I have to pick her up to stop her from crying..and then she goes back to sleep. Is this just habit now, because she was getting picked up when she was sick? Or is there something wrong with her? Her napping is fine. My son slept through the night at 8 weeks old and never gave me a problem after. But this is getting old quick. She isn't hungry, when I try to give her a bottle ....she is basically upset because she is tired and wants to go back to sleep, ( or at least that's what it seems like to me). I've let her cry for about 10 minutes, but she just cries harder. help !!

Answer 1

Hi there, oh goodness you need some rest!! Okay well I am a nanny and I work for 2 families, one of them has an 11 month old who was doing the same thing your baby is doing from about 7 months until about 3 weeks ago when my employer read a book, (of course I can't think of what it is called right now). Since she read this book Curran is sleeping most of the way through the night, he got into the habit the same way your sweetie did, had a cold......so on and so forth. What the book said is to establish an eating and sleeping schedule. Feed the baby every 4 hours as full as possible, let him/her sleep 2 hours in the morning and one in the afternoon, and make bedtime a ritual. Curran eats at 8am sleeps from 10am til noon, eats pretty much immediately when he wakes at noon, then sleeps again at 3pm wakes at 4pm and eats pretty much immediately again, plays until 7:30pm has his bath, eats at 8pm and is sleeping at 9pm. Since they/we have been doing this he is sleeping pretty much all night. He wakes up probably once a night just for reassurance and goes back down. I hope that this will help you. WHen I find out the name of the book I'll be back and will email it to you if you'd like.

Answer 2

She is just in a bad habit, nothing wrong with her. My son JUST started sleeping through the night (although not on a regular basis) and he is six months! Babies wake through the night just like us, but sometimes they can't get themselves back to sleep. I got in the bad habit of feeding my son at night and then he wouldn't go back to sleep without it. Now to get him to sleep through the night, he goes to bed around 7:30 or 8 and I get him up around 10 to give him a bottle. Then he has a full tummy and will sleep until 6:30. If he wakes in the night, I just give him a pacifier to suck and it comforts him enough to go back to sleep. So, there is nothing wrong with her, you just gradually have to get her out of her waking pattern to self comfort! EDIT: Another thought, could she possible be teething? My son got his first tooth at around 5 1/2 months and he was not sleeping well at all. Now both bottom ones have popped through and he is sleeping better. I didn't realize that was the reason for not sleeping until the tooth came in!

Answer 3

Its just become habit for her. Any child is naturally going to want whats easiest and feels the best. To a baby having mom there on demand to do the work of making them fall asleep is easier.

I would shorten a nap, or cut out the shortest nap of the day, so she's going to sleep a little more tired. On the flip side, if she's not napping long enough she wont sleep well at night.

It is natural for any body to adhere to cycles and routines. She's in the routine now of waking up all night, and until her body breaks from that routine and gets used to sleeping all night it will go on like it is.

I would let her cry it out. Its the quickest way to solve the issue.

Answer 4

it might desire to be teething. examine her gums, if she's pulling her ears it incredibly is a competent sign of teething pains. in many situations you grants infant Tylenol as much as six months and infant Motrin after 6 months regardless of if that's teething, yet BE VERY confident YOU GET the child labeled PRODUCT... the concentrations are distinctive, so an identical volume of youngster's or grownup product might desire to be risky. be confident to talk to your well-being care expert formerly giving her something (a 5 minute telephone call can keep you a visit to the emergency room or worse) and don't supply aspirin. If she's not having any soreness, she could be getting her clock tousled. Rock her gently until eventually she is almost asleep, yet do not rock her each and every of ways asleep. this might help her relax with out making her based on your rocking her to flow down. we've additionally stumbled on that a pacifier facilitates our son fall back asleep whilst he wakes up at nighttime. He prefers a chilly one, so we keep a row of spares lined up on the area of his crib and swap them out if he wakes. sturdy success!

Answer 5

My six month old started this same thing last week. He's up almost every hour or two all night. I think it's pre-teething.