My 5 month old was never a good sleeper and napper. However for a good 8 weeks we was only waking up 1 or 2 if at all during the night. All of a sudden for the past 2/3 weeks it all went down hill.
Naps- My little guy only naps for short periods (30min) of time. He is always cranky and crying when he wakes up. Sometimes if I give him the paci he will sleep for another hour to hour and a half. Other times he will nap in crib for 30 mins then in my arms for an hour+ until I put him doown.
Night time- We have a routine we do every night. I try to put him down drowsy (always with paci). He will sleep anywhere from 3-6 hours without a peep. Then he will be up every hour or 45 mins. He is crying, but his eyes are never open. I put the paci in and he is instantly out. I feel like I am his personal paci attendant. I tried feeding him, but he is still crying.
Any suggestions for better naps and night time sleep? I am so exhausted I can't keep doing this every night. Any ideas and suggestions are appreciated.
thanks
Thank you all for helping me out. After weeks of good nights and not so good nights I see a tooth coming! Actually it looks like a second isn't too far behind!
Sounds like he's teething. My son did the same thing when he was getting teeth and it got better when the teeth broke through. Hang in there!
Sleep deprivation takes in a whole new meaning when you have kids. I don't find it as bad with the second one. Her sleep pattern is about what your sons is right now. She doesn't sleep great during the day but generally will give me a good stretch at night. One thing you can do to get more sleep is go to bed when he goes to bed even if it's at 7:30 at night. That way you will get some good sleep. I've even taken a Benadryl or sleep pill to get myself to sleep if needed. As for the paci he either needs to learn to keep it in or you need to replace at this point or ditch the thing. He isn't old enough to find the thing in the crib on his own yet. You can also try to wear him in a wrap during the day for a nap and see if you can get something done.
Good luck
L. mom to 2 that had their ups and downs with sleep
I would pull the paci. I had a paci addict and at 5 months, I was putting it back in his mouth about 8 times a night - it had to stop. I took it away cold turkey one day as suggested by a friend who did the samewith her baby at 5 months and it was so much easier than I ever imagined. The first 24 hours he cried a little more than usual but by day two, he didnt seem to remember he needed it. We've never looked back and 4 days after pulling the paci, he started sleeping longer stretches both at nap and night. Now at 9 months he sleeps 10 hrs straight at night and takes 2 decent naps.
I would suggest putting a halo of pacifiers around his head. That's what I did, when my daughter was little. If she woke herself up in the middle of the night, she could just reach out and grab a pacifier and put it in her mouth without much fuss.
For the nap, does your crib have really colorful bumpers and/or sheets? It might be that he is over simulated, and can't calm down. I suggest pulling everything down that is distracting. Add all single color sheets.
I would suggest not to let him get used to sleeping on you, as that will cause all kinds of problems later on.
I agree with previous post, try to work out a routine if you don't already have one.
The other reason he might be waking up in the middle of the night, if you haven't started him on solid foods, it might be time to introduce rice cereal. At around 4 months, my daughter would wake up in the middle of the night, and our pediatrician recommended to start with the rice. After her tummy got used to the rice in the formula during the day, I started adding it to the bottle before bedtime. And she started sleeping through the night again.
Good luck!
Welcome to having a new human being in your life. It is God's sense of humor not to supply the baby with an on/off switch. It will get better. It will take a lot of adjustments and perserverance. They are changing more often than a parent can keep up with. But the slpeep aspect will gt better and better towards 3 years of age - that is the good news. Don't worry about it. If you worry the infant will pick up on that and keep pressing your buttons!
It sounds like teething, if he is crying in his sleep almost then he might be in pain. Pacifiers do help, try giving him some infant tylenol before bed, it may help him sleep longer. Good luck!
If it's just the paci he wants, sprinkle a handful for them in his crib so he has a greater chance of finding one without you.
Growth spurt or teething or both? That would explain the sudden downturn.
Other than that, at some point you may have to try and get him on a schedule. If he isn't awake at 7am, wake him up and feed him. Let him play until about 9am or so, feed him and put him down for a nap. When up from that nap, feed him and let him play until after lunchtime. After lunch sometime, 1 or 2pm... Feed again and put down for an afternoon nap. After waking from the afternoon nap, feed. Do the dinner thing. Give him a warm bath. Play for a little bit. To bed by 8:30p. Then you shower and get to bed!
And I'm not saying to let him cry it out or anything. I'm suggesting a half way decent schedule to live by and to try and get him used to. This was about the age that my son started waking up 2-3 times a night after sleeping 8hrs without waking. He was hungry because of a growth spurt. And if he's teething, try some Tylanol just before a feeding (1st one in the middle of the night).
When he wakes up during that nap, don't go to him right away. Let him cry for awhile and see if he puts himself back to sleep. DS does this, still, sometimes and he's 2. He may cry for 15 minutes, but eventually will go back to sleep. It's easier to sit and ignore when you KNOW that he needs that sleep and will get it if you leave him alone.
If you need to, rock him. But don't feed him and don't take him out of his crib when he wakes up like that. You're just establishing a habit that you'll have to break later.
As for the middle of the night, I have to agree with the other posters about starting solids, if you haven't already. It's time and his little belly probably needs something more substantial to keep him full.
Could be a number of reasons, teething, ear ache, maybe, early separation anxiety, growth spurt.
