5 Month Old and Major Sleep Problems

res932

My son is 23 weeks old and exclusively breastfed. He sleeps in our room beside the bed in a pack n play. He began sleeping through the night (11pm to 6am) at 12 weeks old. This continued for about a month, then all of a sudden everything went downhill at about 4 months. I thought that this was just the "wakeful period" or maybe teething, but it has continued. He is now waking several times a night (only actually feeds once or twice though). Most of the time he is waking because his binky falls out and he wants it back in. Our usual routine is this:

Bed at 10:30
Wake up at 1:30 because binky falls out, put it back in 
Wake up at 2:30-3 to feed (usually we both fall asleep nursing and he will sleep with me for an hour or two)
Wake up at 5:30 for binky again
Wake up at 7, nurse and then sleep with me until the 2 year old wakes up

I never slept with my 2 year old (he wasn't breastfed though) and I'm worrying that I am "spoiling" him by sleeping with him. Plus I am worried about the general danger of cosleeping. I don't want him in the bed sleeping with us forever. I don't know how to improve his sleep and get this to end. (Once again, my first son was a 12 hour sleeper by this point so I didn't deal with any of this with him). 

Does anyone have any suggestions? I am beginning to get desperate!

res932

I am a little confused too because he sleeps so deep and so peaceful when he is sleeping with me, but when he is in his PNP he is restless and everytime the bink comes out he's miserable. 

jenn43

He may be very overtired.  10:30 is a late bedtime for a 5 month old, and most babies that age need somewhere around 12 hours of sleep at night.  How long is he napping for during the day?

I found "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth to be very helpful.  My baby started sleeping better when we bumped his bedtime back.  He's 3 months old, and goes to bed at 6:30 or 7pm most nights.

flcl

I can't give you much advice on the binky since my guy stopped taking his after 3 weeks.  Looking at your schedule, you have 3-4 wake ups right?  I believe that BF babies around 4-5 months can still have 2-3 wake ups.  I think that your bedtime may be too late.  If LO is overtired, he may not sleep as well.  When we first brought LO home, he would go to sleep for the night around 10pm.  Then we slowly worked his bedtime up to where it is now (b/w 6:30-7) in 10-15 min increments.  

There is nothing wrong with cosleeping or bedsharing as long as that is what the family wants, it's working for you guys and you're following the safety standards for bedsharing.  We had LO in a PNP by our bed up until just 2 weeks ago when cosleeping was no longer working for us (our furbaby's snorts kept waking him up.) He's now in his crib upstairs for all of his naps and night time sleep.  If he wakes up for a feeding around 4am, we bedshare until it's time for us all to get up.  It might not be everyone else's cup of tea, but it works for us.  Don't worry about spoiling the baby, do what's best for your family, no one else's.  GL.

res932

I think we are going to try moving it back to 9:30. Anything more than that really isn't practical since we also have a 2 year old and an 11 year old SS. He usually gets up at about 9 am -- about the same time as DS #1

TeacherVicky

I agree, that's a very late bedtime for a 5m old. I've been told (by a sleep consultant) that at that age, anywhere between 5:30-7pm is an appropriate bedtime. He is probably overtired.

What do naps look like? That could be contributing to him being overtired.

yeah.

That doesn't sound terrible for 5 months. You could get rid of the paci then you'd only be doing the feeding wake-up but I'd rather just take the 10 seconds to reach over, replace the paci and move on with my night for now.

paigeandjeremy

you should look at the paci plushies! we had the same issue when our 5 month old was arould 2-3 months old he would fall asleep, it would slip out he would wake up.. it was a mess. so we ordered a paci plushie to see if that would help and of course as soon as we got it he ended up not needing it because he rejected the nook all together lol funny how things work. This is the website, but I ordered three of them off of Ebay, its was cheaper..lol https://www.paciplushies.com/ 

sfuentesrn

I have a 21 weeker and he use to sleep through the night also. Now he wakes up wanting his paci about two times a night and another wake up for feeding. A friend suggested trying to swaddle him again. My LO loved being swaddled as a new born but I stopped when I was instructed to for growth and development purposes. However, I have tried a light swaddle the last three nights and we only had one wake up. Maybe this could help?? GL!!

jfletcher3113

That doesn't sound too bad for his age, but I'm no expert. 

Thought I'd add this nugget from a mommy class I took that focused on sleeping. The teacher (a labor and delivery nurse) mentioned that some babies don't sleep all that great in a pack n' play because if they move even slightly (which all babies do) it can shake and startle them awake. 

On the flip side, there was a girl in our class whose daughter slept great in a pack n' play. Just another factor to consider switching up and see if it helps. 

MommyAtty

I agree bedtime is really, really late. If my 3.5 month old is in bed past 7:30, his sleep is awful that night. Also, have you tried putting him in his own room? My babies are fabulous sleepers, but they are noisy sleepers. I have a 5 minute rule for anything less that an out and out cry. Let him try to get himself back under without giving him the pacifier. After a few days, he may start soothing himself back to sleep. With my first, I figured out I was waking her up, bc I thought she was awake when she was just making noise in her sleep.

PrimRoseMama

Some regressions can last a while. The reason they happen is that the brain is developing. So, once that happens it's not like they "go back" KWIM? Each stage is start over & figure something new out.

My DS bedtime since he was born has been 9pm. That's the time he has chosen himself. It's the easiest time to get him to sleep etc for him.

You might try getting a better mattress for the PnP. That cardboard thing is uncomfortable. I got the soft, fitted sheet for it & taped it tightly to the insert, but my son (and my daughter) decided the PnP was the devil