Help my 5 month old sleep through the night!!!

laurabild · October 2011

I need help...I am a first time Mommy and my 5 month old is still not sleeping through the night. Here is my rountine;

7:30pm Bath with bathtime lotion applied to calm

8:00 cereal then breast feed until full

8:30 will put him in bed asleep or awake and he will fall asleep

He will wake-up 2-3 times per night to eat. I tried to just give him his pacifier but this will soothe him for about 20 minutes and then he is at it again until I fed him. He is a breastfed baby. I try to leave him in his crib to see if he will soothe himself back to sleep but this doesn't seem to work. What tips/tricks do you have for me???

Mrs.Purdue · October 2011

how much food do you think he's getting throughout the day? we're formula fed, but I make sure she gets in all the calories she needs during daylight hours, so she isn't hungry at night. i know all babies are different and breastmilk is digested quicker, so you may still need to feed at least once at night, but it's worth a try to really fill him up during the day!

kathrnn · October 2011

Just wondering, but I would like to know why you're so anxious for him to STTN?

My daughter will turn 5 months in a few days and has yet to STTN as well. From what I have heard, breastfed babies take longer to STTN. If he's waking up because he is hungry, I would suggest you stop trying to get him to self soothe back to sleep. He's hungry for a reason. ;-)

One thing you could try, if you pump, would be to give him a bottle either before he goes down for the night or the first time he wakes up. He could be waking up more often because he isn't eating as much and is hungry, so filling him up could *possibly* help him to sleep longer.

laurabild · October 2011

I work fulltime so he goes to daycare. He takes 3-6oz bottles while at daycare and cereral in the morning. He weighs 17lbs 2 oz and is all cheeks. I don't think he would really take more....

laurabild · October 2011

I guess I thought more babies were sleeping through the night at this age. Add to the fact the ped seemed shocked to hear that he wasn't STTN so I guess I felt that I was doing something wrong. It does make me feel better knowing that we are not the only ones, so thanks for responding.

shellpep3 · October 2011

My LO is almost 6 months and does not STTN... She is also bf.

rileylr215 · October 2011

It sounds like your LO's schedule is almost identical to mine. He was only getting up once to eat per night, but now he is getting up two or three times per night. It's annoying, but he eats and goes right back to sleep, so I know he's waking because he's hungry. I'm hoping things will improve once we start solids next month.

Nechie122 · October 2011

This was my DD until I read Ferber's book. He recommends spacing out the time between each feeding by half an hour each night. So instead of feeding her "on demand" at night, I made her wait progressively longer intervals before nursing. This is separate from CIO; sometimes I'd stay up with her for an hour, sometimes I could rock her back to sleep. Ten days later, we're down to one feeding a night from three.

tokenhoser · October 2011

I'm also doing Ferber for night feeds. He has been eating 5-6 x per night and it eventually just started driving me crazy. We've stretched it from 2 hours to 3 hours between feeds over the past few nights. I'm only planning to push it to about every 4 hours, as I don't think he needs to STTN necessarily. I just don't think he needs to eat like a newborn either.

You're not doing anything wrong. Pedi's sometimes kind of have no idea how things work with well babies in the real world.

amyt51181 · October 2011

I also used ferber to space out, not eliminate feedings with my lo. Worked well. I highly suggest reading the book. I found it more helpful than others I have read.

Marcilene1 · October 2011

laurabild:

I guess I thought more babies were sleeping through the night at this age. Add to the fact the ped seemed shocked to hear that he wasn't STTN so I guess I felt that I was doing something wrong. It does make me feel better knowing that we are not the only ones, so thanks for responding.

Don't let your pedi make you feel that way. Pedis are not sleep experts (and neither are most of the sleep training gurus). It is completely normal and expected for a 5 month old to not sleep through the night yet. He'll do it when he's ready. No worries!

ironmommy · October 2011

My baby doesn't sleep through the night either. I also feel like I'm the *only* one out there with a baby this age that still wakes up 3-4 times a night. It is normal (particularly for BF babies), but my goodness the way people talk about STTN you wouldn't think so!

One important note is that STTN technically means a 5 hour stretch. Not exactly all night long. I'm also working on spacing out the time between nursing sessions during the night.

robynjkrastel · October 2011

my ds will be 16 wks on tomorrow. until a few wks ago, i've been ebf. my son still wakes up about every 2 hours to nurse. sometimes i don't think he's hungry, however he hasn't yet figured out how to put himself back to sleep. sooo, he screams until he gets the boob. sometimes he's just soothe sucking, but i'm still up w/him roughly 4 to 5 times a night

you're not alone.

Want a personalized experience?

Help my 5 month old sleep through the night!!!

Re: Help my 5 month old sleep through the night!!!

Choose Another Board

Search Boards