Night wakings - awake for 2 hours each time...help!

[SamiK]

My baby girl will be 5 months in a few days and we're having an absolute nightmare with her at the moment! She used to sleep from 7pm through to 1am, then to 4am and then up at 6am up until a month or so ago. Then she started waking at 10.30 and then 1...3..4...5...urgh.
As if that wasn't bad enough in the past week when she's woken at 10.30 she's just been wide awake - it's taking me up to two hours of walking, rocking, nursing whatever to get her back down again. Then she's awake again at 3am and it's the same again - just won't go back to sleep. I feed her each time (she gets too agitated if I don't) and I'm trying not to change her nappy but nothing is helping!!
Has anyone else had this? What can I do?? She's also impossible to get to sleep (and stay asleep) in the daytime as well at the moment so I'm not getting any rest. She's crazily active and I can't seem to leave her be for a minute to play quietly - she's scoots on her back up and off the playmat (heading for a wall...) and she buckaroos out of her bouncer and bagaboo. I can put her in her jumperoo but only for 5 minutes before she gets frustrated.
She might be teething but doesn't seem in pain just dribbling, hand chewing (like a rabid dog) - could that be the problem?
Please help!

Sorry - some details; she's EBF and sleeps in a cot in our room

I don't have any suggestions (sorry!) but wanted you to know you're not alone. My son did this from the age of one until two, it was absolutely wretched while it lasted but he did eventually grow out of it.

The only thing I would say is that I NEVER got him up when he did this unless it was for a nappy change etc. I would just keep settling him back down (sometimes for up to 3 hours) as I was terrified he would otherwise get the message that night time was play time.

Many a time I woke up slumped against the cot bars and with the inprint of them across my face where I had nodded off rubbing his back etc. He is 6 now and much more civilised!

Hiya no advice either but my DD (also 5 mo) does this and its exhausting. I don't speak in the night, keep it dark, don't change her nappy but still sometimes she wakes for 2 hours. Basically once she has woken up enough its a 2 hour awake cycle before she gets tired enough to sleep.

However I don't rock my DD I just leave her in her cot as she is always happy but awake. After an hour and a half/2 hours she moans a bit so I put her dummy in and she goes back to sleep. Is your DD upset? If not I wouldn't waste energy rocking her, just rest in bed even if you can't sleep (I can't)

My DD is also EBF and in our room (bedside cot)

My theories include - teething (although no pain?!), not enough naps, too late a nap and being too loud when she first goes back into her cot in a milky doze. IE I haven't got a clue!

DS1 did this when a baby. Eventually I worked out it was overtiredness, generally accumulated. As a pp mentioned, they stay awake for an awake cycle (mine is 1.5hrs) then can be resettled. I aim for as little intervention as possible and wait it out!

DS2 10 months does the same and if we have had a bad night, I try and bring naps forward a little in the day to prevent overtiredness and bring bedtime forward as early as I can, as this helps them to catch up on sleep the best ime.

Yes, it's usually either overtiredness or a sleep regression (there's one before the 19 week developmental leap and one before the 26 week one, so I doubt it'd be that).

DS's awake cycle was always 1.5 hours, which is pretty normal. If I missed the 1.5 hour point, he'd be up for 3 hours. In the end, I let him roam around the bed in the dark (we co-sleep) as long as he was happy, then fed / rocked him when the 1.5 hours was up. He always did this when overtired ie awake for too long between naps.

Does she sleep in a sling in the day? I'd do anything it takes to get better naps and you should see an improvement in the nights - eg driving throughout the nap if she sleeps in the car, keeping walking in the sling throughout the nap.

Most children this age need 3 naps a day, or 4 naps if they only sleep for one sleep cycle (40-45 mins). If they wake at 7, they often want to nap at roughly 9am, 12/1pm and 3/4/5pm, although that obviously varies.

If her nights improve, you may see an improvement on the daytimes as they affect each other. As jazz said, an earlier bedtime often helps too.

I think some babies are just like this. Up until my DD was 9mo she was exactly the same - waking a couple of times & for 1/2hour stretches. I don't think there's much you can do apart from wait it out I'm afraid. She's now 11mo and sleeps through!

I was bad and would play with her when she woke and talk to her, I couldn't handle it otherwise. We co-slept though and I'm single so didn't have to worry about waking anyone else up.

I think you just do what you have to to get through it basically. Not entirely sure I agree with what people r saying about naps - some babies hardly nap. My DD has been on one nap from about 7mo. At 11mo now she naps for around 45mins at 10-11am and that's it. They're all so different there's no real pattern.

Good luck, just do what you can to get enough sleep yourself at the moment and it will pass x

Oh dear Newbabynewmum I have to say I really hope you're wrong! :-) I don't think I can last another week of this nevermind another 4 months!
s I think it could be teething and yes, she is definitely overtired. I worked out that in the last 24 hour stretch of 7pm to 7pm she slept roughly 8 hours which is terrible - and she's been in a state as well - crying all the time and not feeding very well. So she's obviously not functioning well and needs more sleep. I tried everything to get her to nap more today- and managed 3 naps of around half an hour each so we'll see how that goes tonight. (We live in South Korea btw and so are 8 hours ahead of you back there at the moment - our day is nearly done!) She hates the sling but does like the baby bjorn carrier so I walked around with that in the house today and we went for a long walk with the pram - but she's seriously fighting sleep!
haloflo: she cries when she wakes and I tend to leave her a while but if I leave her too long it becomes a cry..then a scream...the girl gets angry pretty fast!

Another question - does anyone have a routine before a nap? Wth bedtime the bath, feed, sleep routine works a treat for her and so wonder if there's anything I could do to trigger the same response before a nap?

Hi SamiK - how did the night go?

We also have trouble with naps but i'm working on it. Last night DD was awake from 1.15-2.55am and pretty unsettled most of the time

I don't have a nap time routine I just tend to pop her in the cot, dummy in and put her musical seahorse. Sometimes it works easily, sometimes she cries and I comfort her to sleep. Usually she stays asleep for 30/45 mins. In the pram its 30 mins.

I'm thinking I might change her into a sleepsuit, same as I do at night, and try this at similar times everyday to see if I can improve her naps.

my ds is 18m and doing this atm. It's definatly developmental in his case (prob tied to speach). He did it at 15m aswell. When he came out of that phase the change in him was increadable. Between the two regressions he slept through with no intervention from me.

I have always got up with him. We cosleep and he is a climber so i need to keep an eye on him. Plus often he needs a snack. Despite this it has not become a habit, he gives it up when he is ready, not before, of his own accord. Only to start again a few months later but hey, can't stop him developing. It normally lasts a few weeks.

Hope you get some sleep soon!

Well the night was better....kind of! She napped better yesterday and slept from 7 to 10.30 :-( - but went straight back down after a loooong feed - awake again at 1am but again back down after a feed - then awake again at 3am :-( - this time I thought I'd change her nappy as I was feeling confident and thought it would help her to sleep longer...stoopid! She was awake then until 5am when she eventually fell asleep next to me in bed (first time I've done that) - she slept then until 7am which was quite nice! So a mixed bag.
I know I should be trying to get her to fall asleep on her own but I'm so desperate for her to get to sleep that I do whatever it takes - I'm making things worse for myself aren't I?! I'm completely against the cry it out method though....and that seems to be the only way?
Also she's so bloody active that feeding times during the day are a wrestling match - she only feeds lying down on her back on the bed with her legs constantly kicking and her arms waving around. She gets bored of this after 5 minutes and starts crying so I don't think she's getting enough to eat during the day - and so using the night feeds as her the time to fill up!
Argh - so many issues to deal with :-(