5 month old crying all night and nothing soothes her!

[jrwxx]

I've done a previous post about baby sleep. My daughter is now 5 months old and recently has started crying between 11pm and 5am for hours on end! She sleeps best between 7pm and 10pm and then all hell breaks loose

She's never been a good sleeper or had long day time naps. However, I use to be able to settle and soothe her during the night with a cuddle, dummy, bottle etc.. now NOTHING will soothe her, she just cries and cries no matter what I do- swaddle, nappy change, cosy cuddle, sitting her up, rocking her, bottle, dummy, white noise.. you get the idea. If I constantly give her a bottle that settles her for a little while but I surely can't feed her ever hour during the night. I try and wait 2/3 hours before giving her another feed. There's no way I could let her CIO because it isn't like she's fussing it's full on crying.

Is this maybe a regression? Teething perhaps? Something else? I'm utterly exhausted, and I can imagine my daughter is too as she definitely is not getting enough sleep. Don't have a partner to help at night so that's not an option.
Has anyone else had similar experiences with their babies and have any tips? I hope it passes soon.

My daughter started being unhappy through the night around 5.5 months and we started solids, turned out she wasn’t being satisfied with milk anymore. They don’t all switch to solids at exactly 6 months old.

But if others are saying it sounds like an infection I would look at that too.

For reflux make sure her cot mattress is on an incline. Some next to me cribs can do it this, justice set one end lower than the other or use a sofa cushion under one end.

Is she being fed to sleep at the start or is she used to being fed back to sleep overnight? If infection/reflux has been ruled out, might be that she's unhappy that she's not being helped back to sleep between sleep cycles the way she would prefer. I found that 5 months was the peak of the sleep regression and it lasted til mine was well over 7 months and I'd put my foot down about not being fed to sleep. He still woke for feeds but not every hour!

@jrwxx

I also want to add- I'm used to her wakening through the night but it's the fact she's wakening up crying and I'm not able to settle her.

Pain in the ears is worse when laying down.

Could she be cold? I have a 5m old boy and we couldn’t work out why he’s started waking at 2am instead of 5am like he usually did. We switched to a 2.5tog sleeping bag and he sleeps through now. Well, until he contracted a horrible cough that is and now none of us are getting any sleep

@DieselBlue89

Does anyone know if there is anything they can do if it is an ear infection? When my little one had one the doc said they don't prescribe antibiotics for them.

They told me they don’t normally prescribe them but because she’d been screaming at night for over a week they would.

Milk satisfies and helps = either reflux (to soothe) or growth spurt (hunger).
You could give capol to rule out pain.
If ear infection that would require antibiotics then yes classic picture is spike/very high temp, rubbing or tugging ear/s and more painful when lying down, recent history of a cold etc. If not this bad then usually clears itself within 3-5 days so antibiotics are not prescribed.

Mines reflux used to flare in a growth spurt, teething or illness. Would be awake between 1am - 4/5am crying, we had headphones for the telly and just held him as nothing worked. If you see GP could request ranitadine or omeprazole for as and when needed. But I'd try calpol and more milk first

So lastnight she went down at 7:20 and woke up crying at 9:30. I gave her half a bottle which settled her, she seemed gurgly and kept turning her head from side to side, she seemed agitated and uncomfortable. I popped a pillow in her cot under her head/back/shoulders (yes yes I know that's frowned upon) She was lying rather elevated, almost like she was sat up and she didn't wake up crying for the rest of the night!! Her breathing seemed so much smoother and calmer too. She still woke up about 3 times but I was able to soothe her with a little sook of a bottle or a nappy change. Still not a great night but much better than before!

I know I shouldn't be feeding her every time she wakes up but it's sometimes the only thing that will soothe and comfort her back to sleep.

Looks like I'll be investing in a mattress wedge as well

... Or a cheaper (and safer) way to raise her head is to put a tin of tuna (or books, or a brick) under the cot legs at the head end.

pillow in her cot under her head/back/shoulders (yes yes I know that's frowned upon

Why did you not put it under her mattress as I suggested? That takes away the risk of things going wrong.

Put the pillow, or a rolled towel, under the mattress as a pp suggested. Same effect but safer

Could be teething - both mine had teething pain at night by that age which was worse laying down.

Have you tried calpol? If you give her a dose and she then sleeps massively better, you'll know she's waking becaise of pain.