5 month old - every night awake from 3am. Can anyone help...?

[billybunter]

If anyone can advise me here I would be so grateful!

My son goes to bed at about 7. Has bottle at 10 or so, then wakes at 3. Totally awake. He seems to appreciate a feed (although not pushing for one IFYSWIM). I change him, apply teething gel and then tuck him back in. I stay beside him and basically sit and will him to sleep. But he's awake so nothing will mKe that happen. It can take up to two hours on a bad night.
Then shortly after, my three year old will get up for the day. So I may end up getting up fir the day at 3am.

I try and push feeds during the day is getting his full milk quota between 7am and 10pm. Daytime sleep never more than four hours. Good morning nap (one hour), hour and a half at lunch, will sleep hour in late afternoon too but sometimes hard to settle for that one and skips it.

Any ideas? Thanks!

just a thought but do you need to get to him a bit earlier?? I used to 'leave' DD 6 months to chatter and fuss a little while as thought she might resettle herself, but for last 3-4 weeks she also wakes at 3 without fail for food. If I leave her too long she is DEAD awake- If I rush to her feed her while she is still a bit sleepy she will then go back down no problem. I don't change her (unless poopy) as I know this will totally wake her, i don't even put the light on to be honest.

DD's naps sound similar too- and I find we are cursed if she does not get that last nap. So I do whatever to get her it (feed to sleep if she wants) or she will wake up even more often as she goes to bed overtired....

hope this helps... x

It could be a lot of things, and there are a lot of things to try.

From the naps it doesn't sound like it, but could he be overtired? If he's only sleeping 8 hours per night he might be, though, even with good naps. Consider putting him down a little earlier, especially if he hasn't had his third nap? Or getting more sleep during the day? Overtiredness causes early waking.

It sounds like he is getting a lot of attention in the night, which could be reainforcing the wake-ups. Do you need to change his nappy when he wakes? If it is just wet, I would leave it as that could be waking him up too much.

Is he crying while you try to get him back to sleep? Can you leave him to just see if he sorts himself out? (We did shush-pat with DD till we couldn't see straight but when we left her for short intervals she sorted herself out much faster, with much less crying.) Our DD was older when we tried this -- I don't know if it's appropriate for such a young baby, but I don't see the harm in trying for a few minutes. Or, if he isn't crying, can you steal another hour of sleep while he plays in his cot?

If you don't think he's hungry, this could just be a habit. (Sounds like it, from the regularity.) Giving him a feed that you don't think he needs could be training him to wake at that time. Can you try wake-to-sleep? I haven't used it but others have had great success. (There are lots of threads on this, including one going on right now.)

Frankly, we tried all kinds of methods (for long periods, consistently, etc.) but we have had the best success with just leaving DD to sort herself out. She is eleven months and I still feed her once in the night. I go to her if she is teething or unwell, and I never leave her to cry for more than a few minutes, but she finds it much easier to get back to sleep without my help. Some babies are too stimulated by the parent coming in to get back to sleep. It isn't what I expected but it has resulted in fewer tears in our house.

Good luck.

I'd do less naps during the day tbh. Neither my dd or ds slept anywhere near that amount in a 24 hour period.

Also agree with the minimum fuss on waking. Just feed and put back to sleep. No changing or anything.

Also, I'd put him to bed at 10pm rather than 7pm. If he's sleeping 8 hours I'd prefer them to be the 8 hours I'm sleeping.