5 month sleep regression?

[happydays00]

Is this a thing?

My DD has mostly been an ok sleeper but for the past week she has started waking up for the day at 3:30am! And now I'm struggling.. When she wakes she does a lot of shouting and thrashing around. I have tried giving her a bottle (sometimes she takes it, sometimes she doesn't), I've tried water (with no real success), have tried leaving her, have tried rocking and ssshing but nothing appears to be working..

Before her 3:30am wake up time, our "routine" looked a little like this:

5:30/6am wake and bottle (then fed every 4 hours)
8 - 9:30ish - nap and then will try to get her back to sleep every 1.5-2hrs depending on length of nap which varies between 30 - 60 mins. Occasionally there is a 1-1.5 hour nap in the afternoon but this is quite rare.
Last nap normally a short 20-30 minutes around 4-5pm.
Bed at 6:30ish. Her bed time routine is bath, bottle and bed and she goes down in her cot awake and settles herself to sleep quickly.
Dream feed at 10ish.

I have tried getting her to go to sleep later in the evening but with no success as she then got over tired and woke up regularly throughout the night.

She won't take a dummy and co-sleeping from 3:30am hasn't helped either, she just thrashes around shouting.

Any ideas?

Could she be hungry? DS was eating every three hours at that age (still is and he's almost 7mo now). How much is she taking at each meal?

fartniss she could be as she has not been doing very well with her bottles but if I try any more than every 4 hours it gets even worse and then she starts screaming every time I try and put the bottle in her mouth! She takes between 120-180ml 5 x times a day. I've started to introduce purees as I was hoping this might fill her up and stop the 3:30am wake up but no luck yet!

Your routine is pretty much the same as mine and my 5 month old has started doing the same over the last couple of weeks. Last night he was awake at 3...not hungry, just babbling away to himself! He then woke up again at 5 for a feed.

Do you think she's starting to teeth? My Ds seems to be constantly chewing on his hands at the minute and I'm wondering whether that's the reason his sleeping pattern has changed.

This is very similar to our 5 month old. She went through a phase of acting like 3am was morning and got very excited and playful. It's a lot better now but it sometimes happens. Can only list the thing s we tried. Some things work some nights but not others. Main difference with our LO is she has 210 ml each feed. She's not very big for her age, she's around 9th centile so wondering if your LO might take more? She doesn't always completely finish bottle but usually does. We feed every 4 hours starting at 7am. Last feed is more like 6.15/6.30 as she can't stay awake till 7pm. Not feeding in between means she's hungry enough for her next feed to take a lot of milk. We've just moved her onto size 3 teats and this has helped her take more at dream feed. We sometimes dream feed at 11 so you might try that. Other ways in which we've tried to sort the 3am/3.30am waking is to ensure heating stays on around that time so she doesn't wake with cold, if one of us goes to the loo around 2am onwards we put her Ewan the sheep on and the white noise has seemed to keep her sleeping past that point. We've also done a nappy change as sometimes it was heavy wet/dirty and we surmised that this could be waking her. Our LO almost always wakes at 5am now but we co sleep with her between us with her on top of the duvet and this ways she sleeps till 7-8. It's not for everything (swore I'd never do it) but it seems only way to keep LO sleeping longer. You said co sleeping wasn't working but it might do in combination with other things? Our LO sleeps in a gro bag and we put her on top on our duvet so it's safer. If all else fails can you and DP take it in turns to get up with her at 3.30 until it passes? Good luck

My DS is waking up for abfeed at night again sometimes, and I think it's because of the purees! There's not enough calories in carrot purée, for example, to fill him up properly. I've started giving him more high calorie foods like yoghurt and avocado which seems to be helping. I'm sure someone with better advice will be along soon.

My DS is 5months old and is doing the same. He cut 2 teeth on Thursday and seems slightly better since but not much. He was a brilliant sleeper- I'd put him down at 7:30/8 and he would sleep all the way through till 6:30/7. How smug was I? Not any more! The last 6 weeks have been awful.

I found that the introduction of solids made DS sleep worse. He has always woken every 3 hours, but now he wakes and doesn't got back to sleep! I think it's the extra energy from the food.

My 5 month old DS has similar issues at the moment. He always got a dream feed around 11pm and then woke up once per night for a feed around 3am, but he had recently started doing longer stretches, till 4 or even 5am some times.

I was thrilled cause I thought he was working towards sleeping through finally! But alas, just as he hit 5months he started waking up earlier and earlier. He grunts, shouts and looks like he strains and is uncomfortable. I think it is some times gas and some times teething. He has been drooling and biting his fists like crazy for about 2 months now so he might be closer to cutting first tooth now!

(Does anybody know how long that takes?)

Could your LO be teething too?

The way they sleep changes at 4-5 months causing this regression. It will pass. Do what you can to get through it (you can't go over or under it).

A 5 month old should not be having solids unless you've been given medical advice to do so.

22 weeks here and her sleeping has been the absolute pits for over a week now, topped off of course with a streaming cold this weekend. I suddenly have no idea what to do or how to settle her. Every time I put her in her cot she wakes up crying again, even an hour after a feed so she's not hungry. At the end of my tether. I want my amazing sleeper back!