5 month old waking up every 40 minutes through the night

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The last few nights my 5 month has been waking up every 40 minutes or so throughout the night. She thrashes herself about her next to me. I've never seen someone be so restless in their sleep. Hands fly up, legs fly up. Rolling about all night.

Her sleep is worse than when she was a new born.

We tried a dummy to soothe her, however when she spits it out she wakes herself up.

When she wakes she's not grumpy, she's squealing in delight like she does every morning. We need to put her back to bed and then at 6am we're up.

I feel more sleep deprived the last few nights than what I was with a newborn.

I just wanted to know if anyone else experienced this and if there's any tips? If this is the next 'phase' so be it but i'm just looking for some advice as she's absolutely shattered come 9am

Did you already have the 4 month progression? If you haven't then this is probably it. It'll resolve itself eventually, but it could be a few weeks. And then there will be other disruptions almost continuously. None will be as bad as the 4 month change though, or you just get used to it and find ways to cope so it doesn't feel so horrible.

Saying that, if you notice her being generally unhappy about the sleep thing, not wanting to lie down, swallowing, burping, and then going to sleep on your shoulder it could be reflux. Mine had it bad and had to be put on omeprazole which helped a lot! He was always happy in the day, but couldn't sleep at night.

This sounds like absolutely classic not being able to connect sleep cycles.

Can she self settle ie can she fall asleep for a nap or at bedtime without you assisting sleep - feed to sleep, rock to sleep etc?

If she can’t then this is the issue, she is semi waking at the end of a sleep cycle and is looking for the same assistance to get back to sleep each time.

The fix is to teach her to self settle, easier said than done. Controlled crying is the fastest way but many would not want to do it at this age - though personally I did it about this age and it worked really quickly within one night whereas leaving it till later seems to mean it takes longer and there is more distress. If you don’t want to however there are slower methods to teach self settling with (in theory) less crying, gradual withdrawal is the main one.

I'm sorry you're going through this. It's rough and I still am traumatised by going through it myself. I'm afraid to say it went on for 8 weeks and I nearly lost my mind. I was in a bad place and so bitter that others "only" had three wake ups in the night. In the end, we had no choice but to sleep train. It got us through although it wasn't a permanent fix. She's still not a great sleeper at 2.5.

Yes sleep training was not a 100% fix for us either - DD is just not a great sleeper and so we still had broken sleep with teeth, colds, dawn waking, even now age 10 she wakes us with nightmares - but we never went back to the every 40 minutes hell. 1 or 2 or even 3 wakes a night is manageable in comparison with that.

I think the ability to ride it out partly depends on how sleep has been up till this point, DD was appalling at sleep from birth so I cracked early!

Good luck OP

If you don't feel like it's the right thing for you, please know that you don't have to sleep train. All kids will figure it out eventually, sleep is a biological function and not a skill to be taught. Mine is now 15 months old and is still supported to sleep for his nap and bedtime, but mostly sleeps through unless he's teething, has a cold or is physically cold on a chilly night. Never sleep trained, always responded to. He's recently in the last week or two started resisting being bounced and prefers to roll around on his bed and on top of me and then snuggles in and goes to sleep. Babies and toddlers will tell you how they want to go to sleep if you listen, and if you nurse to sleep now it doesn't mean you will have to do it forever, and if you swap nursing to bouncing like we did, again it doesn't mean you have to do it forever. And I can't remember the last time he needed anything other than a hug and a shoulder to lean on when he wakes at night, even if he was bounced to sleep initially.

Oh, and to add, he was a pretty awful sleeper until I night weaned. The 4 month regression made me start cosleeping, he kept waking at least every 2-3 hours until 12 months old when I night weaned, and never went back in his cot but we transitioned to a floor bed that fits one adult next to him on rough nights when he needs it. Before anyone thinks "of course you didn't have to sleep train if yours was a good sleeper", he wasn't! 😂

My boy is coming up to 6 months and js still in his next to me and will be I think for a little bit longer until sleeps better

around 5 months I think the regression hit us and it lasted maybe a week. We haven’t sleep trained and I don’t really want to. What helped was dropping from 4 naps down to 3 naps and capping each nap max 1 hour although a lot of the time he wakes after 45 mins. We still have good and bad nights. Last night slept from 8-1am fed then to 5am and was up a lot from them. 2 nights before was every hour from 2am as I think his naps were too long. A few nights ago he did 8-3am fed then slept til 7am although that’s very rare

im just hoping it gradually gets better and have a bit more consistency. I also haven’t started putting him in his cot for naps which will be another battle. You have my sympathy though as I know how bad those nights are when it’s every sleep cycle!

Hy , I m going through this sleep regression phase , my baby is waking up every 30-40 mins and I m not in a good position .
can you tell me what helped you? It would be great help . Thank you