5 Month Old Gets up to Play at 2 Am

Updated on April 19, 2007
J.B. asks from Fayetteville, NC
6 answers

My 5 month old daughter has been sleeping through the night since she was a month old. Suddenly, for the past week she gets up around 2 am deciding it's time to play. It takes me about an hour to get her to go back to sleep, having to lie her in my bed next to me. I've tried putting some cereal in her bottle but she falls asleep before even having an ounce of it. Anyone know what I can do to get her to go back to sleeping through the night again?

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M.M.

answers from Norfolk on

Cereal in the bottle is a choking hazard and it doesn't help with sleeping through the night. If you want to feed cereal, do so from a spoon. If she won't take a spoon, then she's not ready for the cereal.

Most kids tend to sleep better at 2-3 months than they do at 5-6. They're about to start hitting a bunch of developmental milestones. That's also a common time to start teething. There's nothing you can do to make her sleep through the night. You can make it less appealing for her to be up. Don't turn on any lights, don't play. Just do whatever it is that you do to put her to sleep. Make night time boring.

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S.C.

answers from Fayetteville on

if all she is doing is playing leave her alone. if she fusses treat it like bed time. alot of babies do thi and this is the age they start learning to sooth themselves to sleep. good luck.

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J.B.

answers from Columbia on

She might also be having a growth spurt. You might try feeding her a little more during the day. 5 months is a good time to start rice cereal. And when she does wake up - let her be for while and see if she'll go back to sleep. My girl did this as well - still does sometimes - at 5am. I find that if I leave her along - she sits up and babbles for about 15 minutes and then lays down and goes back to sleep. If she uses a paci and is losing it (like my son always did), you can put a couple of extra ones in the corner of the crib for her.

Good luck!

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N.B.

answers from Fayetteville on

Hi! I know this can be frusterating... my son started doing that too! I started waiting a few minutes before going in his room.... he would play in his crib or cry a little and then go back to sleep. If he continued to cry I would treat it like the regular night time routine... I would go in without turning on any lights... give him his passi... lay him down and put his blanket on him... but that was only if he continued to cry for 5-10 minutes. If she is just making some noise or wimpering... wait on it... she needs to learn how to put herself back to sleep... or she is gonna be 12 waking you up in the middle of the night cause she's bored... LoL... just kidding! Anyway... I hope this helps, let us know how it goes! Good luck...

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S.G.

answers from Savannah on

This is totally normal. As babies become more aware of their enviroment they wake up a bit more in the night. My son used to wake up about 5am and turn on his mobile. Nothing like getting woke up to 10 mins of lullabies blasting through the baby mointor!!! But after about 15 to 20 mins he would fall back to sleep and not get up till around 7ish. Of course now we trun his mobile off at night but he still wakes up for time to time to play. I just leave him be. As long as he isn't crying I leave him alone. Same with your daughter. If she isn't screaming or ear shattering crying, leave her in there to sooth herself back to sleep. At 2am it is still plenty dark out so she will learn over time that dark is for sleeping and day light is for playing.

Good luck to you both!

S.

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C.B.

answers from Charleston on

Hello,
I had this problem with my 2 year old. I bought a sleep aid book for children and I followed the advice and it worked for me. It said that my child spent too much nap time in bed and to shorten his naps. Your child needs about some where around 12 hours of sleep total, so make sure she doesn't take too long of naps. My 7 month old son takes only two naps a day lasting one hour each. He then sleeps 10 hours at night. Hope this helps!

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