5 Month Old Whimpering All Through the Night

Hmmm sounds too me like your daughter just wants her NUK and needs your help getting it. I did this with my son for months and months and like you felt extremely sleep deprived. My son would just wimper until I got up and put the NUK in his mouth. I tried a couple of nights to "let him cry it out" but found that the whimpers turned to crying and I was even more tired because I would have to eventually console him back to sleep. It really only took less than a minute to put the NUK in his mouth so he could soothe himself back to sleep. As he has gotten older, I purchased a "breathable" bumper pad at Babies R Us and have about 4 NUKS in there at a time, I also put a night light near his crib so that he can search for them on his own!! This has worked wonderfully and we are all sleeping through the night (except mom who out of habit has to check on my babies to make sure they are covered) Good luck,

K.,

She might be teething. My daughter is 7 months, and her first two teeth came in at 6 months. She started waking more at around 5 - 5 1/2 months, then the teeth popped out right at 6 months.

Jessica

www.askdrsears.com

babies sleep habits typically DO NOT remain the same. they change every time baby has teething issues, every time baby learns a new skill, such as rolling over, crawling, standing up, walking...

i want you to know that you are doing the right thing for you and your baby!! i want you to know especially, that sleeping with your baby, and your feelings as a nervous new mom arent abnormal and they are just what your baby needs!! keep it up mom! you are doing a great job! :D listen to your heart and your instincts, that is the best way to raise a happy and loving child! :D

as far as putting cereal in her formula; not a good idea. formula (or breastmilk) is for nutrition through a year. babies dont need solids until a year for nutrition reasons, we start with them between 4-6 months because they need to get used to the texture and the process, not to give them any different nutrition. putting cereal in the bottle will connect tasting cereal with bottle... and what you want her to know is that cereal is for eating with a spoon at "meal" times not for drinking with her formula. besides that it can plug the nipple of the bottle, or sometimes cause baby to choke, especially if a plug dislodges and breaks or tears the bottle nipple....

anyway, no more cereal in bottles. it doesnt help babies sleep better, and cereal is for eating, not drinking! :D

but really im so happy to hear that you sleep with your baby! so many people are told not to do it, that its unsafe, and then mama and baby are both unhappy and exhausted. just do what you have to do to get sleep for all of you. if that means sleepsharing longer or more, and you are comfortable with that, go for it! my son is 2 1/2 and he still prefers to sleep in his crib in our room. it doesnt bother us and when he wakes with a night terror, its easier to go a foot away from our bed to get him than all the way down the hall in sleep you know? either way, its important that you do what is best for YOU and your family, not what the "experts" say you should do.

i like william sears, martha sears and some of their kids have things out too - jim sears is on the doctors, and robert sears wrote the vaccination book.... they are all great, and the most important thing that they advocate is a close responsive relationship with your child and following the instincts that you have for your child. you and dad are the only 2 people in the WORLD who know your child as intimatly as you do. you are the same blood, the same cells! :D so any instinct that you have is usually right! :D

go mom! just do what you have to do!

I was thinking ear infection or teething at first but this has been going on for such a long time.

My daughter just cut her first tooth and it's been a breeze but it wasn't about 2mos. ago when she was heavily teething and the teeth were working their way up and all the pressure really bothered her. That's when we had to use orajel and find cold things for her to chew.

I would rule out ear infection/teething and then you may have to just get tough and let her cry it out in her own crib in her own room. YES it is really hard I too coslept with my oldest til she was 6years old and My youngest we put her in a pack in play in our room at 6mos. and were trying to get her in her crib too. She still wakes up for bottles. It's hard one night I'm just gonna have to be a meanie and do it because I too aint getting any sleep. She woke up 3x this early early morning alone.

I hope that someone can help you, all i can say is it is normal at least it was for my son, only my son never slept well at night til 7 months. He got his own room at 3 months (we did co sleeping til then) but he was one of those kids that just woke a lot at night (every hour or 2 until he was 7 months) at 7 months he started sleeping straight through 12 hours now he is 15 months old and maybe 3-4 times a week i have to get up with him for 5 mins or so due to bad dreams. If you have the option maybe you could try giving her, her own room. Give her a lovey of some sort (my son has a monkey) and maybe get her a cd player with calm music that plays through the night. Good luck

Hi K.,
It sounds like your sweet little baby is rebelling against her new sleeping arrangements. She is used to being in bed with you and your husband, not in her cradle. Also, I think she whimpers at night because of this and/or she wants her nuk, which you guys so patiently give her. I've been there...I know. When my youngest daughter was 3, yes 3, we finally decided to wean her off her pacifier and night time was terrible. She would not actually wake up, but she would cry and carry on and be desperate for that thing. It was so hard on me to see that, but I knew I couldn't give in. After a few days she didn't need it anymore and we all could get some sleep.
So my advice would be to consider just putting her in her crib now, so you don't have to go through another transition later. Maybe after this happens you can deal with the pacifier issue. She will learn to settle herself down. I know it will be hard and you will have to endure a few sleepless nights but better now than when your new baby is here. Take care and good luck.

Maybe the rice cereal you give her at bedtime isn't agreeing with her.

Many babies aren't ready to digest solids at her age.

My family has found co-sleeping to be the best way for everyone to sleep well at night.

Another thing to consider: Although I didn't know this before I had kids, it is not uncommon for small babies to sleep long stretches, only to become more wakeful as they become more mobile. My first child slept 6-8 hour stretches between two months and four months of age. As soon as he was able to roll over, he started waking up more often. By the time he could crawl and pull himself up, he was waking frequently during the night. That was when we realized that co-sleeping was going to work best for all of us.

I continued to put him to sleep in his room, but as soon as he woke up he came into our bed. I would have been a zombie otherwise, because getting him back to sleep in our bed took a minute, while getting him back to sleep in his crib took forever--and he would wake up again soon after.