Bedtime and Schedule for a 5 Month Old

Yup...sounds totally normal to me! My daughter is 6 months old and goes to bed at about 8pm and then wakes anywhere between 2-4 to eat and then again around 6or7. We are up for the day.

there is no way you can control a baby's sleeping time until they get 1 year old or so... its definitely normal.. my baby is 9months now and she sleeps 12 midnight or so and wakes up 8am..

you have to adjust and do chores according to her body clock..

Sounds like you were blessed then she turned into a normal baby lol. It's totally normal. You can't try to control their sleeping until they are almost a year old or close to it. If she is soothing at 1am then I think you just have to do it at this point. The feeding is totally normal, at 5 months old my daughter woke up 2-3 times a night to eat, the 3rd time was just soothing. She sleeps fine now at 2 1/2. They get over it. It's normal.

I do think there is a baby whisperer book if you want to try it.

Growth-spurt, will occur at 6 months old.
So anticipate, that she WILL need to feed, more and more frequently.
And to feed on-demand, day and night.
This is normal.

She is probably waking, because she is hungry.
My kids had GINORMOUS appetites, and woke like that too.
Then they would nurse me dry, both breasts.
Then go back to sleep.

Babies also rustle during sleep. Even adults do that.
But, make sure you go by her cues, and make sure if she is hungry.... or not.

Your baby, is sleeping-through the night, if she is going to bed at 6:30 and waking at 1:00am. This is, more than 6 hours straight.
Her waking at 4:00am, is normal.

And YES, WHENEVER a baby is hitting milestones and new motor-skills... it DOES tweak their sleep.
But it is a phase.
You just gotta ride it out.
You cannot turn 'off' their motor-skills impulses. They do it, all the time and during sleep. It is practice. They don't know yet, how to control their appendages or movements.
Normal. Normal. Normal.

Sleep in babies, is not ever, static. It ALWAYS changes, per their development and growth-spurts and hunger.

Nurse/Feed her on-demand.
Remember, if her last feeding before bed was at 6:30pm... and then not until 4:00am... then that is 9.5 HOURS, that she did not feed!
Her waking at 1:00am to me, she needs to feed.

Sounds fairly normal. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, by Marc Weissbluth, says that until your baby is about 9 months old, she will eat 1-2 times per night, and you should not stop feeding before that. Mine did - I only night-weaned him after 9 months. He would still sometimes wake up, and I would go in just to settle him. (I don't like leaving him to cry, and unless I started nursing him again, didn't revert to old habits, he would go back to sleeping through very quickly. He sleeps 11-12 hours a night 95% of the time now.)

You're not doing anything wrong - congrats on your little treasure!

I would be careful of using a sleep positioner - I've heard they can increase the risk of SIDS. Don't take my word for it, but do some research online.

A lot of times babies tend to regress right before hitting some milestones or maybe a growth spurt. Just give her and yourself some time, maybe a week or two, and you will probably be back on schedule again.

I agree! Totally normal! She is on the verge of the trifecta of teething, a growth spurt and being more aware of her surroundings. You sound like you're doing everything right (nursing on demand, comforting, etc). Much like waking and potty readiness, sleeping through the night is a developmental milestone and she'll get there in good time. You'll go through periods where she sleeps great and at ither times, not so much. Continue to be patient and keep up the great work, mama!

shes five months she sis teething. feeed the baby and dont think anything is normal with bed into the first year. good luck time will past quickly

Like others have said, milestones mess with the little ones. My daughter was pretty consistently sleeping through around 4 months and at 7 months started waking up about 3x per night...TEETHING! Plus, random sleep cycle changes will happen once in a while with babies.

My rule of thumb for night waking after about age 16 weeks (based on "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby", plus my own experiences with my kids) is that I'd give the baby about 5-10 minutes (depending on the urgency of the noise) to settle down on her own without me intruding. If she couldn't settle down, I'd go in for a quick nursing. After that, I'd put her back in her crib. If she started crying after that, I'd go in to pick her up for a quick snuggle, settle her back down and then put her down and that was it. If she started crying, she was crying until she fell back asleep. My thoughts are that if she's fed and she's been snuggled, I've done what I can and the rest is up to her. Then repeat as necessary for the other various night wakings (as long as it's been more than, say, an hour between wakings).

I definitely prefer to attend to a crying baby--with limitations--because she needs to know that if she actually needs something/help, I'll be there for her. My son will still periodically call for us in the middle of the night for nightmares, etc (he's almost 8 yrs), and we'll go in for all of a minute, make sure he's ok and then we all go back to sleep. If my daughter (almost 2) wakes up, I'll give her 10-15 minutes to settle back down, like when she was a baby--99.9% of the time, she'll fall back asleep perfectly fine without intervention.

The good news is that this, too, shall pass!

This is normal but you can try to get her back to sleeping through the night still. I would try and keep her up another hour if you can and give her a big feeding before bad. I used a sleep positioner at this age and also the velcro swaddlers from babies r us. This seems to keep her snug, which is what she needed to sleep. My girl could move around early, but she didn't like it. She wanted to be snuggled up. As for the food my DR told me it was more about the habit than the full tummy - in other words if she got used to having a big bottle before bed and then nothing until morning, that is what she would do. It worked great. Good luck

You can sleep train her at this point. You're at the stage where YOU will create a habit for her, rather than the other way around. How you respond to her wakings where she doesn't need to eat....will only reinforce that behavior as she gets older and more aware.

I did full CIO with my daughter at 22 weeks, so right where you are now.
Best. Decision. Ever. I had to be talked into it, but man I'm so glad I finally did it! I say full CIO because there are a lot of versions of "controlled crying". Full CIO is close the door, and don't back in until morning.
Took 2 nights. Now she sleeps 12 hrs straight every night. Through teeth, growth spurts, colds...everything. If she wakes, she gets herself back to sleep on her own.
I've asked myself a million times why I didn't do it sooner.

You have to decide what you're comfortable with, but do some research on sleep training and find what works for you. Otherwise, you'll be posting this again in 6 mos wondering why your 1yr old doesn't sleep through the night yet.

Look at babysleepsite . com to see. She has great info there.