Five Month Old Sleepless

My son did the same thing around that age where he would take about five 30 minute naps a day vs the longer naps he took when he was younger. I had read that a lot of that has to do with how much more active they are becoming and that are busy working on new skills. All I can say is that he grew out of it and now takes consistent hour or so naps twice a day. Sometimes I would try and rock him back to sleep if he was really fussy when waking, but it is hard to break that habit once it gets started.

I would call his doctor. My little one did the same thing at 7 months when he got an ear infection. I wouldn't have known except for his trouble sleeping as it hurts more when they are laying down (horizontal). It never hurts just to have him checked out. They will know immediately and put him on antibiotics which will bring him relief within a few days. If it is teething, they can usually tell that too. Since he is used to sleeping well and this just started suddenly, it sounds like something going on that the doctor would be able to help with. Good luck sweetie.

My son use to do the same thing, after a week of this I took him to his pediatrician and he ended up having an ear infection. He ended up with tubes in his ears back in June because he had so many ear infections. Evertime he would get one he would wake up alot during the night crying thats the only way I would know to take him to the doctor. Also my pedatrician told us to use Motrin for teething, she said it worked better that Tylenol and we also used the teething tablets which workded great. Good Luck hopefully it will pass soon!

K.

The difficult thing about this age is that there is no perfect program to plug in. One possibility, since he sleeps better on you, is that his ears might be bothering him. Two of my three children had ear issues. It is less painful when they are not sleeping flat. Also, it is impossible for anyone (including babies and older children) to sleep through the night if they have fluid in their ears. One thing you might try is to put some books under the top two legs of the crib so that it is like a wedge and he is slightly upright while he is sleeping. He is also becoming more aware of his surroundings and learning what he likes. He may just enjoy the closeness of being held. Everyone awakens during the night. A baby that is a good sleeper has just learned the art of self soothing and putting themselves back to sleep.

The good news is that I remember all three of mine sleeping better and longer when they started crawling and then again with walking. My husband and I used to jokingly wonder if running could be another stage requiring more sleep. There could be something wrong or it could just be part of your child's development. Trust your instincts as his mother.

I would wonder if you made any changes to his diet, which could be causing some sort of pain in his bowels or in his throat.... could be gas pains, could be acid reflux,...

i really feel for you and hope you get some other helpful advice on this site. he's so small right now, and his digestive system is still developing. wish i had more advice to offer, but i'm sure there is an answer.

all the best wishes,
K.

That's the beauty of children, they are ever changing as they grow into the person they will become. I have a 6 month old baby girl. She was kind of going through something similar. Is he sitting up or getting up on his knees in preparation to begin crawling. If he is moving around alot during the day, it could just be that he is curious and because he's learning new things, he wants to keep at it and practice, practice, practice.

I think it's important to embrace what he's going through rather than try to fight it. He will probably change again...and very soon. I would also like to add that contrary to what many people say, I do not think it is possible to spoil a baby, especially under 1 year of age. :) Good luck!

My daughter is 8 months and is the same way. She wakes every 3 hours at night to have a bottle then goes back to sleep right away, then during the day I'm lucky If she sleeps for more than 30 mins.
I'm still trying new things like filling her up at bedtime and tylenol at bedtime and before a morning or afternoon nap helps a little. Good luck! I'm here going through the same!

my son has never been a good sleeper
but i finally got him only waking up 2 times a night
then teething started
and he was constantly getting up
up to 6 or 8 times a night
even with tylenol or oragel
he was like that until the tooth came in
then he went back to only waking 2-3 times
then 2 days later he started teething again...
so i dont think there is much you can do about teething