Need Help with 5 Month Old Sleep Patterns

C. I think by hearing Kim West speak this Thursday will benefit you details below
Kim West, “The Sleep Lady”
Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Our Savior Lutheran Church
13611 Laurel Bowie Rd. (Rte 197)
Laurel, Maryland 20708

KIM WEST is a mother of two and a Licensed Certified Social Worker-Clinical (LCSW-C) who has been a practicing child and family social worker for more than thirteen years. Known as The Sleep Lady® by her clients, over the past ten years she has helped more than a thousand tired parents learn to listen to their intuition, recognize their child’s important cues and behaviors, and gently create changes that promote and preserve his or her healthy sleep habits.

West has appeared on the Dr. Phil, Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, TLC’s Bringing Home Baby and CNN, and has been written about in a number of publications including The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Child, Baby Talk, Parenting, The Baltimore Sun, USA Today and the Washington Post. West hosts the sleep section of The Newborn Channel, played in maternity wards in hospitals across the country.

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Have you talked to the doctor about starting her on solids? My son started sleeping a lot sounder once we started giving him oatmeal with his last bottle. It's just a lot heavier and keeps him asleep a lot longer. He actually sleeps now for about 8-9 hours straight at night now. Again i don't know the whole situation if you are breastfeeding or not. I just give formula and haven't given him a nighttime (middle of the night) bottle since he was maybe a month or 2 old. If you haven't started solids yet get with the pediatrician and check if its alright since she is 5 months.

Babies go through different stages in development which affect their sleep patterns. This may be a growth spurt, or she just may be getting more physically active during the day.

I remember when my daughter was that old and went through the same thing. Give it a few days. It'll pass and another stage will take over. It's all good :}

~L.
www.accesspilates.com
www.notaboutfood.com

If she is awake, I would try to settle her immediately and get her back to sleep.

However, around this age, they become more physical in their sleep. If she is asleep, settle her, but try to avoid waking her. Rubbing mine's belly usually worked.

I agree. They go through different phases. Just give her the binky and go on with it. My only suggestion would be to give it to her as soon as she fusses so as not to get her to a state of fully awake and thereby causing a waking pattern that may continue. She may be getting teeth, too.

I'm with you playing the binkie game. Nice to know I'm not the only one. My daughter is 5.5 mos old, and she usually sleeps well for about 3-4 hours, and then we play the binkie game the rest of the night. She shares a nursery with my son, so she usually ends up in my bed by around 4 am. Sigh.

One thing you might want to consider is cutting out the night bottles. After 3 mos, if she is getting enough formula during the day, she shouldn't need bottles at night. Her tummy may be waking her up, and she needs to teach it to go longer stretches without eating. If she's not getting enough during the day, try increasing the size of her bottles. My daughter takes an 8 oz bottle at 5:30 am, 6 oz bottles throughout the day, and then another 8 oz bottle at bedtime (usually around 8:30). I think she takes a total of about 36 oz or so per day. She is also on solids, twice a day -- just to prove to your mother/mother-in-law that adding solids won't make her sleep through the night (wink!).

Other than that, her problem may be what I suspect my daughter's problem is -- self soothing. I'm trying to introduce a lovey to her, that she will (hopefully) learn to soothe herself with. So far she is still unable to locate and re-insert the binkie, so until she learns how to self-soothe otherwise, I fear I'll be playing the binkie game. I'll be thinking of you at 2:00 am when I'm running up to replace the binkie. ;-)

HTH!

I had the same problem with both my boys around that age. Once they got to be about 7 months they were able to locate the pacis themselves and it was no longer a problem. I would put about 10 in there all over the crib so it was easy for them to reach out grab one.