Sleeping - Brentwood,CA

Try and resist going in with a bottle. Try and let the little one comfort himself back to sleep. I did this and it worked. Its a little harder when you have another one that may be woken up but even then, they get used to the others cry. If you stick it out and resist going in, he may get past one after another knowing you won't be coming in.

HI THERE-
it is very normal for a 5.5 month old to still be waking up 1-2 times a night.
be patient, it will happen eventually.

Hi there... i guess first I have to ask some questions..
why are you giving him a bottle thru the night?
and what s in the bottle?
I am a mom of two and my sugestions is get rid of the bottle.
Start a nice calming routing for bed time.
~Bath
~Feeding time
~A story and some cuddle time
~lay him down
now since he is used to the bottle if you don't already have water in the bottle switch what ever he is drinking with water. HE IS NOT going to be happy. and then less and less water everyday. he will eventually adjust to soothing himself to sleep as oposed to the bottle soothing him and you and daddy will sleep.
this might take a a week or two to adjust but it will be worth it in the long run.

I recently went through the same experience with my 6 month old son. At 5.5 months he started waking up 2-3 times at night. At first I thought it was a growth spurt, but then it continued. I read many articles about sleep training and decided it was time to try it out. It was tough at first to restrain myself from rushing to his crib when he started to cry, but now my son is 6 months and has learned to sleep throughout the night. My pediatrician also recently advised me that at 6 months, he does not need to eat during the night. He encouraged me to keep with the sleep training. He said that babies that are sleep trained learn good sleeping habits, and those that don't tend to have trouble with sleeping even as they get older. You should definitely give it a try. It will be tough the first few days, but then your baby will learn than night time is "sleepy" time not eating time. Good luck!

I agree with Catherine C below. I also read Baby Wise and all 3 of my kids slept through the night by 10 weeks old. If you stop giving him the bottle and get through maybe 3 nights of crying he will change his patterns and not wake up. If he does wake up he will lull himself back to sleep without you getting up to give him a bottle he doesn't need. It sounds harsh, but it works and we have to remember as parents that we are in control. These beautiful little ones learn mamnipulation early! ha ha Get the book and within a week all will be sleeping in your household! Good luck and be strong!
B. G

I think your baby is waking in the night and expecting a bottle just as a baby would wake to expect to nurse. You will probably have to stop offering bottles in the middle of the night to get him to sleep through the night. I didn't stop nursing my son in the night until 14 months. At that time I was able to tell him that I was done nursing in the middle of the night and that he had to wait until morning to nurse again. He really cried the first night which was hard and then the next night he looked sad but sat quietly in his crib...this is when I went in his room at night in response to his waking. I would tell him no Neh Neh and then sit quietly in the rocking chair but not make eye contact and then he would go back to sleep. The third night he slept through the night. I nursed only a few times at night after that when he was sick or teething but he has basically slept through the night since. Of course you need to decide what method you feel comfortable using to get him to give up his bottles in the middle of the night, but I think that should work...good luck!

It could be that your baby is simply in the habit of waking up at night. Does he/she wake up at essentially the same time each night? If so, it's probably just a habit, not that he/she is hungry. Try leaving the baby in his/her crib and just soothing him/her back to sleep. Don't turn on any lights or take the baby out of the crib; simply go into the room and pat or rub his/her back and try to soothe him/her back to sleep. I did this with my daughter and after two nights, she slept all night.

Hi S., try to remember every baby is different. I've heard of babies not sleeping through the night until they're one year old or even older. Luckily our sixth month old boy is sleeping anywhere from 8-12 hours a night. I know, not what you want to hear but he was still waking up just a month ago and we would give him a small bottle to put him back to sleep. Sometimes just a pacifier would soothe him back to sleep. Have you tried that? If you can resist, don't put cereal in his bottle. That just leads to overeating and being overweight. Does your son sleep alone in a crib or with you? Our son sleeps with us and I think this has helped him sleep better. I know some people see it as an inconveniance but its worked for us. Hope your lil one sleeps longer soon. Good luck

Hi there,
I am a mom of two kids- my first daughter I couldn't get to sleep through the night until I bought this book by Marc Weissman- Healthy sleeping Habits. It was the BEST book I have ever read. The advice is counterintuitive- put your baby down to bed "earlier" NOT later and they won't be as "tired". I know it sounds crazy, but when I finally did that with my daughter who is now 5, she finally slept through the night. I did the same method with my son who just turned a year old last thursday and he slept through the night at 4 months of age!!!! If you don't believe me, get the book OR easier than that- try to put your baby to bed an hour earlier than you usually do and see what happens. Good luck!!!
P.

My 13 1/2 month old still wakes every few hours to breastfeed. Sometimes we get a 4-5 hr. stretch other times it's every 2 hrs. I know many Mom's who express the same thing. Frequent nursing tends to happen more with cosleeping though. Good luck. R.

I've got two boys - 6 and 3. I've learned through discussion with other parents that most kids don't sleep through the night at 5 1/2 months. I'd suggest napping during the day (if you can) while he does and enjoying his little baby-ness. It will be gone in a flash. Believe it or not, you WILL miss his tiny little body, his baby smell, his night-wakings. Every stage of your child's development is wonderfully sweet in its own ways. Try focusing on what you love about this stage instead of rushing through it. Perhaps you'd even want to bring him to bed with you after the first night waking so that you can get more uninterrupted sleep. Try thinking out of the box - you need more sleep. See what you can do to get it and be rested without trying to squeeze him into a pattern that he does not fit.

Also, if you are putting him to sleep with a bottle & that is how he falls asleep regularly, you may have created a sleep association. He may believe that when he wakes up, he NEEDS the bottle to go back to sleep. (I did that with my first son - but with breastfeeding.) The book "The No Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantly can help you come up with gentle ways to teach your son that he can go to sleep on his own. Eventually he will need to learn this & the older he gets, the more set in his patterns / expectations he will be.

Hope this helps.

My 7 1/2 month old is not sleeping through the night, not all babies sleep through the night no matter what you feed them is what I have learned. Also remember that through the night means 5-6 hours not 8 hrs. be grateful he only wakes 1-2x's mine wakes 4-5x's, but I try to keep in mind that it will not be like this forever, and I try to nap whenever I can

One thing I have done with both my kids that worked was slowley diluted the formula in the bottle at night to ween them off of the calories their bodies are demanding. See my aunt is a pediatric np and she explained that babies wake up because they are hungry and you have to ween them off of the unnecessary calories in order for them to sleep thru the night. Its like if we woke up every night at midnight and ate a cookie then even on the nights we didnt want to our bodies would wake us up because its hungry. Start for one to two days with 3scoops powder formula to 8oz water, then after two days decrease to 2scoops powder formula to 8oz water, after another 3-5 days decrease again to 1scoop formula to 8oz water then after say one week (go by how your baby is adjusting and feel free to take longer if needed but stick to your guns and dont get discouraged) after a week at 1scoop to 8oz water then go just water and before you know it and prob by 3/4 water he will be sleeping thru the night. ALso a little helper is a good foot massage before bed will put him right to sleep and hopefully relax him to sleep longer. Hope this helps and good luck.
S.

S.,

Have you tried putting a sound spa in the babies room? My daughter slept longer with white noise in the background, she's now 12 and still sleeps with a sound spa on.

Both my kids woke up once or twice at night for a long time. I kept re-reading Dr. Weissbluth's book on sleep ("Healthy Sleep Habits...") looking for answers. I came to the conclusion that he was saying that you should soothe them up to the limits of your own ability to do so. So when you couldn't take it anymore, he seemed to suggest letting them cry it out. We did that with our first and it worked well, but our 2nd is our last baby (15 mos.), and I just can't bear to let her cry very much. So my husband came up with a system that we just tried and it worked for us. When she cries at night, he goes in her room and soothes her. She cries as soon as he puts her back in the crib but then, without picking her up, he just does the very loud "Shhhhuusshhh" ing that is recommended in the book "The Happiest Baby on the Block". He lays down on the spare bed in the baby's room and does the loud "Shhhh" when she cries in her crib. It makes her stop crying and she is able to go back to sleep without getting a bottle, being held or having to come into our bed. We did this for 2 nights and now she is sleeping all night without waking and crying. It may not work for you, but then again, it could be worth a try! Good luck. I've been there and I feel your pain. It's so exhausting waking up all night with them and you always wonder when it is going to end.

Unfortunatley, I don't think your little one will be ready to sleep all night without waking for some time. I noticed with my 2 year old that when he was about 9 months is when he finally was able to self soothe and get enough to eat and stay asleep for the night. BUT..maybe try the Johnson's nighttime bath routine. Use their nighttime bath products and lotion and then put him down. It really relaxes them and plus it smells really good. Good luck. OH...and try a soundmachine. Mine is from HomeMedics and I put it on the rain sound all night. I know it has helped my 10 month old sleep better (who still isn't sleeping all through the night :) You can take it with you on trips too which is great.

I had the same problem with my son, Everything you tryed I tryed. Nothing worked for me My daughter who is a 11 months older then my son always was a good sleeper from 4 months on she was sleeping through the night. I asked his doctor why he won't sleep and he say it's because he's a boy. Don't ask me what that has to do with him not sleeping through the night. He told me that boy's unlike girls are more dependent on the mom's, they like to cling to you. It's true my son alway's want's to be around me. My daughter is more independent, and can do alot for herself. My son is 1 1/2 and my daughter is 2 1/2, the only way I can get a good night sleep is to let him sleep with me and my husband. That's a problem we created by bringing him to bed when he would get up. It's easy to just put them in bed with you and go back to sleep, then to stay up and put them back to bed. I'll get to the point keep working it he might grow out of it and start sleeping through the night just don't let him sleep with you in bed. Then you might have another problem of trying to get him out of your bed.

Not sure if you want to hear this, but our nine month old son still wakes up a couple of times a night. We do get the best results though when we put him down at the first signs of getting tired, rubbing his eyes, rooting to nurse and so forth. He does sleep for about 4 1/2 to 5 hours when he gets put down early enough. It sounds illogical, but babies tend to sleep better if they go to bed earlier. Some babies have a hard time getting a good sleep when they are overtired.
We tried the rice cereal too, but it did not help. I later read that it can short circuit the baby's ability to know when he is full, possibly contributing to weight problems in the future. I figured since it didn't help much, we might as well not risk it.
We have also had more success when we have a consistent bed time routine, like when we change clothes, read books, feed him, in the same order each night. It has helped him wind down.
Good Luck!

Hi S.,
I don't think you'll want to hear this, but... my son didn't sleep through the night til he was three years old (about two weeks before his sister was born). Now, he's nine years old and he doesn't wake up in the middle of the night - EVER! He wears pull-ups to bed so I don't have to wash his sheets every day. So, relax - every child grows into their own body schedule, the pediatrician has told me he will outgrow the bedwetting within a couple more years, when his body is mature enough. Oh well, at least they make pull-ups. My mom had to wash the sheets every day.

Hi S.,
I HIGHLY recommend the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth on sleep training. The average sleep schedule at this age is: wake-up between 6-7am, morning nap around 9am, early afternoon nap around 1pm, bedtime around 6pm. Naps should be at least 1hr to be restorative. Some children at this age will also take a late afternoon nap around 3-5pm but it should be brief or they will be unable to fall asleep in the early evening. Too late a bedtime is the common reason for night waking and very early morning waking. Some children will wake 4-6 hours after last feeding at night to eat again. If they go right back to sleep after eating it is no problem. I always waited a little bit before responding to my daughter at night and she would fall back asleep most of the time. Establishing routines and being consistent are very important at this age. My daughter was bottle fed after 2 months and slept through the night from about 3 months old. I had to move her into her own room at 2 months because my husband snores and talks in his sleep which woke my daughter up. Dr. Weissbluth says "sleep begets sleep" which I didn't believe until I saw it happen with my daughter. I would L. to help you get your little one sleeping better if you would like to email me. I have tried it all!
L.

Dear S.,

Your baby sounds normal! And you sound normal, too! New Mommy Longing for the Pre-Baby-Gone-Forever-Olden-Days of Uninterrupted Sleep All Night Long? If you and baby are falling back asleep easily after baby wakes, that is great!
You can't force your baby to sleep on command and you're setting yourself up to feel angry and frustrated thinking you can find a way to control when baby wakes.

Rest assured (pun, intended) that there is nothing abnormal about your baby waking up 1-2 times a night. PLEASE PLEASE do yourself a giant favor and get a copy of Elizabeth Pantley's "The No-Cry Sleep Solution". Her website is www.pantley.com, and her personal e-mail is ____@____.com will e-mail you if you need help. That and Dr. Sear's Baby Book, bookmarked to the "Nighttime Parenting" chapter, have been on
my bedside table since my daughter was born in January of 2007. She still wakes up 1-2 times per night (which is normal, by the way), and she goes back to sleep in minutes (and therefore so do I) because I respond to her. I get sleep and so does she, and that is my goal. I knew nothing about the biology of how babies wake and slept. I felt angry and frustrated (more so because I was so tired myself and had unrealistic expectations).

These are some facts I've learned about infant sleep that I keep in mind which have helped me adjust my expectations and kept me from getting angry/frustrated/cuckoo:

1) Babies (or anyone else for that matter) cannot be forced to sleep.
2) medical definition of a full-night's sleep for an infant is defined as a 5 hour stretch. Most babies awaken 2-3 times per night up to 6 months, and then 1-2 times per night up to a year, then some once a night between 1-2 years. (page 50, Pantley). So this is what is reasonable to expect.
3) there are many reasons for night-waking, and solutions for them (page 344, Sear's Baby Book, great list which I keep bookmarked. When I am stone-tired I cannot think!)
4)This should actually be #1: my baby cannot meet the slightest need of her own, emotional or physical, and neither can she talk. All she can do is cry and hope someone will understand and help her. If she wakes because she is too hot, too cold, her teeth hurt, wet, scared, lonely, hungry, even if she had a a tiny eyelash in her eye and it was irritating her, she could do nothing about it by herself. It's my job as her mom to respond and see if there's something I can do to help her. I feel physically ill and cry myself when I hear people advocating ignoring a baby's crying. The message that would send my baby is that she does not matter and she can't trust me. That's not love in my book.

Someone told me to do the thing I would look back on and be happy I did. Well, if one of my friends was spending the night at my house and woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, I'd go see what was up. I could not imagine doing any less for a helpless tiny baby, so that's what I do, and I sleep well at night, and so does my baby.

I am a mom, psych major, artist, and most importantly, I used to be a baby too.

Good luck and best wishes,

L. M.

S.,

Not sleeping through the night at 5 1/2 months is totally normal. Some babies sleep through at a very early age, however it is very normal for them to wake at least once a night for a feeding until the age of 9 months.
Things to look at: 1. How many ounces of milk is he getting during the day? Some babies need less, others more, but you want to make sure he's getting at least the recommended amount for his age and possibly try giving him a bit more during the day (add a feed or increase each feed by an ounce) if needed. 2. How do you put him to bed? Does he fall asleep unassisted, or with help? If he is falling asleep with help, he may not know how to get back to sleep on his own when he goes through a "wake" stage in the night. 3. Does he have a comfort item in his crib? This can help soothe him if he wakes in the night.

Hope that helps, good luck! My 10 month old daughter JUST started sleeping through the night so I feel your pain!

A. E

Hi S.,
I read The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems and both my kids were sleeping through the night at 3 months, and they still are good sleepers now at 2 and 3 years old. It is similar to the Baby Wise book about keeping the baby on a schedule, but there is a lot more information and it is a gentler approach. One big thing that I think helped with my kids was the "dream feed" where you feed the baby at around 10 pm without waking them. There is a big section on sleep issues and identifying what the problem is. It's a fabulous book, and I highly recommend it.
Good luck,
C.

Count yourself lucky he only gets up 1-2 times a night! He is only 5 1/2 months old, and still very well may need the nutrition during the night - you cannot force an infant to sleep through the night if he is still hungry!
Most babies are not sleeping through the night at 5 1/2 months of age, and since you have tried many things to get him to sleep through the night, the problem obviously isn't actually "sleep". He is just hungry, and that is perfectly normal to want to feed once or twice at night at his age. Just like you cannot force a baby to eat, you cannot force a baby into sleeping patterns that do not fit the needs of their bodies.
When he is a little older, the sleeping through the night will come when he is large enough to not need those feedings at night. Hell, waking up once or twice a night is a GREAT thing as many babies are still waking up every 2-4 hours around the clock to nurse. You do not have it so bad as you think.

My son (5 months) was sleeping through the night, but the last few days have been waking up 1-2x. I have been giving him his pacifier when he wakes up and rub his chest. He will usually go right back to sleep. I don't want to get him used to feeding him in the middle of the night, so I'm hoping if I keep doing the pacifier thing, he'll go back to sleeping through again. But your baby could just be going through a growth spurt and may just need that bottle in the middle of the night for a little while longer.

Hi S.!

Congratulations on being a first time mom! What a wonderful blessing you have :o)

Actually,it sounds like your son is a normal sleeper, so far. He will "trick" you sometimes to make you think he's getting "closer" to sleeping through the night, but he's probably not...sorry, at least not yet. Your body will adjust to his sleep pattern, and you should begin to feel a little more rested once his sleeping has been a little more regulated.

My oldest didn't sleep through the night until he was like 3, or something awful like that. We had to deal with Night Terror's, though, so that's different. My youngest was a perfect sleeper the day he born....but it only lasted the first 6 months, then he started waking up 1-2 times a night, just like a normal baby.

It sounds like you're doing everything you can to help him have a good night's sleep, to try to sleep through the night. He just might not be ready, yet. No matter what, keep up your routine because everything will fall into place because of your routine. So don't "give it up" yet :o)

S., he's still very young. It's NOT normal for every child to sleep through the night at this age. At least not anybody that I've ever known! You need to go with your heart, and "feel" what your son needs, and what works for the both of you. There is plenty of time/months/years to establish a better sleep routine. Just make sure you're giving him what he needs in the moment, and only your heart can tell you that :o)

My sister's son (now 8 mos) was only waking up once through the night for most of his new life, but at 5 months old, he started waking up twice consistently, and only occassionally sleeping through the night. It's hard for them, because they're growing! Their eating is changing at this age, their bottle needs, they begin teething, crawling around, etc.... lots is happening for these little one's! Be patient. He will be fine, and so will you :o) Don't hesistate to call me if you need someone to talk to.

Sweet Dreams!

:o) N.

He's still young, wait a little longer. 1-2 times a night is not actually that bad for that age. I can remember thinking I would do anything for just 6 hours of sleep in a row.

I had that problem, I had two children 11 months apart, and had to get my first to sleep through the night so I could deal with the second one during the night when it was born, so while pregnant with the #2 child I got a book from the library called "How to get your baby to sleep through the night in 3 days or less"......I followed the information suggested and night # 2 the child slept all night long! And every night after that. The book basically told to you to ignore th first cry and look at the clock...2 minutes of a crying baby seems like 20 minutes, but don't give in. If the crying lasts longer than 10 minutes you go in and say no or goodnight, then walk away. Sounds like the previous post had the same kind of advice that worked for her. That was 20 years ago, but the book is still in the library system.
Happy sleeping to you,
E.

Don't worry, it's normal. My daughter is 9 months old and still wakes up at night from time to time. I don't think she's ever gone through more than a week at a time where she slept through every night. I have read that by his age, he probably doesn't need a bottle in the middle of the night. We did what was called a tank up between 10 and 11 right before we went to bed and this helped get her through much later. The night waking is just something they do. I learned a lot about how to combat night wakings from a book called The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg. I don't believe in everything she says, but the book did help me get on a feeding schedule and helped me get my daughter to sleep better at night. Good luck and please feel free to write if you have any other questions.

There is a really good book out called "on becoming Baby Wise" I dont know who the author is but as soon I we read it and started practicing the routine it suggests, our 3 month old daughter started sleeping all through the night. Of course she still wakes up once in awhile at night but she sleeps anywhere from 8-12 hours at night. Good luck.

Hey Stacie-

My 9 month old is still not sleeping throught the night and i think it's teething. We get up with him between 2-6 times a night and still no change. As exhausting as it is, letting your baby know that you are there is comforting to them so dont break their trust. My opinion is that letting them cry it out is for old children but your baby is not old enough to manipulate you. You can try to co-sleep if it make it easier than jumping out of bed all night but have faith that he will grow out of it.
Just remember that when your getting up every couple hours that your not the only one......im probably up too!!!
Good Luck
Tracy mom of two

S.,
My 5 1/2 mo daughter is still waking at night at least two times and anywhere up to 4 times. It is completely normal. My 19 mo daughter didn't sleep through the night until about a year old, at least consistantly. Be glad that you only have one to worry about sleeping through the night at this point.
Is your son in his own room or in yours? I know that once we put our oldest in her own room she atarted sleeping better.
Hope you get some sleep soon.
J.

My suggestion is to run to Barnes & Noble and get a copy of "On Becoming Baby Wise" by Gary Ezzo. This book was recommended to me by a friend with 4 kids (all of whom slept through the night by around 2 months). I used it for my younger daughter with great results, and have since recommended it to 3 other friends, all of whom had fantastic results. Given that between all of us, we have gotten 9 babies to sleep through the night by the 2-3 month mark... there's no reason you have to live sleep deprived! It's a quick read, very easy to understand and implement. I wish you the best of luck!

People make such a big deal out of them not sleeping through the whole night.I think that if your baby is waking up once or twice a night ,your doing a hell of a job!!! :)
One thing I seem to remember hearing is that rice cereal in the bottle can cause the nipple on the bottle to get bigger and increase the chances of choking.I may be wrong???
but I think that you should ask your pediatrician if that is a good idea? I know that wasn't the question you wanted the answer to but it caught my attention.

1 - 2 times per night would be awesome! My daughter who is 5 months old wakes up every 2 hours to nurse... The night before last, she woke up every hour! Ugh, I'm tired...