Waking at 2 Am??

A., the SAME thing has been happening to me with my almost-6-month-old daughter. She used to sleep so well, just like you said. While I think there may be something to this "overtired" business that everyone seems to be saying, I think that it's more likely teething. I just felt my daughters first tooth this weekend and she's been having these sleep issues for 2-3 weeks. I don't think it's an issue of self soothing or anything like that because she was a great sleeper for at least 2 months before it started happening.

I think it is just her personality, every baby is different and she could just be going thorugh a phase

If she is playing/talking in her crib I would leave her alone. If she starts to cry then go check on her and if she is fine and just looking for night time attention I would soothe her and then go back to bed without giving a bottle. If she is only playing/talking she will probably wear herself out and go back to sleep on her own.

I believe she is overtired too. (I learned this from 3daysleepsolution.com) we had to redo our whole sleep thing for our little one.

Our first one had the same issue but it ended up being a reflux issue- she did not sleep long because the acid rose up her esophagus and burned ulcers into her esoph.

Are you giving her lots of exercise? Lots of tummy time and playing on the floor? That is a good way to wear them out!

Yep, your mom is right! She is overtired. Babies her age should be sleeping about 14-15 hours a day total. She should be taking 2-3 naps a day, and then sleeping 11-12 hours at night. I would focus on getting her sleep more regular first, then work on the whole bottle waking problem. Remember though, when she has growth spurts she is probably going to wake up again for a few days for a bottle in the middle of the night because she truly is hungry. My son is 1 and still does that once every month or two when he's going to grow. I would recommend starting with daytime sleep and creating a regular bedtime first. I have found at least with my little guy, if he sleeps well during the day, he sleeps well at night. Good luck!!

The same thing happened with my first son at the same time. Our pediatrician told me it was that he didn't know how to fall asleep on his own, which was true. I never put him down to nap or sleep when he was awake. So I had to start doing that. It took about a week until he got the hang of it. And as far as the timing goes, I was told babies wake up when they are younger all the time during the night, but they aren't capable of the more complex thoughts of a 5 month old and so they go to sleep. Now when your daughter wakes up, she remembers about you guys and where she is and she gets excited.

Hang in there and help teach her to fall asleep on her own. My son never napped until 6 months when I started putting him down awake at a regular time each day. Good luck.

A. --
I agree with your mom. I have three children and I have had to re-learn the lesson with each that they sleep better if I put them to sleep earlier. If 7 p.m. doesn't really change things, move it up another half hour, and then maybe even to 6. Expect a rough time the first night or two if she's in the habit of crying at bedtime. After only a few nights, my baby stopped crying even for a second when I put her to bed at 6:45/7, and doesn't wake up until at least 6:30 or often 7:30 a.m. Now our bedtime routine is an absolute pleasure and the baby sleeps more soundly than I do -- at first when I didn't hear anything from her for 12 hrs it made me nervous that something had happened to her! You may need to let her cry some in the middle of the night, too, to break her habit of playing at 2 a.m. (If you don't mind giving her a 2 a.m. feeding, however, I don't think one wake-up is so bad, as long as you can handle the sleep deprivation).

Hi A.,
i have a nine year old and a three month old so I can sympathize. Since she's five months old, have you tried feeding her a little rice cereal in her formula before she goes to bed? I know they say to wait until they're six months old, but I started my son when he was four months old. Also I don't know if you still swaddle your baby, but I found these great recieving blankets at Target online called "the Ultimate Recieving Blanket". They are three times bigger than your average recieving blanket and will keep your baby bundled all night. I have a freind that used these on her baby until they were seven months old! My babies just don't sleep through the night unless they are bundled.Also make sure she's not napping too much during the day. Our three month old goes to bed at 9 so from 7-9 we do everything in our power to keep her awake. Then at 8:45 we give her a bottle, swaddle her up, and put her to bed. She'll sleep until about 6:30. Hope I was helpfull!

Hi A.,
Babies go through these spurts. When she wakes up, don't go in and get her right away. If she is playing/talking with herself, let her be. Chances are she'll go back to sleep. If she is crying because she has a wet diaper, change her diaper, soothe her and put her back into her crib. I have a rocking chair in my daugher's room that reclines. That's where we sit for our routine. I sometimes sleep with her in the recliner, but don't take her to our bed. Mostly becuase the dog likes to jump on and off the bed at night and I don't want to risk her getting hurt. If she is hunger, feed her. I know the dr. said to get her off of the night bottle, but I'm one for when a baby is hungry, feed it when possible. But again, go through the same routine as before, i.e. don't take her to your room just cuz your tired. It may be hard now, but trying to get her out of your bed when she gets older will be harder.
Good luck.
M.

A.,

I feel your pain. I have 3 boys (6m, 18m and 4). My oldest didn't sleep through the night until 18 months, my 2nd slept through the night at 3m then stopped around 9m until about 16m. My baby goes down around 7, gets up around 2 for 15-30 min. then is up at 5am ready for fun and food. We tried every trick in the book and nothing worked until one day he slept. Keep doing whatever you're doing. Eventually it'll get better.

Hi A.,
Well, I don't know if the going to bed early part helped but, I can identify with you totally. This is the part of parenthood that I compare to psychological tourture. I had this issue with both of my girls. I just went through this last year with my second daughter. I wish I could say it's a distant memory but it's not. You've done well getting her off the bottle at night, now the harder part is getting her to put herself back to sleep when she wakes up in the middle.
I'll tell you, what I'm about to suggest is not easy but it really does work.
When she wakes at night, don't pick her up at all (unless of course her diaper has leaked or she has a BM). Now, I'm not saying you should just let her cry it out (although I've let my daughter cry a couple of times to make her tired). My former pediatrition suggested the cry out method (I didn't go for it) but, he also suggested talking to her and just telling her over and over that it's sleep time not snuggle time. I decided to take about half his advice: don't pick her up but stay with her and then made the sleep time statement a gentle mantra that I repeated over and over, sat down on the floor by her crib, told her I would stay with her for as long as needed but that she had to go back to sleep herself. Make yourself a nice comfortable spot on the floor and lay down there if you need to, hold her hand, giver her a gentle cuddle in the crib without picking her up, a caress, sing her lullabies very soft and quietly, one night I just repeated the same song over and over and over until she got herself off to sleep. The idea is to help her figure out how to go back to sleep in her own bed and, to help her know that night time is sleep time. This was exhausting and it went on for a few nights (at least 3). It took patience and persistence. For my second daughter, I had to wait until my husband went out of town AND I had to take some vacation from work so I could commit myself to some long sleepless nights--this took away MY need for her to go to sleep
Your daughter eventually understand that she will not get the reward of being picked up, she will figure out how to get back to sleep. When you pick her up to take her to your bed or to rock her, she wakes up more and that's why she's ready to play and talk. I found that my child would get really revved up if I had to change her diaper in the middle of the night (even if I did it without turning the lights on).
Every now and again, my daughter will go through a few nights where she wakes up and can't get back to sleep so easy, I just pull out my mat, and lay down next to her, hold her hand until she can drift back off.
Hope this helps, good luck.

I find that consistency works wonders (and so does laying them down while still awake and a 7 PM bedtime :). At this age, the more they sleep, the more they sleep. My daughter will be one next week and still takes two naps a day. With both naps, she is in her bed for an hour and a half at the very minimum. If she wakes up before, fine, but she's still staying there until the 90 min. is up. Every once in a while I break my rule, but usually I keep with this. Her naps naturally got longer once she realized she was in there regardless (she was a power napper too there for awhile). I have also found that she is a lot happier when I keep her on a schedule (ie: playing in her crib until she falls asleep as opposed to crying in her crib until she does). Five months is actually the perfect time for most babies to get on a schedule, but take your cues from her. Start making one up based upon the patterns that she is already setting for herself (if any). For example, my daughter has her first nap 1-2 hours after she wakes up, because I noticed she would be getting tired at that point. She also began doing a similar 'wake up in the middle of the night' routine like your girl at about the same age. When she woke in the night we'd try to just let her cry it out (sometimes we'd console her when we were about to lose our minds) and after about a week she stopped waking up except for the rare exception. So much of it is psychological, not hunger. They get in a habit, and we reinforce that habit by rocking or feeding them. One more thing - there is the possibility it could be partially teething. On the times when I have felt that it might be more than just not wanting to sleep I have given her a bit of Children's Tylenol. Rarely, but it has seemed to help.
Good luck!

A. -- I used to have issues with my daughter with night awakenings also. Pick up a copy of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Weissbluth. It will revolutionize how you think about sleep. Basic premise is that your baby is most likely too overtired to sleep well at night. So the solution is to retrain naps and put her to sleep A LOT earlier in the evening. once she recups on her sleep loss (about 1 week) she'll start napping longer for you and sleeping in later in the morning. . . My daughter is 15 months old and once starting the program in this book, she gets in 1 nap for 1.5 hours, and sleeps from 5:00/ 5:30 PM until about 6:00 in the morning. Bedtime seems really early, I know, but it is because that is naturally when she is tired. If we miss that window for bedtime she gets so overtired the night awakenings start again. Good luck.

Perhaps it's teething which can make them wakeful...

I would try giving motrin and if she falls back asleep in about 30 minutes, you'll know that something was bothering her...

My son is very sensitive to teething pain as was my daughter. I don't think we realize how uncomfortable it is for them to teeth.

Now that he is 14 months and napping only once a day, he's sleeping a bit better even though he's cutting 3 molars and an eye tooth right now!! Ugh. We haven't slept well in a long time... he's much worse than my daughter about sleeping.

also, some need more sleep than others... genetics... my husbands side of the family hardly sleeps! I love sleep!

hopefully, this too shall pass like everything else...

best, J.

Give her a solids "snack" before her bottle at bedtiee/ She may not wake hungry, but a little more food may keep her sleeping anyway.

I also suggest leaving her in her crib if she is happy, put on her mobile or something, but encourage her to put herself to sleep or else she will be staying with the routine of a mid-night mommy conversation. Definately soothe her and acknowledge her, but be clear that it is your sleeping time.

Encourage the same thing at naptiem. I don't believe in "letting her cry", but keep her in the crib and pat her pack and leave her alone for a minute or two at a time. She may need more downtime during the day and she may need to learn that she needs a quiet place to do it. This may also help with sleep at night.

My son was never a good sleeper. He nursed every 2 hours until he was 4 months and we had him sleeping in our bed during that time. He increased to every 3 hours and finally every 4 hours. He stopped nursing at 5 1/2 months and was already eating solids at 4 months and on. Everyone told us give him cereal, give him solids but I'm sure he was eating just fine. I think the waking up was just a habit. Keep in mind there are going to be times a baby will wake up because they have growth spurts, are teething or maybe sick. But also they may just want to be comforted. My son did not sleep fully through the night until he was 1 year old. Our doctor finally helped us to understand he did not need to be comforted any longer, and he was waking around 2am. He told us because we would get up and rock with him and such that our son was waking up just for the attention and just to check his diaper and make sure he didn't have a fever and then pat him down and say go to sleep, it's ok...etc. Then get out of there as fast as possible. We did get him a small fish tank with a light for a night light and it has a beta fish but other than that he has a pacifier and blankie for comfort. It took a couple of nights letting him cry and we would switch off getting up and going to pat him and check on him-it was hard but he got it down. Now he sleeps so much better. He has his nap during the day and goes to bed at 8:45 every night. We do a night time routine-give him milk, read a book, brush his teeth and get him ready for bed and put him in his crib. Most nights it only takes him anywhere from 10 minutes to maybe an hour if he's just not quite tired to fall asleep but he does not cry during this time, he might just toss and turn a bit in his crib. Every baby is different and just be patient, it will happen. Good luck!

A.,

I don't really have a magic answer for you, but I have been there. My daughter, now 9 months, had no sleep schedule for at least the first 6-6.5 months. She went through a phase where she would wake up in the middle of the night and want to play. It was like she was wide awake and it also lasted about 2 hours. She originally would wake every hour or two until we put her to sleep on her stomach at around 5 months. Then she would sleep from 7:30-7:30 only waking twice, once to be soothed and once to be fed. I could deal with that until she went through this wide awake phase. Since she didn't crawl yet, I would take a blanket and comforter out to the living room floor and lay down with her next to me. I could rest and she could "play" until she fell asleep. At first I would try to rock her, feed her, let her cry it out etc. and I was exhausted. At least on the floor I could rest. She eventually stopped (after about two weeks) and went back to sleep within 15 minutes. Now she wakes up once a night for her bottle in which I only give her 2 ounces but whenever I try to let her cry it out she seems to fuss for over and hour so I just give her the 2 ounces so I can get back to sleep. Bottom line you have to figure out what works for you where you can get as much sleep as you can. My first baby had a great sleep schedule from the time she was 4 months old. This baby has her own mind when it comes to sleep! Hopefully yours will grow out of this stage soon!

Good Luck!

Hello A., I just have to say that from my own personal experience I found that following my instincts rather than listening to my pediatrician have always worked the best for me. Pediatricians are trained to deal with generalizations and not individual babies. My son waked at night and was fed on demand right up until he started sleeping through the night on his own at about 18 months. I know that isn't what you want to hear, that the sleeping thing doesn't necessarily happen like magic, but once your child is walking and active and doing so much more the extra sleep just comes naturally. If a bottle will help her go back to sleep and restore your sanity, don't be afraid to do it just because your pediatrician told you not to. Our society is so conditioned to make our children bend to our own rules when most cultures acknowledge that children have different needs and schedules from adults and just go with the flow. Whatever you decide, do what is best for your family and your mental health and know that you are doing a good job. Good luck.

Buy the book "On Becoming Babywise" It is all about baby's sleep patterns and how you can get them into a schedule of naturally waking and sleeping.It helped me with sleep patterns immensely for my 2 girls. If I remember correctly, it is normal around the 5 month period for the child to wake in the middle of the night, but it is a phase that will pass. Hope this helps!

Hi A.! First of all, I just want to congratulate you and your husband on your blessing! What a wonderful story!

And second, I literally just went through this with my daughter, and she's finally sleeping through the night at 6 mos. I second the previous poster who recommended Dr. Weisbluth's book. It's not the easiest read (mind-numbingly boring at times) but the man is a genius with babies and sleep. So pick up a copy and read that.

My guess is that your daughter hasn't yet learned how to self-soothe, which was my daughter's problem. I actually had to train her to self-soothe, using a pacifier (she only likes it in the crib) a small blanket and a stuffed Mickey Mouse. I started cuddling her with certain of these items that I noticed she seemed to be drawn to -- for example, when she went to bed with me (yes, I did the same thing for sleepless nights!) I noticed she would grab a peice of the sheet and put it up next to her face, and burrow her face in it. So I took a crocheted baby blanket (has "holes" so I don't worry about her smothering) and started putting that next to her face when she would cuddle up for sleep with me. Next I noticed that she loved to hold and touch her Mickey Mouse toy, so I started bringing that to bed with us, too. Now, as soon as I put the blanket near her face and give her Mickey, she closes her eyes and goes to sleep (sometimes it's still a struggle -- dont' get me wrong!). In the middle of the night, if she wakes up and fusses, she will now grab her blankie and her mickey mouse, and go back to sleep. It took three months for this to work, but eventually it did. She has been sleeping through the night for a week now (knock on wood!).

Every baby is different, and you'll have to try and figure out what your daughter's sleep issue is. My son slept through the night from age 3 mo, and learned how to self-soothe himself, so I never had to deal with it like I did my daughter. But you'll figure it out, and soon you'll get that sleep you need! Good luck!

Hi A.,

How about joing a support group for moms.

http://SAHM.meetup.com/

http://attachmentparenting.meetup.com

www.kidspriorityone.org

www.chkd.org

If you can, don't start having the baby sleep with you. Get up take care of the baby. Change the diaper. Feed the baby, burp her and put her back in her bed.

You will never get her trained if you try to make it easy on yourself. You will pay for it in the long run.

Good luck. D.