Help! My almost five-month-old does not sleep well! This is not new, he has not slept well since day 1. His naps are usually only a half hour long, and then he is grumpy and tired; he only sleeps a couple of hours at a time at night, and I don't know what to do! He used to sleep well in his swing, but that has ended, too. We have been trying to "train" him to sleep without movement, eating only once at night, and sleep in his crib (he has been in a co-sleeper and our bed), but nothing has changed. He still wakes up several times a night! He doesn't need to eat, and does not cry for food, but he wakes up so much! Sometimes he is even awake for an hour or two in the middle of the night, not crying, just cooing and kicking his legs and looking around the room. Any suggestions? I am worried that I will have issues getting him to sleep forever! Do I just have to deal with it, and hope that he will grow out of it? Will he grow out of it? My husband also has trouble sleeping-is this hereditary? We bought a crib soother on Amazon, but it hasn't been delivered yet. Is this a mistake-i.e. will he get attached to it? (a crib soother is a little machine that vibrates the crib mattress) Please help! Thanks!
First try consolidating some of his naps. And he is still a little young to sleep well through the night. If he just wakes up to coo and look around the room, let him. Leave the room and don't interact with him. He may not be a sleeper that ever sleeps quietly, but it is too early to tell. If the sleep soother doesn't work, you might try one of those sounds like the ocean, or forests.
Good luck.
Sounds like he may need sensory help. He can be just too stimulated. Ask your ped. to recomend one.
S.,
If he's not crying leave him be.
Many a morning I'll lay in bed and listen to my 2 year old daughter playing in her crib for 30 minutes to an hour. She's happy as a clam and only when she starts calling "Maaa-Maaaa" do I go in and get her.
If you hear him in his crib, but he's not crying just listen to him, it's entertaining to see/hear what they do to entertain themselves and how they go about it.
Hope this helps,
Melissa
I got desperate at 4 months (we were still holding him to put him to sleep and then putting him in the crib) and did the cry it out. It was hard but only lasted 2 nights and he has been an amazing sleeper ever since! At 4 months they are old enough to put themselves to sleep (typically need either a thumb or paci) so I'm guessing your little one is used to you stepping in. So the most important thing now is to pick something you are comfortable with and be consistent for several days. Trying one thing and then another does not work! They get confused. Also, my son took 4 30 min. naps for what felt like forever and I heard that it wasn't all that unusual. He was a happy baby though. I'm guessing maybe the naps are enough sleep for him but he needs more at night? Best of luck to you. It does get easier the older they get I promise!
Hi,
I don't have any advice on getting him to sleep but I do have some hope for you. My daughter was the same. From day one she would sleep 15 to 20 minutes at a time and then the longest she slept for the next 3 years was 3 to 5 hours max. We were terribly sleep deprived and thought it would never end. We ended up co-sleeping just because at least if she was up I was still laying down. I nursed her until she was 29 months.
Magically at 3 years old she started sleeping 11 hours straight!! Still in our bed but I'm sleeping and it's wonderful.
So I hope you don't have to wait that long but that's how it happened for us it took 3 years!!
I think my daughter just didn't want to miss anything and she was very alert and always wanting to look around and sleep was no a priority. We worried about her brain and her growth but she grew just fine and is very intelligent.
So I know it's a long ways off but there is hope. I'm sure your little guy will want to sleep one day. Hopefully sooner than ours!
She is almost 4 now and still sleeps with us but she still sleeps 10 to 11 hours every nigh.
D.
my name is T. and i have twin girls that are 7 months old. they are as different as night and day. kaylee will on occasion stay up for 2 hours cooing in her crib. I just let her do her thing and she falls to sleep after 2 hours. both my girls have mobiles and their favorite stuffed animals in the crib. i think, for your own sanity you couldn't go wrong by buying something to help your child sleep at night. good luck. if you would like to keep in touch my e-mail is ____@____.com
Hi S.:
We also have a 5 month old and we tried the Ferber method (which I know some people are against) but really read what he has to say online or buy the book. A lot of people have a misconception of the method and do not stick with it which in turn does make it not work. We used this for my now 2 year old daughter and she has always slept through the night and takes a 2 hour nap. For my 5 month old, we started this method and he now sleep from 7 pm until 4am ( he gets one feeding...hoping that goes away soon) and goes back to sleep until 7am. So it does work but you have to give it at least a week without giving up and they have to sleep in their own crib or space for it to work. It will also work for naps as well and now my baby knows his naptimes and really never fusses too long about it. It will take patience and YES he will cry and it is hard to listen to it but it teaches them soothe themselves to sleep without mommy or daddy. So I hope you will consider reading up on it and get more sleep for you.
GOOD LUCK to you!
Hi S.
I read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" and used it like a bible. Dr. Weisbluth, the author, is a sleep specialist and it really helps you to understand why kids don't sleep well if they are overtired.
The key I learned are to learn the sleepy signs and follow them...put your child down according to his actual brain waves. That way the child learns that when tired, it's time to sleep. Once you go past their sleepy signs (rubbing eyes, yawning, lack of activity, compulsiveness, glassy-eyed stare) they start to get amped on adrenaline and then a vicious cycle begins because then they can't sleep. That can make naps shorter or nonexistent. Once they get better rested, the naps get longer as does nighttime sleep. The minimum a nap should be is 45 minutes....that's how long the average sleep cycles lasts. Any shorter and they're not getting useful, restful sleep. My daughter was usually only awake for 1.5 hours before she got sleepy again. I respectfully put her down to learn to sleep on her own (no nursing to sleep at that young age). She got the hang of it pretty quickly. Her naps progressed from 45 minutes to 1.5 and now she takes usually 2.25 or 3 hour naps. I tell you this because it is EXACTLY as the book said. She follows a sleep cycle perfectly. Every child is different, but if you get on their brainwaves, yours can be tuned in to his own sleep cycles in the same way. My daughter is great sleeper now at 2.5 and tells us when she is sleepy.
I suggest you read the book, I can't put all the info I learned from it in this. Good luck. A.
Consistency is the key here. Make sure your son goes down to bed & for naps at the same time every day. I had trouble with my son sleeping when he was an infant as well & what helped me was the advice I got from another Mamasource mom. She told me that the kids at this age get overstimulated & tired easily & need a nap every 2.5-3 hours. Once I've started to put my son down for a nap at least every 3 hours, he became much happier & started to sleep better at night. Also, from the time of his birth we've been keeping the room dark (1 small night light only), warm but not too hot, running a white noise machine for all naps & at night to drown out street/house noises. He loved being swaddled so we did that until he was about 6-7 months old. I still rock him in a rocking chair. However, make sure you rock him only until he gets sleepy but not fully asleep, otherwise, he'll be used to rocking as the only way to fall asleep. Put him into his crib when he is sleepy & tired (yawning, rubbing his eyes, looking dazed, etc) but not fully asleep so he can learn to fall asleep on his own. The sleeping trouble will not last forever, you just need to help him develop good sleeping habits. You can get lots of good advice from the E. Pantley's book "The no-cry sleep solution." Good luck.
