Frequent Night Wakings - Help!

[Anonymous]

My 5 month old DS is waking up several times after he feeds at midnight/ 1:00 a.m.. I'm pretty sure he doesn't need to eat again but he sometimes wakes up at 3:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m and then the 5:00 a.m. wakeup when I out of desperation take him to bed with me. Has anyone else dealt with this issue and if so, how did you handle it?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

You can make your best effort to keep him awake more during the day so that he will be tired at night. It might take a few days or a week and could be fairly frustrating, but it'll pay off in the end. On the other hand, you can just go ahead and start co-sleeping since he sleeps much better when he is with you. I'm not for/against co-sleeping, but I am for following a baby's cues to keep him happy. If he seems to want to be with you at night, it might be the best thing for him at this time.

[Anonymous]

dont jump in there- let him cry some and he will learn to go back to bed on his own

[Anonymous]

OP Here. I'd love for him to stay up more during the day but he melts down after I try to keep him up to long. He sleeps about 1 - 1.5 hours in the morning, 1.5 in the afternoon and then a 3o minute catnap. I tried to have him skip the late afternoon nap and it was a disaster. He was a total mess and the night wasn't any better. Do you think that is too much sleep during the day?

[Anonymous]

I'm no expert, but my understanding is that MORE sleep during the day translates to a better night sleep...I know it's completely counterintuitive, but apparently when parents try to cut out the naps in hopes that the child will sleep more at night, the opposite usually happens.

this is what I've read, FWIW.

[Anonymous]

You are not alone, OP! We had exactly the same issue with our 5mo (who still naps in about the same increments as your DS, by the way)--he'd go down great, but wake up after about 5 hours and continue to wake up every 60 to 90 minutes after that for the rest of the night. We tried everything but CIO, including co-sleeping after the 1am wakeup to try to stave off the later wakeups at 2:30, 4, and 5:30. In the end, just a couple of weeks ago, just shy of 8 months, we finally tried CIO. By that point, it was clear that DS was not waking due to hunger--he would refuse to nurse/take a bottle--and I waited until I was confident that he wasn't waking due to teeth (he has 7!) or milestones (he started sitting/crawling/standing just before 7 months). The first few nights were hard, for sure, but he's now sleeping through from 7pm until 4am, eats, and then sleeps until 5:30 or 6. We are all much happier because we are all getting good sleep on a more consistent basis. CIO is not for everyone, and I could not have done it when DS was 5mo--he was still definitely hungry at night at that point--but, at least for now, it's what's worked for us. Best of luck to you!