My Five Month Boy Won't Sleep

Hello... sleep deprivation really takes it's toll on Mom!! I know... I've seen a few suggestions here and all I wanted to do was back the ones up that worked for my non-sleeper. A little organic oatmeal in the milk at night helped a lot because my baby was not only hungry faster, but it thickened her formula a bit and helped her apparent acid reflux.

The other really big difference was when I put an ocean sound device under her crib (not the kind with seagulls chirping, just ocean waves) and I also got a cd called Baby Sleep that has ambient sound with heartbeat. These two things really made a difference along with consistent, patient perseverance with a schedule.

Hope this helps you!
A.

They say every baby is different; you were lucky with the other three. My little one is 18 weeks and his sleep cycle sounds very similar to yours. From everything I've read, it's perfectly normal at his age. He does tend to sleep a little longer during the day if I put him in the swing when he's getting sleepy and keep it going until he wakes up. A friend with a 5 mo. old is also doing the No Cry Sleep Solution and having some success with that. :-) It sounds like it's really stressing you out! Make those older boys give you, hubby, and new baby some time to be together!

N.!!! Here is your answer!! I just posted this on the site, I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL!!!

Thank goodness!!! I got a gift from a friend who saw my frustration and complete exhaustion as my newborn I don't think has slept since birth! My beautiful babygirl Jessa is now 40 days old and that means with the exception of last nite, the last time I slept was 41 days ago!!! I have to share this as this is AMAZING! A friend sent me a gift card from kosmicmusic.com which has a handful of specialized music for babies (and older children as well) to help parents with various issues.

There are like 20 different titles that address SLEEP ISSUES. I just picked one and downloaded it, and AMAZINGLY --- JESSA slept for 6 solid hours! (I was checking to make sure she was breathing as I'd never actually seen her sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time!) Ok, so the one I bought was this one...

[IMG]http://i322.photobucket.com/albums/nn436/redrosegal/Small...

Now, I'm picking up a few more too, at $5.99 each I stand to gain - what - like 100 hours of sleep hands.gif

Here's a link to the sleep music,
http://www.kosmicmusic.com/do/category/MP3_Children_Babies

BTW - If you have older kids, and you have the same luck with their products, please let me know as I also have a very restless 3 year old that could use some calming/engaging music as well!

Signed Blissful Mommie Mandy!

my little guy isn't a great sleeper either, so I understand how you feel! White noise really helped him (we use an air cleaner on high) at naptime and bedtime. Also we have a consistent pre-nap routine, similar to his bedtime routine to let him know what is coming next. Change his diaper, put on soft, comfy sweat pants or shorts, snuggle a few minutes, then in the crib with his lovies (stuffed animal and small blankie). Having a consistent routine also helped. Routine though, not schedule; we do things in the same order each day, but with adjustments to the exact time (by 30 min to an hour) depending on his appetite, when he is naturally tired, and depending on what I need to get done.

Of course it took us a long time to get him to fall asleep on his own and sleep through the night...he's 9 months old now...and he still wakes up at night sometimes...

Of course when he's sick or overtired, he needs more help to fall asleep (like rocking) and his naps are shorter...and it seems backward, but he is more likely to sleep through the night the earlier he goes to bed! He usually goes down around 7 pm and sleeps 'til 5:30 or 6 am.

The final thing I'd think about is if he is depending on eating in order to fall asleep. If he doesn't know how else to fall asleep, that may be why he still wants to eat at night.

I hope something helps. Every baby is so different, it's impossible to know exactly what will work...hang in there!

N.,
I hope this advice will be helpful to you. I was not exactly sure if your little guy is on a standard feeding schedule. It seems like he may be on a 3 hour feeding schedule.
I have a 5 month old baby girl and our day is filled with 5 feedings. She eats, stays up for 2 hours and goes down for a nap for 2 hours. We do this until she goes down at night around 9 and start again at 7 in the morning. I would suggest keeping him on a 3 hr feeding schedule during the day and have around 6-7 feedings.5am, 8am, 11am, 2, 5pm, 8pm, 11pm. If you can get him to take naps in between the feedings that would be ideal, but if he will not sleep than I would still try the feeding routine. I would put him down at 11pm and see how long he will go at night. If he wakes up hungry I would let him cry it out for a little each night. ie he wakes at 2 I would let him cry until 210 then the next night, 15 min etc. I would feed him again when he wakes up so that he will learn that he does not need the middle of the night. then once that one is dropped for certain, I would suggest doing the same thing for the 5am. Then once he goes longer from 11-8 lets say then you can work at making the 11pm feeding earlier. I would also suggest keeping the middle of the night, 5am and 11pm to feeding as boring as possible and put the baby back to bed if you are not doing that already. If he cries and you know he has a full tummy, clean diaper and burped I would allow him to settle himself. These tips came from a book called mom's on call and babywise.
I hope it helps.

Is he eating cereal? Or just milk? Maybe he is too hungry and not staying full long enough?

Good luck!

Heartbeat music. They had sent me home from the hospital, with a CD, which I paid no attention to until a couple months later, when I was finally getting around to getting things put up. I put it in the stereo, simply out of curiosity, and my daughter practically went into a trance. I have never seen anything like it. I would give anything if I had that on film. Needless to say, she will turn 3 next month and she listens to it every night and every nap time. I also run a humidifier to cover noise. A couple of months ago her little CD player we use in her room broke. I didn't get out for a couple of days to get a new one. I thought the humidifier on it's own might work. Wrong. I couldn't get her down for her nap at all and she woke up during the night. When we travel, she will say "Mommy, take my music with me". I think it's worth a try. Good luck!!

Go to the mom's on call website - momsoncall.com. My friend had them come out and it was a worth it's weight in gold.

It sounds like you've tried almost everything if you keep a scheduel with him and try to let him cry a little but if that doesn't work it might just be his personality. My sister who just had her 6th baby this year has always had good sleep scheduels with her babies even after reflux and things like this but their last baby is 7 months old and despite reflux medicine, sleep training letting him cry, adjusting diets everything this boy will not sleep thru the night most nights and doesnt nap more then 1 nap during the day. She has never had a baby like this but no matter what she does ( and she's had lots of experience)it's just how he is. I say try to keep up with the scheduel and hopefully when he's ready he'l take to it. good luck

My youngest was a little cat napper during the day for a while. I'd start putting your son into his bed at the same time each morning and afternoon. After several weeks of this, my daughter began napping longer and longer. She is now ready for a nap at the same time each morning and afternoon and her naps are usually from 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours each time. It may work, but some babies are just not great sleepers. It seems that as they get older and tire themselves out more that they become better sleepers. Good luck!

If he's on a feeding schedule, cut that out and just feed him when he's hungry. Let him decide when and how much.

Is he fussing or just awake? Different kids have different sleep needs. If he's just awake, get a sling and wear him during the day so you can get what you need done.

the night time, though, that sounds about right. Babies aren't meant to sleep through the night and they aren't meant to be independent. And with growth spurts going on, he is going to be a hungry little guy.

My daughter was like this and there wasn't a thing I could do about it. CIO dosn't work for kids like this, I would recomend No cry sleep solution by elizabeth pantley though it is a good book and does work for a lot of people. That being said my kids were polar opposites , My daughter my non sleeper , never napped, didn't sleep all night till she was 3 yrs old.She's almost 7 now and STILL gets up in the middle of the night.Often when I get her up in the morning for school her lamp is on, when I know I turned it off before I went to bed. My son took good naps, slept all night at a year. I didnt do anything different with either kid. My daughter was also still eating in the middle of the night till she was a year old. I believe that kids will sleep all night when they will, And some kids need more sleep than others. My daughter didnt need much sleep,even though I did lol. My son needed more.

I'm not sure what the answer is to make him sleep longer, but I just wanted to say I would have been THRILLED with an hour nap for my son. He rarely slept more than 20 min. to a half hour at that age.

Yikes- I feel your pain. It is so hard when your baby doesn't sleep as long as you think they should. My 9 month old still won't sleep much more than an hour for a nap- and that is actually a long nap! His doctor has said that some babies just don't take super long naps. Maybe your little one is one of those like mine. As far as the night time. Again, my 9 month old still gets up to eat as well. Has your doctor suggested anything to try and move the bedtime up? I would definitely seek his/her advice on that one. If your little one gets up at a later time in the am maybe you could get him up earlier in the am, hopefully pushing his bedtime earlier and earlier? We read How to Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Dr. Ferber and I really liked the information. We had to "sleep train" around 4 months to get him to fall asleep in his crib on his own. Might be a resource you could check into. I think they had info. on what to do if the bedtime was too late? Good luck