Baby Sleeping Problems

crewe

We've got a 5 and a half month old baby who until 1 month ago was sleeping through the night. But over the last month she keeps waking up about 3 or 4 times a night. We've tried giving her cool boiled water in case she's just thirsty. We've tried a dummy which works as long as it doesn't fall out and now we're going to have probs weaning her off it. We've just started to introduce her to solids and were hoping that food might fill her up a bit more and help her sleep through, but that's not working either. We've also tried varying the time of her last bottle as well. She gets plenty of fresh air during the day too! Back at work so getting desperate for sleeppppppppppp.

Has anyone got any ideas?

Smiley_Mum

Perhaps your baby is cutting teeth. My first didn't get his teeth in until around 9/10 months but my younger one cut his earlier than that. All babies are different. Also, sucking on the dummy would ease the pain slightly for her. Good Luck.

http://www.2coolbaby.com/Documents/brstteeth.htm

This came from a website about teething also -

my baby is almost 7 months old and is
starting to teeth and waking up in the night
I have tried various aids but find a dummy
works best she does not usually use a dummy
is this going to be ahard habit to break or
should I just continue with whatever keeps
her the happiest.Any advice welcome

Mumstheword

I wouldn't worry about weaning problems from a dummy. For now, the most important thing is that baby and parents get a good night's rest, and that baby is comforted from any pain or distress. Dummies are fab for this!
I'd much rather give a dummy than run the risk of thumb sucking as you can't wean them off a thumb at a later date, and thumbs are much more handy to use whenever they like, as opposed to restricting use of dummies to sleep time!
I used to fill the cot with dummies so that baby could find one if they woke up!

apprentice_tycoon

If she wants her dummy that's OK don't worry! no-one ever got to adulthood needing a dummy, especially if it's just for bedtime. A tip for getting them off the dummies when they are older - our son had a dummy just for sleeping and when he got to nearly 4 and it was clearly just a habit, we thought that it was time to let go.
It was Christmas, I'm afraid that we told him that Father Christmas would leave his presents but would like to take his dummy for a new baby (I cringe now, relating it!) the little angel helped me wrap it in Christmas paper, he was fine about it and never gave it another thought.
I still have it at the back of the wardrobe 16 years later.

Dormouse

Just wanted to say that lots of babies don't sleep through at 5 1/2 months, although hopefully it won't be long for you!

Also, babies aren't exactly known for their consistency; they seem to go through phases, doing something for a few weeks, then doing something completely different, often without any reason. I know it's not easy seing things from a wider perspective when you're having sleepless nights, but it's not going to last forever.

You said you've just started weaning -- I think it might take a few weeks for it to have any effect on your baby's sleep. I've read somewhere that the common misconception is that the first spoonful of baby rice will make all the difference, but in most cases it won't. My little boy didn't sleep through properly until he was on three solid meals a day, so hopefully that's when you'll see a real difference.

HTH

Jay-Jay_4

crewe wrote:

We've got a 5 and a half month old baby who until 1 month ago was sleeping through the night. But over the last month she keeps waking up about 3 or 4 times a night.

Sounds like it could be teeth to me too.

We've tried giving her cool boiled water in case she's just thirsty. We've tried a dummy which works as long as it doesn't fall out and now we're going to have probs weaning her off it.

Sometimes a dummy at night can be a life saver, the only problem is when the dummy falls out and baby can't find it. We gave my youngest one at around this age but I had to go in so many times to put it back in her mouth that at 6 months I just took it away completely.

We've just started to introduce her to solids and were hoping that food might fill her up a bit more and help her sleep through, but that's not working either.

but at least you're ruling out the fact that she's hungry or thirsty, so that's a good thing.

We've also tried varying the time of her last bottle as well. She gets plenty of fresh air during the day too! Back at work so getting desperate for sleeppppppppppp.

Has anyone got any ideas?

Not going to be popular for this one but.....maybe couple of nights of leaving her to cry herself back to sleep. I'm not talking about ignoring her for 3 hours while she screams herself silly, I mean ten minutes to see if she calms down by herself.

jellyhead

i used a homeopathic powder teething remedy for spud, it came from boots in a box of 20 wraps, i can't think what it was called though. his teething started at around 3 months and it was almost all the time - for a year or so it seemed like the teething never stopped. sometimes i used calpol at night but i wouldn't recommend using it for months on end. if you're desperate though at least you know that killing the pain for 4 hours or so means 4 hours sleep for you all.

Chatterbox_3

Can any of your mums help out and give you a night's break? I remember how relieved I was when my big sister offered to sleep over and do a night shift for us. Her kids were at school next day so she could sleep later!

bylromarha

Jay-Jay wrote:

Sometimes a dummy at night can be a life saver, the only problem is when the dummy falls out and baby can't find it. We gave my youngest one at around this age but I had to go in so many times to put it back in her mouth that at 6 months I just took it away completely.

Heard a good tip about this, although haven't used it myself...my boy's a thumb sucker.

Tie the dummy on the end of a piece of ribbon and attach the other end of the ribbon securely to baby's clothing in some way (safety pin I guess?). Then train baby to follow the ribbon to find dummy...whoever it was who told me this said it worked really well for baby after a few times of learning how to find the lost dummy.

Jay-Jay wrote:

Not going to be popular for this one but.....maybe couple of nights of leaving her to cry herself back to sleep. I'm not talking about ignoring her for 3 hours while she screams herself silly, I mean ten minutes to see if she calms down by herself.

I agree with you on this. Little un will quite often wake up at 5am and go back to sleep if you leave him for a few minutes.

If baby slept through the night before, they'll start to do it again. A few cans of red bull will probably need to be bought for the time being, but baby will go back to those peaceful nights again. All the best.

bright_side

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

It was Christmas, I'm afraid that we told him that Father Christmas would leave his presents but would like to take his dummy for a new baby (I cringe now, relating it!) the little angel helped me wrap it in Christmas paper, he was fine about it and never gave it another thought.

That's exactly what I did with my daughter. She's 14 now and isn't traumatised atall

Becles

Is baby confused by night and day? Sometimes they get mixed up!

On a day time, put her to sleep with the curtains open and make a litte background noise - do some housework or have the radio/TV on. When she wakes up, talk to her and play with her.

On a night wake, make no eye contact and do not speak. Keep the room dark by just putting the landing light on, or use a low watt bulb. Settle her back in the cot and leave her. If she just cries a bit, just leave her to it and she'll learn how to settle herself. If she starts crying loudly or sounds distressed, then go back to her and try and find out what's wrong which is easier said than done!