My 5-Month Old Won't Sleep For More Than 1-3 Hours At a Time At Night ... Please Help!?

Try some of the following, they worked for my baby, but he did sleep a bit more than your to start with..

- Put him to sleep in the same place he will stay throughout the duration of his sleep, they freak out and wake if they stir and they are in a different place.

- Try put him to sleep in his cot/crib or wherever he is sleeping and just stay with him patting him etc. It shows him that its ok to fall asleep on his own.

- When he wakes at night, make everything you do very "down to business". Just take a nappy into his room and change him in his bed.. easier to do if not a #2. Dont make eye contact, talk to him or play in any way. Take the bottle in with you - or if you breastfeed, even better. Sit in his room (get a comfy chair in there) and feed, burp and put back in cot/crib. Do the same to get him to sleep as you did at the start of the night. If he is shown that waking at night isnt fun, he will eventually only do it if he is in fact hungry.

Also, dont turn on any lights, a little glow light in the room is best, lights wake them and the ideal thing you can do is not have him completly awake.

- Try feed him more before he goes to sleep at night. Even if this means every hour on the hour for 3 hours in the lead up to bedtime. He will be full and therefore sleep a little longer. I think the term for this "cluster feed".

-Also you could try "dreamfeeding". Just before you go to bed late at night, feed him while he is still asleep. As soon as he feels the bottle or breast, he will begin the sucking relfex as he still young enough to have this.

-A good bedtime routine definately helps. I give him a bath, a massage and bottle in his room and he has learned what bathtime means - settle down for bedtime. As soon as I put that routine in place, I noticed an improvement!

Just a few tips that really helped me, but ever baby is defferent. I think the main thing is consistency. Most of the time new techniques dont start to work until after you do it for a while, so dont give up on whatever you decide to try.

Good luck

He's waking up because he is hungry, hence him only falling asleep when you nurse him. He is only 5 months old. Unfortunatly some babies wake up more often then others. You have a hungry little guy there and if he is hungry , he will wake up, no matter what you do. Sorry about that.

My daughter is 22 months and still wakes up about 2 times a night. So you want to talk sleep deprived, try it for almost 2 years.

I was having alot of anxiety before sleeping and could not fall asleep. Had many many sleepless nights.

I was just playing with the program one afternoon and wanted to listen to the �Power Nap� track. Next thing I knew I was waking up! Fell right asleep without trying. After using the �Fall Asleep� track, I could fall asleep right away. But I didn't realize that I shouldn't be using that one all night. Switched to Whole Night and have been using it ever since.

I can go to sleep with ease now. I just lay and listen to the sounds and next thing I know I am waking up from a nice sleep. I don't suffer from lack of sleep anymore. I keep an IPod with earbuds next to my bed and take it ALWAYS when traveling. The earbuds help block out ambient noise and the sleep tracks keep me sleeping sound :)

Reboot your brain & sleep soundly again?

5 Month Old Wont Sleep

If you want to put your baby to sleep in 20 seconds you must get the "Instant Baby Sleep" MP3 sound track. Here is their official web-site: http://www.instantbabysleep.net/

The sound track gently produces energy over the full human hearing spectrum with an embedded pulse that gently eases the brain to the Alpha state well known for drowsiness and sleep induction.

3 Steps to Cure Insomnia Forever!

My son did exactly the same thing for the same amount of time. My boy was 100% breast fed at this age and went from waking up 4 hourly to waking up 2 hourly at 5 months old. I spoke with a sleep consultant and she suggested he may be experiencing seperation anxiety as well as hunger and she suggested topping himup with formula before bed and then getting my partner to resettle him at his next wake up PLUS only 1 feed at night (my choice). It worked. He is now 10months old and usually sleeps for 11 hours over night and I am once again feeling rested.

As my sleep consultant explained to me... your son is probably soothing himself to sleep when he is nursing and you now need to teach him how to sooth himself to sleep. What I did is called the controlled comforting method. What you do is cuddle your bub until he is settled and then put him in his crib while he is still awake- tell him "it's time for your big sleep now, love you and I will see you in the morning" and kiss him. he will probably grizzle at this stage. Firmly, but not hard, hold him with both hands and gently rock him until his grizzles start to sound sing songy or rythmical (babies way of soothing themselves is to sing) and then slowly remove your hands and walk out of the room.Stay quietly outside the door until he either falls asleep or cries. If he cries (which is normal at the start of self settling) wait until his cries quieten down before going in. This will reinforce the self soothing behaviour. And keep repeating this step until he sleeps. the first few nights may take 30-60 minutes to settle him at each wake time but it does work really well and the child will not be stress about it as they are still being comforted - just at the quiet cry time not the screaming loud cry.

My boy still wakes at night but now he sing songs himself to sleep - if he cries I get up to him but now it is only ever once per night. your son will thank you for it and you will remember what sleep is like. I feel your pain from my own personal experience.

Try the sleep sense program, best money we ever spent. Our baby started sleeping through (13hrs) within a few nights of starting. Highly reccomend it, good luck!! http://www.sleepsense.net/share.html?p=sleepbabysl...

dont worry it happens to most of us sometimes...i have used the 'cry i out method' only a few times and it has worked..after going back in every 5 minutes to reasure him... but some babies do not respond to his... i have encouraged my son (he is 4 months) to sleep most of the night with a few steps (they may or may not help you!?)

make sure he has heaps/enough to eat/drink during the day..a lot of babies wake up for feeds during the night? depending on how you feel about it personally, your bub could be ready to try some solids? or just rice cereal? though it is now reccomended that babies shouldnt start on solids until at least 6 months its still a personal choice, and every baby is different;

make sure he is really been burped before bed...sometimes they have air trapped i find lying bub down for 5 minutes before bedtime handy because when i pick him back up to put into bed he burps b himself :)

make sure he isnt too cold or too warm?

obviously check him nappy...

is he in a routine? my son responded so well to a routine; which we started around 6 weeks of age? its awake at 8..feeds from 4am, 4 hourly, bathtime at 7pm, last feed at 8 then off to bed once he's rested and burped; i find the nights he doesnt have awarm relaxing bath (we use chemical free product like AROMABABY or GAIA that have lavender and chamomile oils) hes a little more unsettled..some nights i give him a baby massage with the oils from the same range of products, i play relaxing music in the background and at bed time for him which sends him off to sleep.

make sure your little one knows the difference between nighttime and daytime; nighttime for sleeping and daytime for playing; which is when i find the leaving them to cry for a few minutes works it tells him i wont be playing with him. but some people just let their babies scream; i personally wouldn't recommend this as you cannot spoil your child with love...and studies have found that babies who are cuddled when cried etc grow up calmer and happier as they know that love is around them.

not too sure if any of this will help, sometimes bubs just wants to be cuddled... in the end some times my bub wouldn't stop so i would co-sleep... you can google heaps of information about this to make it safe but once again this is a taboo subject and a personal choice..

good luck with bubs

You have a lot of good advice here... I've heard that you shouldn't use the "cry it out method" until 6 months anyway. They are developmentally not ready to soothe themselves til that time, am I wrong?