My Baby Has Problems Falling Asleep at Night

She sounds overtired to me. At 5 months she can be taking 3 naps/day. Certainly don't wake her. Make sure to take her outside for lots of fresh air play and put her to bed earlier than 9:30. Any bedtime from 6-8 is great...it just sounds like her overtired adrenaline rush is kicking in, hence she's up ready to party it up with you. I read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Weissbluth - it's been our guide and my toddler still sleeps like a champ!

Sounds like she has realized that there's more to life than sleeping at bedtime. If you pick her up when she wakes at night, try not picking her up, but quietly patting her back or rolling her back over. Keep everything very dark, quiet and low key. You can just leave her in her bed if she's not crying. If she starts crying, you can go in there, but DO NOT PICK HER UP OR ENGAGE HER AT ALL (soothing, quiet voice, no playing, minimal eye contact). Or, if you are comfortable letting her cry it out, you can let her cry it out cold turkey. Just don't ENGAGE her and you won't be perpetuating the cycle. You may want to move her bedtime up by 15 minutes or half an hour and see if that works better. Marc Weissbluth's "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" has always been very helpful to me for dealing with sleep issues, but some people think it's hardcore in some ways because it advocates letting a baby "cry it out." Good luck!

I'd say it's just a stage and ride it out... my son did this... I would get up with him and play for a short time, then he'd go back to sleep. Or you could try not engaging her and just put her in a sling or carrier... and do some things and kinda ignore her and she'll go back to sleep eventually. As crazy as it sounds I would get up and put my son in a sling and clean, prep dinner for the next day, do some emailing or internet surfing.. or anything that I could do to make the next day easier.

Hey J.,
Sorry to hear about your luck. My best advice to you is to stick to your guns. Keep bedtime @ 9:30. If you don't already have a bedtime routine (like feeding, bathing and then reading a book) you could start with that. She will recognize the pattern eventually. Then after the routine, lay her down in bed. If she cries go in and reassure her every 10-15minutes but don't take her out of bed unless she's really upset or has feeding or diaper needs. My son will often play in bed for a few minutes before falling asleep.My pediatrician swore by this and I owe her my life. My son(who is now 2 1/2) sleeps 11 hours at night with a 2 hour nap during the day. I hope that helps. Good Luck. T.-Pinckney

Limiting naps is probably the problem. It makes sense to us adults that if we nap during the day, we have trouble sleeping. The opposite is often true of babies. They need a lot more sleep than you think, and a well rested baby sleeps better than an overtired one. Tried and true in my house, people would always comment on my 3 kids nap routine but they would also comment on how well they slept and their mouths would drop when, at just a few months old, I could put them to bed and they would go right to sleep!

Also, 5 months seems to be a common age where sleep gets interrupted a bit. Just be consistent at naps and bedtime. Our routine was on a 3-4 hour cycle (depending on age) feed, waketime for 1.5 hours, sleep for 1.5 hours. Baby will transition on their own if you read their signals.

Good luck!

~L.

I don't know if your baby is breastfed or bottle fed, but I think scheduling for a young infant is an oxymoron! They are developing and changing constantly. I say - go with the flow and enjoy your baby, whatever time of day or night she's awake, but not everyone will agree, I'm sure!

There is a great book called No Cry Sleep Solutions that has lots of tips for helping babies get longer and better naps ans sleep without leaving them to cry on their own.

I have used it with my 7 month old son who went from sleeping 3-20 minute naps a day and up every 2-3 hours at night to sleeping 12 hours straight at night and 2-2 hour naps during the day.

Sounds overtired to me. Also, I have babies that are earily teethers - is your baby doing a lot of drooling? This would keep my daughters up at night & I had no idea that more were coming in.
Good luck