5.5 month old used to sleep through the night, now waking constantly

[timmysfriend]

From 6 weeks old my baby slept from 9 pm-4 am and then 4 am-7:30/8. Two weeks ago she started to wake as soon as we laid her down and then every 1-2 hours when we finally managed to get her to sleep.

She is EBF and latches only, she sleeps in a packnplay in our room, and uses a pacifier. She will be 6 months old on 3/23

I understand how sleep cycles work and how sleep changes over time for infants. But I am at a loss as to what a logical next step is.

I’m looking for advice on sleep training, hope to break her sleep habits, and the like.

 

[follow_the_word]

@timmysfriend Sleep training is fine. There isn’t evidence that it causes long term harm. Full extinction (cry it out) is not shown to be more detrimental than graduated extinction (Ferber) or more gentle methods. You can pick any method that you’d prefer - Precious Little Sleep gives a good overview of approaches.

Sleep trained babies are not more insecurely attached. They don’t “know no one will come for them if they’re in trouble.” They aren’t fussier. They also don’t sleep any more than non sleep trained babies. Parental mental health is improved and parents get more sleep. That’s the long term benefit of sleep training.

At the same time, there is no need to sleep train if you don’t want to. Your kid will eventually sleep through the night, though it might take months or years. Your kid won’t end up unable to sleep or have problems as an adult because you didn’t sleep train.

The evidence on this suggests it’s truly up to you. Personally, I was a better, more present, more engaged and safer caregiver after sleep training, so that’s what I did. You don’t have to. This is thankfully a place where the research consensus at the moment is “do as you’d like.”

 

[shawntavia]

@timmysfriend So this is VERY anecdotal to my experience with my almost 1 year old, but we had a fantastic sleeper until that age too....until he got an ear infection and then it just went to crap (but improved almost back to it when he got tubes recently). We also kept missing the signs or writing them off as something else, but then learned that's what was making him miserable. Any really rough nights after that ended up always being ear infections, with general bad nights being bc he constantly had fluid. Your case very well may be just a classic sleep regression, but since you asked for any advice I figured I'd share our experience too! If they've had a fever or any congestion lately, it's worth checking out with your ped just to rule it out between well checks if sleep training doesn't solve things.

 

[momof2labs]

@shawntavia Big plus one here. Whenever we’ve had disturbed sleep it has always been an ear infection.

 

[freddied]

@shawntavia Ha, we are going to our ped tomorrow because my 5.5 month old wakes up/cries every time she’s flat on her back for the last few days. Meaning she will only really sleep in my arms. No other major signs though beside that - no recent fever and only a very small cold. But I’m feeling pretty confident it’s her ears at this point. So definitely would advise OP strongly consider this possibility especially to rule it out before trying to sleep train while it’s going on, leading to misery for everyone. (Not anti sleep training, just will not be effective if baby is in pain!!)

 

[lumendei]

@timmysfriend Babies do a lot of developmental changes as they grow. Your options are explore sleep training or wait it out, which can take weeks or months. Either way there’s no silver bullet and every baby is different. Alot of trial and error and ultimately acceptance that this too shall pass

 

[yoshs]

@timmysfriend So, I'd first confirm that she doesn't have an ear infection.

Then I'd check for any possible teeth. Ours got her first 4 all at the same time and it was a rough couple of weeks before we saw one poke through and had an explanation.

Then if you haven't heard about the rumored 4 months sleep regressions (which can actually happen anytime between 3-6months) I'd read a little bit about it. Ours hit right at 13-14 weeks, and she went from sleeping 6-4am to up every hour. We didn't do sleep training, but I did try to rock her less. Quick snuggle, pacifier, back in bed. Repeat. Repeat. Switch with husband. Repeat. It was a miserable couple of weeks but she gradually started waking every 2 hours, then 3, then none and went back to her usual sleep.

 

[jenmelania0]

@timmysfriend We had basically the same situation with our baby. In our case she just turned into a ridiculously light sleeper and was woken up by us making even the slightest sound. We’ve moved her into the nursery at 6.5 months old and I sleep with her. She nearly wakes up from the sound of me getting into bed, so I have to be extremely slow and careful, but has gone to her previous sleep schedule (8pm-6am).