Hi Eric,
Thanks for visiting The Baby Sleep Site! I’m so sorry to hear of the long night wakings you’re experiencing with your 5 month-old. The most common reasons to see these long wakings at this age in a healthy baby are because they’re hungry, or something is way off in the daily schedule. A 5 month-old may be eating 3 times a night, so please see our sample 5 month-old schedule here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/schedules/5-month-old-baby-schedule/
and consider whether he may be hungry at night.

If you continue to have trouble, this is a case I would definitely refer to a sleep consultant. She can look at your whole schedule, your baby’s eating habits, and everything and fix any gaps you have.

I hope this helps! Hang in there, and good luck!

We’ve been trying to establish a routine for our 5 months baby but he won’t sleep through the night for more than 3 hours and stays awake for 2-4 hours (it’s been like that since he was a newborn)
He is breastfed and started eating baby cereal with breast milk between feedings (we are trying to fill his belly during the day)

He does OK during his naps (3 naps / max 2 hours each and he sleeps on his own without any help). He plays on his gym, bouncer, whatch TV during the day… normal play.

On bed time around 8PM (we start the ritual 30 minutes earlier), we feed him, he takes a warm bath, some gently talk, we read a book, then he holds to his transition object and we say good night, I love you and we leave… Sometimes he complains and we let him cry-out for max 10-20 minutes and he sleeps.

Problem: He usually wakes up after 2 or 3 hours of sleeping and stays awake for 2-4 hours.. If we let him cry out right after he wakes up, he will cry out for 4 hours non-stop untill we give up and pick him up (insane right?) and all that crying will make him more aware and not wanting to sleep.. not healthy either.
After 3-4 hours awake and kicking, sometimes crying and complaining a little bit, he will show cues of hunger..We feed him and eventually he goes back to sleep around 1am or 2am. Then, he wakes up around 2am or 3am and sleep back around 5AM. We wake him up at around 07:30 – 08:30 to start his schedule (nightmare) again…. what’s happening? Why is he waking up at night fully restored after a 2-3 hours sleep?

Hi @Megan –
Thanks for writing to us about your 6 month old! All babies are different, and some can sleep in occasionally and this will have no effect on the rest of their day and night, while others will need to adhere to a stricter schedule, and will get “thrown off” by a change in schedule. If your little guy seems to do fine with the occasional sleep in day, then go with it! As you mention, as long as it doesn’t seem to change his overall sleep patterns, then this should be fine! Thanks again for writing Megan!

Thanks for your help

Hi Baby Sleep Site and Julia! What time did your 6mo typically go to bed? We’re on a similar schedule, and he settles easily for his naps, but really fights bedtime – and he’ll sleep for the night around 10 or 11pm after a long period of crying. Do you wake him from his third nap to ensure it isn’t too close to bedtime? Thanks!

Hi @Carrie –
Thanks for writing to us, and sorry to hear that you’re having trouble with your 12 month old’s sleep! We hear about sleep issues at this age often!
This common trouble spot, which especially seems to affect naps (and especially fighting naps!), doesn’t seem to affect as many of our clients as the other regressions do – but we do hear and this and help families through this often! Lots of parents assume that this is a normal nap transition, and that it means their little one is ready for just one nap a day. However, we urge parents to treat this one as a regression instead, since most toddlers really aren’t ready to transition to just one nap a day until about 15 months.
Keep offering those second naps and be careful if you wake her early to fit in both naps, so that she doesn’t get overtired!
This article should help:
https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-naps-2/12-month-olds-one-nap-transition/
Hang in there Carrie, and please contact us at any time if you’d like more help!

I don’t worry because he’s growing well, full of fun energy when he’s awake, super alert, and is ahead of schedule with his crawling, talking, and other crazy monumental baby skills and awareness! As long as your baby is growing and seems alert and happy I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

Hi @Jamie – Thank you for writing! Have you signed up for our free ebook for new families yet? I think it will be helpful and you can sign up here:
https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-sleep-through-night-free-ebook/
This sample schedule should be very useful as well:
https://www.babysleepsite.com/newborns/newborn-sleep-schedules-by-week/#12week
Good luck Jamie and please contact us if you need further assistance or recommendations!