how do I know whether my 5 month old is waking for a feed, or just waking and what do I do?
sometimes i get up and try the dummy or feed (which is generally what i do so i know when i go back to bed i can sleep). is it too early to let her cry a bit? She used to sleep for a minimum of 7 hours since newborn, but now there is no conistency ie she can do a long night stretch then wake every few hours, the next night she will wake every few hours then do a long stretch.
my awesome (not) baby book says that i need to break the habit, but i don't know what the dammn habit is becuase her hours are all over the place.......please don't just tell me that all babies wake during the night - i know this and i'm happy to get up but not every few hours and especially when she doesn't always have a proper feed. thanks

My little girl has started to wake every few hours because she is teething she normally sleeps right through the night. I normally jump up as soon as I hear her to see if I can pat her back to sleep and if know that wont work after a min or so I put her on the boob. The only reason I dont let her cry for a bit is because I know she wont go back to sleep like that and the longer I leave her the longer it takes me to get her back to sleep.

Some babies may winge for a min or two and go back to sleep so if she did that I would leave her.

Oh my little girl doesnt have a proper feed either sometimes only 10 mins or up to half an hour.

I dont really know what to do either hopefully it is just a thing they do and will go back to sleeping right through!

I have a 6 month old boy who is so inconsistent with sleeping habits that it is really hard to know what the habit is. I dont really have any advice as such except that babies are human too, and sometimes you wake at weird times of the night either thirsty or hungry or tired at different times, I think its very hard on us Mum's when we read books that tell us how our babies are all 'supposed' to behave, imagine the outrage if there was a book on how adult females behave??? Like we are all the same. And that if you just do 'this' it will fix 'that'. We are all only human and very different. Try seeing it from bubs point of view, try giving her a feed, try giving her a cuddle, try patting her, see what she wants and try your best to give it to her, at least until you come up with a better solution!!!! god being a mum is hard!! good luck : )

I leave the cry that sounds like a sheep its a short mah then a few minutes later mah. If she starts to get more frequent I am pretty much straight up there for my baby as she usually wakes for a feed. If I can get to her before she wakes up and give her a dream feed she doesn't get wind and goes back to sleep straight away. The more awake she gets longer she crys and the harder I find it to get her to sleep.

Trust your instincts, I personally am not a fan of books as every baby is different and every mother is different. Do what works for you at the end of the day the author of the book isn't in your bed at night.

Good luck.

Hang in there!!! It will settle down!!! I have just been through it in the last few weeks with DD!!! Someone was saying its because their sleep patterns are changing & when they switch to (or from) REM its harder for them to resettle... I just kept putting DDs dummy back in her mouth & if she wouldnt settle I would give her a bottle.. Some nights she would have a full one & some nights it would just be a tiny bit!! (if she was waking constantly I would just give her a bit of warm boiled water & then formula every 4 hrs), Touch wood she is now back to 1 feed at 10.30-11pm & then doesnt wake till 6am(ish) for her next one, Its not her 10hr sleeps like before but Im hoping it will increase... I hope this makes some sense, DD is sick atm so im sleep deprived blink

Hang in there!!! It will settle down!!! I have just been through it in the last few weeks with DD!!! Someone was saying its because their sleep patterns are changing & when they switch to (or from) REM its harder for them to resettle... I just kept putting DDs dummy back in her mouth & if she wouldnt settle I would give her a bottle.. Some nights she would have a full one & some nights it would just be a tiny bit!! (if she was waking constantly I would just give her a bit of warm boiled water & then formula every 4 hrs), Touch wood she is now back to 1 feed at 10.30-11pm & then doesnt wake till 6am(ish) for her next one, Its not her 10hr sleeps like before but Im hoping it will increase... I hope this makes some sense, DD is sick atm so im sleep deprived blink

my baby is now 9 and a half weeks and he started sleeping throw the night at 6 weeks i put him down every night at 7 just after a feed but he wont fall asleep till about 8 or 9 then i wake him at 10 or 10:30 for another feed then i borp him and put him strat back down again and he falls asleep within 5 mins and he does not wake again untill 6:30 7 in the morrning