7 month old waking up 6+ times at night

[gpmd05]

Hello everyone! My son is 7 months old and has been able to fall asleep in his crib now for about 2 months. It takes him sometimes 30 mins but he does it. He has already learned how to sit himself up, crawl, and pull himself up (but not sit back down) so I typically have to go in a few times and sit him down after he pulled himself up in his crib. If he has a tough go of it, I'll rub his back until he starts to just stare into space and then I leave. When he started falling asleep on his own he was waking up around 3/4 am and then again around 6 to bf. Now he wakes up just about every 2 hours. He is ebf plus solids three + times a day. Here is our typical schedule:

6 am: Wake Up for the day
6 am: E- bf
615-715-Activity
715-730- E solids
8-9 am: Nap
915: e-bf
930-1030- Activity
1030-1045: E solids
1045-1200- Activity
1200-100- Nap (half the time this nap is only 26 minutes (on the nose!) and he then falls asleep bf for another 30-45 mins)
100: e-bf
115-315: Activity
315-330: E-small snack solids
330-400: Activity
400-430: Cat nap
430: e-bf
445-600: Activity
600: e- solids
615: bedtime routine/bath
700: e-bf
715: in the crib Half the time he is awake, the other half he falls asleep nursing.

Then he is up just about every 2 hours after an initial 3-4 hour sleep. I try to rub his back to get him back to sleep when he wakes but he will sit back up every time I lay him down and CRY. PU/PD only makes him cry harder when I PD. So I nurse him. He nurses for a good 10 minutes, seems genuinely hungry but then falls right asleep. Then repeat every 2 hours. The only time he ever wakes up happy after a nap is if he wakes up, nurses, fall asleep again. I know he is supposed to eat every 4 hours or so and when I tried to stretch it out, he just couldn't make it happy. He will go longer if we are out on errands but not much longer. He nurses for about 10-15 minutes and eats 4 oz of solids or more every time. (I try to stuff him full during the day in hopes that he wont be hungry at night) He is very tiny so I just keep feeding him until he stops.

He has his two bottom teeth but I can't see any others coming in but I will give him medicine at bedtime just in case if he seems cranky/ear pulling.
He does have a pacy but he knows how to put it back in.

Any advice on what I am doing wrong is greatly appreciated. I'm so tired!!!! Thank you for reading!

[becj86]

Hi, welcome

When you say he is tiny, how small is he? Was he a premmie? Any other medical issues going on? Just don't want to advise you something inappropriate.

To me, it looks like he needs to drop that catnap to get himself some longer more restorative naps in the day, something more like this:
6 am: Wake Up for the day
6 am: E- bf
715-730- E solids (maybe a BF after as a drink and to add more calories)
9-10:30 am: Nap
10:45 - e-bf
11:30-1145: E solids (maybe a BF after as a drink and to add more calories)
130-3 - Nap
315-330: E-BF
500: e- solids
600: bedtime routine/bath
645: e-bf
700: in the crib

I do wonder if he's snacking (not ever taking a full feed, just frequent little ones) and therefore not taking enough calories in during the day or if solids is replacing too much of his daytime milk intake (solids being lower in calories than BM) and he's hungry at night.

I think also you have a BF to sleep prop involved. I'd say a lot of these wakings will probably resolve with fixing that day routine up a bit, but you may need to think about if/how you plan to wean BF to sleep so both of you get some decent rest at night.