Not sure what to do with 7 month old random night wakings?

[1tamara1]

hi, our LO is 7 months old and has never been a great sleeper, but we eventually got there and he would sleep soundly for about 1.5 - 2 hours for each nap and then from 7 till about 6.30, but whilst his daytime sleeping is wonderful his night times are starting to change and I'm not sure if its appropriate for his age so would love if someone could help us out. We dropped the dream feed at about 6 months, he was weaned at 5 months onto solids and now at 7 months eats 3 proper meals per day as well as bottle feeds but he is waking during the night for a feed and wondering if he still should be for his age. He did go through a growth spurt about 3 weeks ago and was waking twice in the night for a feed and since then hasnt been the same

Most of the time he wakes between 4-4.30am and wont settle until we feed him. Sometimes it can be 5.30am, last night it was 2am?! No matter what we do he will settle for about 45 mins and then wake again. If we feed him early morning it mucks up our whole day and its really hard to get any milk into him!

Our routine is like this:

wake : anywhere from 6-6.30 (sometimes 7 if he has a feed at 5)
Nap: 9am or 9.30 if he wakes at 7
Awake : 10.30am
Bottle: 11am (really struggle with this one)
Lunch: 12
Nap: 1.30 - 3.30
Bottle" 3.30
Dinner: 5pm
Bed time: 7pm (earlier if he doesnt nap for his last nap)

so my question is, could the night waking be genuine hunger or habit because he doesnt know how to get back to sleep for that night waking? I dont know how to tell, and was wondering if we should re-introduce the dream feed? he eats ALOT during the day and I mean alot as well as about 9oz for each bottle so I cant understand how he would still be hungry. It is again starting to wake up my toddler who we're also trying to sleep train after illness

Am more than happy to do PU/PD if we know that its because of hunger as we cant keep going on like this, normally when he wakes I struggle to get back to sleep at all and am finding days tiring, only for this reason!
thanks in advance for your help

[Straffles]

Very sorry to hear you're struggling to get back to sleep. I understand that - it's very hard.

It is normal for babies to wake up randomly and it could be hunger given that they're not at the same time every night i.e. not habitual.

My thought is that perhaps he now needs longer ATs during the daytime as I have a feeling that 2 1/2 hours AT may be getting a little low by 7 months. He could be waking at night because he's not tired enough. It's a thought, and I'm no expert like some of the ladies on this forum.

My LO still wakes 1 - 3 times a night so I can't be sure how you would account for a regression from STTN to one NW. There are many many reasons a baby wakes at night. But if he's waking again after 45 mins that is suggesting to me that he may not be tired enough...

What do you think?

[1tamara1]

Thanks for your reply. Well sometimes I think hunger and then we get the habitual waking at 4 and then I dont know what to do as at that time of the morning you just do what you need to get them back to sleep!

I am going to try the longer A time as we have kept it the same for quite a while i.e. 2 1/2 hours A time in the morning and 3 before his afternoon nap as it works well for me at the moment as my 2 year old daughter has her afternoon nap at the same time (mama's break!). So I guess I have to sacrafice one or the other, the day time sleep is really good and I cant complain and we dont mind the night feeding, as long as its not forming a bad habit. A friend still feeds her 14month old during the night and I'm paranoid of falling into that trap!

[becj86]

I think that A time increase is probably going to help sort quite a few issues for you.

re: the night feeds - often LO's take some time to drop the NF's they've reintroduced during a growth spurt. If he's pushing it out on his own, I'd just let him do it but if they're hanging around in another week or two, you may want to wean it a little more actively.