Uncomfortable sleeping causes frequent night wakings, help!

[citawoman]

My son keeps waking up becuase i think he can't seem to get himself comfortable.  He is 20 lbs and almost six months old now but cannot roll over by himself yet.  When I put him in his crib, he is fine for a while but then seems to want change positions but cannot do it himself.  For example, he loves to sleep on his side sometime so I put him on his side.  But then he will fall onto his back, even with a sleep positioner, and wake himself up.  This leads to frequent trips to the bedroom.  He will go right back to sleep but I was wondering if anyone has any experience or advice on this.  Or do you think the problem will clear up when he starts rolling over by himself?

[Bryony]

If it is a rolling thing - then it will sort itself out - usually these things do!  But I also wonder if this restlessness might mean his routine needs a tweak - if you want to post your routine we can take a look

xx

[citawoman]

Here is his basic routine...

6:00 wake up
7:00 solids - oatmeal cereal and fruit
7:30 bottle
8:00 Nap
8:45 - 9:00 wake up
10:30 bottle
11:00 Nap
1:20 wake up
2:30 bottle
3:30 nap
4:30 wake up
5:30 solids - rice cereal and vegetables
6:30 bottle
7:00 bed
10:00 pm bottle
2:00 am bottle

This is his basic schedule but he doesn't always follow it.  His naps don't always last as long as they should which will often throw him off.  What I can basically count on is the times that he gets hungry and his wake up and bed time are basically the same. 

Any suggestions? (thanks so much for the help!)

[Bryony]

OK a few thoughts:

- he's on a lot of solids for his age - did this start around the time you started solids by any chance? Just wondered if that might be giving him some tummy ache. If you think this may be an issue you could cut out the evening solids and just do solids in the morning for a few weeks.

-that last A time seems a bit long - and it means he's got a day which is a fair bit longer than the recommended 12hrs. Perhaps you could try a slightly earlier bedtime in case it's OT which is causing the NW?

Bryony

[citawoman]

Thank you for the suggestions! 

This actually didn't start when we started solids but if it seems like he is having too many solids this early I can cut out one of his solid meals.  That helps even though I think that is not contributing to his night wakening.

As for the bedtime, I will try to put him to be earlier.  See how that works, hopefully that will help. 

Thanks!

Incidentally, he actually woke up at 4:30 am last night screaming and he was very hard to soothe back to sleep.  I am not sure what happened because he didn't feel warm like he was sick.  Maybe he has started teeting or he had a bad dream.  I just hope that was a one time thing!

[Bryony]

Great, let us know how it goes!

Waking up screaming is usually OT or pain. Fingers crossed it's a one-off!

xx