Nightwakings making us walking zombies!! Help!

[csmith13]

I feel like this thread may be repetitive, but I'm at my wits end..and really need to know why my 7.5mo ds is waking up so often during the night.

Routine is off, he's waking up at 5am or 5:30am.  But he usally plays and babbles until close to 6 or 6:30am;

W-6:30am
E0-7, solids + BF
A-7:30-9:30
S 9:30-10:45 (1h15mins)

E-11 Formula + solid
A 11:30-2pm
s-2-2:40 (lots of sh pat and pu pd)

E-3pm BF
A-3:30-5
E-5:30 (solid)
S-bath, formula, bed 6:30-7pm
Wakes 2 or 3 times here
DF-8:30 or 9:30 (varies on his bedtime) (BF)
Wakes 6 to 7 times here
1-2am BF
Wakes 5-6 times here.

Some nights are worse than others.  The worse ones he wakes every 30 to 45mins.  Usually a quick sh pat cover him up and give paci is all it takes, but other times we can be up to close to an hour with him screaming and endless pu pd.  I know his naps are off right now too...trying to work on increasing A time...still struggling with that.  He also just finished a bad cold about two weeks ago, he was on antibiotics, it was rough.  Any insight on what is going on would be great!  We've even tried some medicine, thinking maybe he's teething and in pain.  Sometimes it helps, and he goes right to sleep after, but other times, he doesn't stop screaming and waking.  I hate to give him medicine if he doesn't need it.  I just don't know what is wrong!  Please help!

[Erin M]

That is a whole lot of wakings!  The ones in the early part of the evening are most likely due to being overtired.  Working on those naps will help you with that -- are you extending the first A time -- 1.15 isn't really a restorative nap at 7 months, he needs more sleep there too, which most likely means more A time there.  Is he going to sleep at all for that second nap for any length of time -- you say lots of sh/pat and pu/pd -- is that to get him to sleep or keep him asleep?  Is he sleeping for any length of time?

Any chance the antibiotics have upset his tummy?  Have you given probiotics at all to help balance his gut back out?  There are plenty that are made for babies, my pediatrician recommends that we use them when we have to give antibiotics as it sometimes takes a bit for things to get back to normal.

Wakings that frequent later on in the night usually indicate some sort of prop or some sort of discomfort.  Is he looking for anything when he wakes -- paci, feeding, etc?