26 wk old... night waking.. Hunger or Habit?

[ismaeelsmummy]

Hi everyone.

My son is 26wks old. I have had quite a few problems regarding his sleep. He only has 30-40mins naps during the day. His day isnt very consistent as he wakes up at different times therefore his bedtime is anywhere between 7.30-8.30pm. He always wakes up between 11pm-12am and 4-5am and is really hard to settle and when I do feed him he drinks a full feed. He is fully established on solids. And has 3 meals a day plus 3-4 6/7oz bottles.
I started weaning at 22wks. At first he just had baby rice morning and evening and he would sleep from 8pm-5am.
When we have come home late a few times at around 10pm I have fed him again before putting him down and he has still woken up at 12am. I am a bit confused as I dont know if it is hunger waking or habitual. He is very hard to put to sleep in general..he always fights sleep.. my easy from yday is below. He is on a 4 hour easy..

Wake up 6.30
E 7oz 0730
S 0815-0915

E Breakfast solids 0930
A
E 3oz 11.45
S 11.50 -12.30
A

E solids + milk 1300
A
S 1345-1430

A
S 1600 - 1630
E solids + Milk
S 1800-1830

A
E 1915 milk
A
S 2000 bed
 
He has a general a time of 2hrs or 2.5hrs. Although sometimes he is more tired.

Help would be most appreciated! ! :-) x

[becj86]

His nap lengths are short - indicative of undertiredness. A more typical A time for a 6 month old baby is 2:45-3hr. Have a read: All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

His day should be max. 13hr - if he's up at 6:30am, the latest he should be in bed asleep for the night is 7:30pm.

The undertiredness could well be the reason for him being difficult to put to sleep. By the time he gets 13.5hr down the track from his morning wakeup, he is probably overtired and waking within the first 2hr after he goes to bed would indicate overtiredness from not having any restorative naps during a long day.

[ismaeelsmummy]

Wow.. that is a real insight into why my lo is so crabby..

Thanks ever so much.  I will start extending his a time by 15mins every few days. Hopefully it will make his naps longer.

How much a time should I do if his naps are short?

Thanks again! !

[becj86]

As a general rule, you take the full A time and subtract the amount of sleep missed, so if you're aiming for a 1.5hr+ nap and LO sleep 1hr, you'd do normal A time minus 30min. That's a starting point and from there you can start to tweak that depending upon what happens.