Desperate for help

[lolli]

My 7month old son is a nightmare at night.  During the day and at bedtime he goes to bed wakened and puts himself to sleep without any trouble.  During the night he wakens a number of times he then needs settled back to sleep, sometimes he goes back quickly and other times like last night it takes 2hrs.  I think he is teething, one tooth cut last week, so he gets calpol or/and teething gel during the night if he needs it.  During the day he is having two naps typically 1hr in the morning and 1.5-2hrs in the afternoon.  He is desperate for bed by 7pm and goes down no bother, I have still been dreamfeeding him between 10 and 10.30 with the hope this would help him sleep through.  Last night he slept from 7 - 11 (was then dreemfed) slept on until 2am (settled quite quickly) then was awake again at 3am (at this point he gt calpol and teething gel) he was awake until almost 5am then slept till 7.45am.  Sorry this is so long we are desperate, his sleeping is so eratic and he never sleeps through.  We even contimplated taking him into our bed last night but the last think we want is another thing to sort later.  Your help/advice would be much appreciated.

[MelissaS]

Hi,

Just a couple of quick questions

1. Is bub on solids yet? does he eat much during the day - he could be waking because of hunger - we had this problem around this age and once we really started feeding him up he started sleeping better - we dropped the dream feed at 9mths.
2. If he is on solids and also because you are breast feeding - suggest you keep an eye on what you are feeding him and yourself (ie: cabbage, cauliflower, brocolli) these can all cause tummy aches
3. What is your routine during the day like?
4. Could he be getting over stimulated during the day?
5. Have you tried PU/PD - if not I suggest having a look at the PU/PD forum there is some GREAT information that may help you teach him to settle himself if it is not food related.

I know lots of questions but these may help with other peoples answers as well.

WE ARE HERE FOR YOU IF YOU NEED TO VENT  It can be difficult and even if the above does not help - there is so much great advice and idea's you can try on this website.

Let us know how you go,

Wishing a GREAT NIGHT FOR YOU

The main thing is a full tummy will usually mean for a content baby - so long as foods are not giving him gas. 

[lolli]

David is on solids - he's a big boy (7ths and 23lbs).  Hes eating three meals a day, porridge / chicken and veg then fruit/yoghurt / chicken/veg then fruit/yoghurt.  He would also have a snack at some point, a rice cake or small rich tea biscuit.  He is content during the day it just during the night. 

Our routine is something like this -
7-9 get up, breastfeed, breakfast, dressed, roll about etc

Sometime between 9 and 9.30 goes for a nap which would last about 1hr (at most)

10.30ish - 12.30/1 breastfeed, play, lunch, nappy change etc

12.30/1 goes for a nap which lasts about 1.5 to 2hrs

from 2.30ish we play, breastfeed, snack, dinner

6pm - bath, breastfeed then bed by 7pm

10.30 - dreamfeed

during the day and at bedtime he goes to the cot wakened is put into his sleeping bag and is left to go to sleep (he sucks his thumb) we very rarely have any trouble and when we do we settle him with pat/shs.  a couple of mornings we go to a baby and toddlers group, those morning his nap is in the pram instead of the cot.  I've got a 3yr old in the house and our routine is pretty fixed.

During the night i've been using pat/shs as he tends not to need lifted from the cot.
I haven't stopped/changed the dream feed because I thought I'd be better doing that once we get him sleeping through

[MelissaS]

David is a great name  - I am a little biased.

It is good to be able to rule out that he is not hungry, and he has a reasonable routine during the day.

There are some fantastic people with great idea's in the forum - keep an eye out as there are lots of other idea's that might work for you with people in similar situations.

I hope you can find an idea that works for you - I was having very similar problems with my son except they turned out food and hunger related (he reacted to different foods).

[Jaime]

hi... i noticed you were going almost 2.5 hrs before the first nap - but only 2 hours until the 2nd nap??  you might be able to push that 2nd nap out to 2.5 hrs - then he would get up later in the afternoon, and not have so long to go before bedtime.

just a thought.