Terrified of NW becoming a habit

[epmoreno]

Everything was going well and DS was sleeping through the night without a problem till we moved to formula milk a couple of months ago. Then he started drinking less amount of milk and waking up several times a night.

At 4 months we moved him to a 4 hour schedule and little by little he started increasing his milk intake (around 180-200 ml per bottle). It is now more than 2 weeks that we don't feed him during the night but he is still waking up several times. Most of the times he goes easily back to sleep but I am afraid he is getting into the NW habit.

His routine is like this:

7.00      Wake-up & milk
7.30      Activity
9.00      Morning nap
11.00      Milk
11.30      Activity
12.30      Nap
15.00      Milk
15.30      Activity
16.30      Nap
18.00      Milk
18.30      Activity
19.30      Bath & bedtime routine
20.00      Milk
22.30      Milk

His NW are not consistent. Sometimes he wakes up twice and sometimes more often and at different times. He is using a pacifier so, during his NW, if I put the paci back he relaxes and goes back to sleep without having to do PU/PD. Still, waking up 3 to 5 times a night is killing us, specially because we have a 2.5 year old LO in the house with teething issues !!!

Any help and advice I can get would be really welcome !

[mmom]

((HUGS)) How old is your LO now?

You said he was sleeping fine until the introduction of formula?  Have you explored a food intolerance of some sort?  What was your reason for switching to formula?

[epmoreno]

Hi

he is 5 months old now. Doesn't seem to have intolerance as such but he was drinking less amount for a while and gave him some constipation. He is getting better now with the amount but is true that the constipation is still an issue. We have switched now to a special formula for that and I hope it will help.

We are also considering introducing some solids, ... some fruit specially with the hope that will help with the stools.

I decided to stop nursing because it was quite stressful for me. We have another son and he is two and a half. He was going through some difficult time with teething and plenty of NW and EW so I was exhausted.

[mmom]

Constipation is definitely a sign that something is up. What formula did you switch to?

[epmoreno]

Now we are having a formula special against constipation. He seems to be doing better with that, specially as he has started eating fruit.

Last week we had a couple good night but then Thursday and Friday were a nightmare again. He started crying around 2pm and was impossible to get him back to sleep. Then we got very interrupted sleep till 7am.

At one point I gave him some water and he calmed down but I have the feeling that he may be getting used to having water instead of milk so would not really like to continue that. True that these days are hot so he gets a lot of fluid during the day but he also has air conditioning in his room and it is fresh.

[mmom]

((HUGS))) It sounds like he isn't well.  Does he have reflux as well?

[mjohnson33]

Eporemo. My DS has constipation as well can u tell me which formula u use?

[epmoreno]

He does not have reflux. Never had.... Actually I think there may be something else disrupting his sleep. These last days I have noticed during our activity time that he was more mobile and tonight, when he woke up, 3 out of 4 times was because he had turn round and he was lying on his belly.

Is this something he will just get used to? should I just turn him round or is there anything I can do to get him used to this new position?

About the milk.... we are using Almiron Comfort. Seems to be going well (or at least he drinks it happily). His stool regularity has also improved but I don't know how much of it is thanks to the milk or to the fruit he has started eating.

[mmom]

Developmental milestones can definitely impact sleep and most of the time, LOs just figure out their new skills on their own.  I wouldn't try and move your LO, since he will probably just keep moving.

[epmoreno]

So then... when he starts crying in the middle of the night and he is facing down I just turn him back and that's it right? he really seems to be uncomfortable...

[mmom]

He cries when he is flipped over?  As in frustrated that he can't flip back?  I would flip him then and this may be something you have to ride out until he can do it himself.

[epmoreno]

Yes, that's exactly it so I will follow your advice and will just hope that this phase will finish soon !

Though I suspect as well that his wakings have a lot to do with his paci becoming a prop. He needs it to fall asleep and then it just falls but, as he seems to wake during the night he needs it again to fall asleep and so he cries. Wondering if we should try and get rid of it or may be too early?

I did not want to do that while we got him used to not drinking during the night but I think now he is used to not having his bottle plus... we introduced solids last week and he is doing great so his calories should be right there.

[mmom]

Your LO will probably learn to roll soon. It is very tiring when they are learning new tricks.

As for the paci, I am not sure.   neither of my LOs took to one.  If you want to pursue that, I will suggest posting on the props board http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?board=28.0  only because I wouldn't be sure about how to help you with that.

[epmoreno]

Let's hope then that the NW will end soon :-) thanks a lot for your help