Hi there. I am looking for some help with my 7.5 month old baby boy! We are on a 4 hour EASY, with breastfeeds at around 7am, 11am, 3pm, 5pm and 7pm (or just before he goes into his cot), with a dreamfeed at 10pm. Jacob is loving his solids, with meals after his 7am, 11am and 5pm breastfeeds.
The problem we are having is Jacob will not sleep past 30 - 40 minutes. On occasion, he'll wake up, grizzle/fuss etc for up to 10 minutes before putting himself back to sleep, however most of the time, he'll just get more and more upset. I've always gone and picked him up at that point, without trying to get him back to sleep... Obviously that is the wrong thing to do, as he just gets more and more cranky as the day goes on, and by the evening, is an overtired mess.
He is sleeping really well at night, going down between 6.30pm - 7.30pm (depending on when his last nap was), with a dream feed at 10pm, then wakes any where from 5.30am - 6.30am. Sometimes he will wake once or twice before his dream feed, but generally a little cuddle from me, gets him back to sleep. I haven't wanted to mess too much with his day time naps, as I was worried it would effect his night time sleep, but he is so grumpy by the end of the day, which isn't fair on him, so we need to do something about it.
I have read through the fact's on this board and have a few questions:
I think one of my problems may be that I will often hold him for a few minutes before putting him into his cot as part of our wind down (until he looks sleepy and his eyes are half closed). Should I be putting him in his cot earlier so he can settle himself? He's actually really easy to settle into sleep (walk into room, close curtains, put in sleeping bag, hold for a few minutes quietly, but into cot), it's just that he doesn't sleep long enough.
At 7.5 months, how many naps should he be having a day? I'm still trying to get him to have two long naps, and a cat nap in the early evening. Should we be dropping the cat nap?
Should he still be on the 4 hour EASY? How far apart should his meals be now? I've read somewhere he should be staying up for 3 hours now? How will that work if he's fed at 7am, then sleep at 10am, but needs to be fed again at 11am?
I'm wanting to drop the dream feed, but am afraid it will mess up his night time sleep (which is the only time I manage to get any sleep!!). I'd like to get his day time naps sorted before I phase out that dream feed! Is that a good idea?!
With PU/PD, just to make sure I'm going to be doing this right... if he wakes up happy, I just leave him in bed, don't I? I only go in if he's getting upset? When I pick him up, how long do I hold him for at this age? If he wakes up happy and chills out in his bed for, say, 30 minutes, then starts to cry... do I still do PU/PD until his next feed time, or since he was happy when he woke up, do I just get him up?!
Thanks in advance!
