Night Waking and EMW for 5 weeks now............

[Beed]

 Hi All

I originally posted this in Bottle Feeding as I wasn't sure if it was a feeding issue or not, but having up'd the amount of milk DS has and it making no difference I'm re-posting here in the hope that someone can help!

My nearly 8 month old DS has always been a big boy (he's just off the scale), was 9lb 8oz when he was born.  He has 3 x 7oz bottles a day (6.30/7am, 2.30/3pm and 6.30/7pm).  He is on 3 meals a day also.

For the last 5 weeks he has been waking in the night a couple of times and waking at anywhere from 4.45 to 5.30 every morning.

Routine goes like this:

6.30/7am - 7oz milk then breakfast
8.30/9am - Sleep (inevitable as on school run!)
10.00/10.30 - Wake
11.30/12pm - Lunch of scrambled egg and beans/philadelphia or humous or similar finger sandwiches and some blueberries/satsuma or similar
1.30pm - Nap (1 hour)
2.30/3.00pm - 7oz milk
5pm - Dinner - Chicken/Fish or Meat homemade meal from Annabel Karmel Book and a yoghurt
6pm - Bath
6.30/7pm - 7oz milk

I can settle him normally and last night I sat and watched him for a while after he thought I had left the room and he rolled onto his front and was getting up on his arms and rocking forward (which he does in the day trying to get crawling).  I wonder if this is what is disturbing his sleep and what I can do about it!!!

I'm so exhausted now and dread going to bed to be woken again in a few hours    I also have 2 other children that I don't want to be disturbed every night and he does have a rather loud cry!!!

HELP!!!
Bx

[Martini~]

Hello honey! Firstly wanted to say you are amazing with 3 kiddos there and cooking for your little baby so tasty meals:). I went with jars at that age, hehehe so I am very impressed:)!

Regarding sleep/routine, did it change in last weeks? You have very long A till BT after a fairly short nap (1h) so he can be OT at BT. Could you push the 2nd nap slightly so he is a bit more tired, sleeps longer and his nap would end slightly later?
Regarding feeding routine, you write he has 3 meals and 3 milks but you posted only 2 solid meals. I am also thinking that 2x7oz milk and 3 solid meals is a lot, but for a big baby it can be not enough. Is he draining the bottles? Maybe you could split your bottle at 2:30/3:00 and offer him one bottle shortly before 2nd nap and another when he WU from this nap? WDYT?

[Beed]

Hi

The afternoon nap is always a bit difficult as I have to do the school run, meaning I have to leave at 2.50 and if I'm in the car he is in and out of car seat.

Sorry, I had written 7oz milk then breakfast. That being weetabix/ready brek and a few bits of toast.  I understand from other posts that milk is still their primary intake until 1 year and they still need at least 20oz of milk.  I had him on 3 x 6oz milk but was advised to up it!  Yes, he drains every bottle.

[Martini~]

If he is still draining bottles, I would once again add 1oz to each. 7oz means total bottle is 7oz or its 7oz of water + powder formula?

The problem with EWU is that your first nap a day is very early and his A in the morning is short (2h) when average A time for 8mo starts to be around 3-4h. Please have a look at this link:
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!

Sometimes too early a nap and lasting too long may reinforce the early wakings but I understand that you cannot work on it in any way.
I know some people had the routine working with set morning nap quite early (I will ask one mod I remember was doing that routine to check in here), but they just pushed the second nap later so LO has time during they when she/he tires up. But I am not quite sure if they had long or short morning nap. Will try tolook for an answer for you!

Meantime, do you have any options to push/cut the morning nap?