6 month old won't go longer then 4 hours at night!

[bakershaker]

My Son is 6 months next week. He's a big boy and loves to eat! He's 21 lbs now, and on a 4 hour easy for the last 2 months. His schedule is like this:
7- wake eat 7 oz and 2tbsp cereal
9:15- nap 1.5- 2 hours
11-eat 7 oz
1- nap 1.5 hours
3- eat 7 oz and jar of baby food
( he just recently dropped his catnap on his own..fought to take it..and is doing wonderful without it!)
6- bath routine
6:45- bottle and in bed and asleep by 7:15/7:30ish

My question is my son will not sleep longer then 4 hours in the night without eating! he is getting plenty of funces in the day. My Dr. recommended him eating food at 5 months, and his sleeping habits haven't gotten worse or better. As well as him dropping his catap..hasen't made night worse or better.
I think he is waking out of habit..I go in when he wakes around 11, and do PUPD..but he get soo mad at that! I've tried it and it doesn't work for us! So I usually give him his soother again and leave the room adn he is back asleep by the time I get into my room( i have a video monitor)..but then he will wake up 1 hour later wanting to eat!..and then again around 3-4. What can I do to get him to stop these feedings in the night? i've even tried uping his bottles to 8 oz in the day..he will drink it and he still won't sleep longer! aghhh! Help please!
He is a wonderful sleeper thanks to BW! He goes down no problems..no tears! he LOVES naptime and bedtime:)

[brenda2]

hi there
one thing that pops out to me about your routine is that the naps could both be pushed a bit later so you don't have such a long A time last thing in the day.  he's a bit early to drop the catnap, which is fine, but 4+ hours last thing is quite long for a 6 mo and that may cause him to be OT by bedtime and thus causing your NWs.  i would push both naps a bit later, and put him to bed a bit earlier so all A times are more like 2.5 to 3 hours.

so he's eating at 12 and at 3 am??  do you dreamfeed?  1 nightfeed is not uncommon at this age, we had the df plus a night feed until 6.5 months when i weaned the nightfeed by pu/pd, and then just had a df at 10pm until i weaned that at 7.5 mo.  so the night feeds are  normal.

are these NWs new?  or has he always eaten twice at night?

[brenda2]

if he's taking a full feed in the night and still a full feed in the morning i would say it's hunger.

you could keep the first night feed and then gradually water down his second feed until it really is just water.  then if he can manage a bottle or sippy cup himself just leave a bottle of water in his crib and he can help himself.  i've done this with DD since about 6 months and it's worked well.  some mornings it's empty! 

if you succesfully get the second bottle down to just water and he still wakes crying for you to give it to him instead of doing it himself you then may need to do pu/pd to eliminate that NW.

[brenda2]

thanks! 

some babies just need to eat a lot around the clock.  but give it a try and see what happens.  at 6 months my DD was having a df and a night feed and then by 7 months a df and then sleeping through, but that was after some pu/pd to wean  the night feed.

[brenda2]

i did pu/pd in the night when she woke up but i didn't think she was genuinely hungry (she never took much and when she did eat in teh night she would then hardley take any in the morning)....it won't work if they are waking due to hunger, or pain etc.  you have to be sure the NW is due to habit or something like that or else it's not the right thing to use.

anyway...  she would cry, i always waited a bit to see if it was mantra or a i need you cry before going in as sometimes she would settle herself.  then i would go in and comfort in the crib with shh pat first.  if this didn't work to get her back to sleep and she really escalated i would pick her up but keep her horizontal, no rocking or anything.  as soon as she stopped crying or switched to mantra cry or struggled against me i would put her dow and continue with shhing.  most of the time i was putting her down pretty quickly because she was really struggling against me.  after 6 mo you're supposed to only hold them for 5 min and then put down even if still crying and pick right back up again.  the techniques change with age and abilities.

if he's smiling and happy, i would avoid eye contact and make it as boring as it can be.  you don't do it if he's not really crying and you always try comforting in the crib first.  makw sure you're not rushing in too soon

the first night i was doing this for 90 min  it was he**.  the second night was almost as bad.  the third night she slept through    then it was on and off for a few nights until she then very consistently slept through.

the pu/pd board has other great tips and the ladies there are much better at describing the techniques!