Hi things have gone downhill for us the last 6 weeks during the night. My lo is 28 weeks old - 6 months. He used to sleep through til his dreamfeed, then trhough til 5amish consistently. Not any more!!
If I catch him asleep at his DF he will usually sleep through til 3-3.30 & is then hungry - takes a full feed 20 minutes, both sides. If not, i.e. he wakes 10.15ish & I feed him he'll be up again between 1-2.30am and then again between 4-5.30am. Why is this???! Some nights it's 1,3,5am! I am shattered and am going back to work part time this week. I can cope on 4-5 hours in a row but 2-3hrs is a killer, and I also struggle to fall back to sleep. I used to sleep in the evening sometimes but he often stirs & needs resettling then too which wakes me up. I have been trying to resettle him if he wakes at 10-10.30pm & feed him 20-30 minutes later which mostly works. Giving him a cat nap doesn't make any difference to the evenings, he just takes longer to settle at bedtime. Last night was an exception - he was asleep at DF but woke at 12, 2 & 4.20am!
Naps & daytime routine is great - 2 naps of 1.5hr sleep (on a good day) in total, with 3 hours activity time (anything less & , & sometimes a bit longer before bed. He is always very happy & cheerful on that amount of sleep, right up til bedtime. He is on solids & loves it. He is EBF, around 3.5-4 hourly in the day. He feeds very quickly during the day but takes longer in the night.
We weaned from swaddling at 4 1/2 months, because he was fighting it, firstly into a peke moe, then into a sleeping bag. The night wakings started soon after - sometimes every 2 hrs - could be coincidence?. We re-introduced a dummy to settle him to sleep-he struggled big time to adjust to not being swaddled. (not in the night at first - the night wakings came before dummy at night). We removed it at first before he was deeply asleep. Now it falls out naturally & he doesn't wake up. he has a sleepytot bunny which the dummy is attached to and he can put it in himself easily in the day and when he's going off to sleep for naps & bedtime. I am teaching him to find it in the night when he's sleepy, he has done this a couple of times the last couple of nights - as long as this is progressing I don't mind him having one at bedtime.
Do you think the night wakings could be a combination of teething & milestones? he is drooling lots, white hard gums, seems to be in pain when he wakes. Often he will be settled very qucikly with teething gel - and will still cry if given dummy. He is also hitting major milestones - almost crawling, pulling himself up to stand, very active & lively in the daytime.
If he wakes before 3am I don't feed him unless absolutely desperate - ie been up an hour or more, usually he'll go off without being fed. I am happy to carry on with 1 night feed, he is not big - 15 lb at 27 weeks. He also has very short feeds in the day, but will feed longer in the night.
Other info-he is in a sleeping bag. One night last week I tucked him in very tightly with a sheet and he slept til 4.50am straight through - I thought I'd cracked it! But next night was rough again
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Are we on the right track?I've read this is very common at this age. I'm hoping this is just developmental and will pass? any thoughts?
Thanks, Jen
