Help please for 5 month old NW!!

[marlowsmom]

I say lets give your schedule about 3 more days with food.   It could also be developmental.   I tried everything with my LO to get her to sleep longer than 45 min and nothing worked.   She finally had to grow out of it at about 5 monthsish.   You are closer than I was.    Have you tried sh/pat when he starts to wake from his naps early?   Thats a long stretch there from 10:15 to 1:30.   He wasn't OT?   Is he STTN?   

[Shawn]

Whoops - I messed up - he basically has 2.5 hrs of A time between each sleep.  What is STTN?

E  7:00 Nurse
    Some Cereal (First day for giving cereal in the monring today)
A  7:30
S  9:30
A  10:15

E 11:00 Nurse
A 11:20
S 12:45

E 2:30 Nurse
A 2:50
S 5:00 or 5:15
E 5:30 Cereal
A 6:00
E 6:30 Nurse
A 6:50 - Bath and wind-down
S 7:45

[marlowsmom]

STTN= Sleep thru the night.   Sorry I should've typed that one out. 
Try going in around 35 minutes and watch him.    If he looks like he might wake try to soothe him in his crib.    I always find that if my LO gets a good 1.5 hour nap in the am then she gets a 1.5 hour afternoon nap.    BTW are you preparing him for the upcoming time change?   I've been slowly bumping up my LO bedtime.   You still have time to do so.    It might be rough but you can increase his bedtime by 15 minutes every 3-4 days.

[Shawn]

Thanks for the definition!  He was STTN for a couple of months - he would sleep 6-8 hrs in a row but about 5 or so weeks ago the NW started.  Since then it has been anywhere between 3 to 6 times a night. 

I haven't started doing anything for the time change - thanks for the reminder.  Because LO bedtime is so erratic  (it can be anywhere between 7-8) I'm not sure if I should do anything.  However, my 2 yr old is like clockwork so that would be something good to do. 

Last night he woke up at 11:30 and I nursed him and then he woke up at 3:45 and I nursed again.  He woke up for the day at 6:00.  He definitely is going through GS.  He hasn't even had a BM in over 3 days so he is using everything that he's getting. 

[marlowsmom]

Once my LO started drooling she got constipated.   Now that she is eating rice cereal the extra iron in it is making her constipated too.    Fruit helps to get it moving but when my oldest was little our pediatrician recommended putting Dark Karo Syrup in a bottle and then adding water (6oz) and having her drink on it during the day.    I put about a centimeter worth on the  bottom of the bottle.    It worked!   I don't know why the syrup but she took it and  it helped.   
Do you have a way to soothe him in the crib so that you don't have to nurse him back to sleep?   Do you think he needs the feed in the middle of the night?   He is close to 6 months so GS is an absolute possibility.   

[Shawn]

Yes - we normally pt-sh him the bed first and give him a paci.  If he doesn't calm down, with that, then we do PU/PD.  If that doesn't work, then I nurse because he must be hungry.  We had gone several weeks without having to nurse in the middle of the night so I with the change the last couple of days, I assumed it was a GS.

And we do need to watch the constipation.  Thanks for the reminder on that -- there is always something else!!!  Thanks.

[marlowsmom]

Tell me about it.   My LO just had a really tough time with her BM.   Yes, then most likely it is a growth spurt.   Once, you start getting enough calories in him during the day those NW may just take care of themselves.   
It's neverending.    Once you get one problem figured out another one comes along.