a little help please- i am confused.....all night wakings!!

[lily77cat]

hi
i have a 4month old who is 18lbs. he was 9lb when born two weeks early. he was on a 3hour feeding routine- breastfed, but i have successfully put him on a 4hourly routine during the day. he sleeps no problem for his naps during the day and feeds really well.
however, he has never gone more than 4hours at night! he goes to bed at 7:30-8pm and drops off well. i was doing dream feeding but the nurse said to stop it so i did. but he never went past the midnight anyway before wanting food! and then 3 hours later for another feed.
so last week i went back to dream feeding at between 10-11pm. he wakes every hour and a half now all night!! i have dropped the 4am feed aswell because even when i gave him it he would wake very hour afterwards until we got up at 7ish!!
so my question is - is he hungry? it makes no difference to his waking if i feed him or not ! it has been so long now that i havent slept for more than an hour at a time that i am soooo tired!
i hope i havent babbled on and not explained myself well.
i have read in the book that tracey recommended starting solids early for a boy with tall parents- my husband is 6ft9 and i am 5ft8. will solids help? is it safe to start him on them? do you think it would help?
i get him to sleep during the night by putting a dummy in and stroking his head- is the dumm the problem? he goes to sleep during the day and at bedtime without the dummy i just seem to use it when he cris from this waking all through the night.
any help or advice would be great because i have read and reread the book.
cheers
ily

[lily77cat]

oh i meant to say that he never really wanted to eat the 7am feed when i was feeding him at 4am hence why i dropped it. i have to go back to work soon and i have a very very stressful job so i really need to get a bit of sleep. all my friends keep saying give him a bottle of formula! but i really really dont want to do that!

[Khalam's Mama]

Agree with PP solids unlikely to help as there is little evidence that babes STTN when started and like you said it makes no difference if you feed or not! same for giving formula.
Looking forward to answers to Jay's questions above.
My DS was similar size at that age and EBF and only having one NW (which was for feed) at that age so it is not necessarily related to being BF.

[lily77cat]

hi-
we fed on demand for the first 6 weeks but roughly followed 3 hour easy.
then at 6 weeks we kept to 3 hour easy routine, had a 1am feed and 4am then dropped the 1am feed about 10weeks old. but still woke up crying.
last week we successfully went over to 4 hour easy and after rereading the book we put him back to sleep if he wakes after one sleep cycle for his naps.
so
6am- up and feed
6.30-7.30 play
7.30-9am sleep
9-10 play
10 eat
10.30-11.30 play
11.30-1 sleep
1-2 play
2 eat
2-4 play
4-5 sleep
5-6 play
6 feed
bath
7 feed
7.30 bed
10pm - wake - change nappy for disposable (only one that can take his wees!! our cloth nappies just leak his mega wees!)
feed and bed

he has mega red eyes etc after about an hour play so i put him to bed before he gets too tired - so hence the two play times during the easy routine.
since being on tis schedule he has been a changed baby and is much more content than when he was on 3 hour.

night wakings varry but at least 4 times between 11 and 6 is a good night! but can be as early as 11.30 after his feed and as many as 6-7 times!
i gave up the 4am feed because he continued to wake hourly afterwards and wasnt that hungrey for his breakfast feed.

what am i doing wrong?

i try not to use the dummy all the time- if he is really tired he can easily go to sleep on his own otherwise yes i use the dummy- int he middle of the night - yes its the dummy every time!

do you think its the the dummy?

we use the dummy to extend him sometimes till thenext feed, and had to do it since he was born because he is such a big baby he could permenantly be duck taped to my boob if i let him :-)

thank you so much for taking the time to read my message and help me- like i said i have read and reread the book so many times and everyone keeps telling me to go on formula!

 i weighed my little one this morning and he is 20lbs!! and 4 months old 5 days time.

thanks again

lily

ps- ebf=exclusively breast fed?
bf= breast fed?
lo= litle one?
sttn= sleeping through the night?
ds= dearest son??

[Khalam's Mama]

If he is putting on the weight like that he is clearly getting enough calories so I don't think you need to worry about formula (he weighs more than my 12mo nephew!).
Yes those acronyms are correct.
My thoughts are that is a long day for him, you would ideally be looking at a 12 hrs day, but yours is more like 13.5. If he is up 6am I would have him in bed by 6pm. Also some of your A times are very long for his age esp the 3hrs one between 1 and 4. Most Lo are doing less at this age. More like 2hrs max.
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64158.msg476652#msg476652
Waking frequently in the night can be a sign of OT and being unable to settle. Maybe you should try to limit his A's a little and see if this helps and it would also get him into bed earlier.
Don't have much experience with dummies sorry. But if he sleeps without if at naps/BT it shouln't really be the main issue I would think.
What cloth nappies are you using? We used to have major leakage until we switched wraps and now can do a 13hrs night easily.
What do you think?

[lily77cat]

hi
thanks for the reply
i have given up on th edream feed now as he still wakes all night long!
now we are back to feeding at 7pm latest and feeding when he wakes at night as i cant cope with this little sleep!
so he is up feeding twice a night again but at least we are getting a couple more hours sleep.!
god knows what i do to get him to sleep longer but there you go.
he had his first lot of cereal today, well the cereal wa sin his mouth for a few seconds before it cae out again :-) all god fun!!
will try and limit his play time and see what happens, he has been getting up at 7am the last few days so that is slightly better!
just htink we will have to conintue feeds all night long!

oh well
lily

[Khalam's Mama]

What is you routine like now? Two night wakings at this age is not that uncommon, alot of LO are doing one NF in addition to the DF which is the same as your 2NF. You will probably find as you get the day routine perfected you will see less NF.