EW due to hunger, any ideas?

[Manueli]

Hey,

I think I finally figured out why my LO is waking pretty regularly at 6-6.30am despite him going go bed at a very late time varying from 8.30-9.30pm. We seem to have gotten in this habit of drinking cows milk early in the morning and now he wants some as soon as he wakes up. Afterwards he is still pretty tired and even tells me that he wants to sleep more, but often he can't fall asleep anymore. We just weaned the night feedings but I still feed at 5am and after he has had his cows milk. We have just recently been successful with the weaning because before he has always been too hungry to be weaned. So I guess now he can last almost all night but not quite long enough. I am not sure how I should change his eating habit to get him to sleep longer though. The only thing I have been thinking about is slowly watering down his milk, but I fear he will be refusing. Has anybody a better idea or gone through something similar?

Thanks for any ideas.

[*Becky*]

so is he 21 months?
At this age he really should not need a milk feed at night tbh. Is he eating solids well?
Is he waking at 5am for the feed? If so it could also be OT that is causing the wakings as if that is the time he starts the day it is a very long day.
Could you post your full routine with times of wake up, feeds and naps for me and we can see if we can help.

[Manueli]

Hey Becky,

I have had a post already regarding his long days and I think he just is a low sleep baby and has shorter nights now that he sleeps better. He generally ends up having around 12-13hrs total sleep which consists of 9-10hrs night and 2-3hrs naps.

Here is our routine, but it varies often:
Wake: 6.30-7.30am
Nap asleep: 12.30-1.30pm
Nap awake: 2.30-4.30pm
Bedtime: 8.30-9.30pm

Due to him going to daycare I can't really change much regarding his routine because generally he won't have a nap there before 1pm or later (even though he might have it earlier at home on the weekends) and it takes us a while to get him ready to bed after we come home.

Now the problem I have is that sometimes his nights are really short, i.e. when he had a short nap and then only 9hrs night or sometimes only 8hrs night. What I found is that he tends to wake at around 5am for a breastfeed during which we both fall asleep for another 30min-1hr and then he wakes and wants cows milk or even something to eat. If he had a really late bedtime this ends up being a short night, especially if he can't fall asleep after drinking the milk. He often tries and even does the sleep sign but for some reason can't. Two nights ago he didn't go to sleep until 10pm, woke at 5am to have his cows milk, and then luckily he went back to sleep afterwards and slept till 7.30am. But he definitely seems hungry cause he would scream forever if I don't give him any and he gobbles it down.

During this months I want to wean the last breast feed in the morning and I am worried that he still won't sleep longer cause he wants his cows milk and is hungry. I know that he is supposed to go without food all night long but we have had hunger issues during the night since he was born. His system might just need some readjusting cause he has had frequent feeds all night long for his whole life (yes, he is 21 months). So maybe I can help him somehow. I have tried to reduce the amount of milk in his cup but he complains and wants more. He seems to eat fine during the day but I find this very hard to judge, especially since I don't see what he eats at daycare. His dinners are not very big but it's hard to make him eat more unless I get lucky and he is really hungry. I might try to give him a late night snack short before bedtime...