I'm really hoping someone can advise on helping my 7.5 month old son sleep better at night. He typically wakes every 1.5-2 hours from midnight, finishing with a 1.5-2 hour awake period which starts at 3-5am. This has been going on for 3 months or so, maybe longer (my memory is fuzzy.....), and I can't pinpoint anything that may have triggered it.
We definitely had accidental parenting - cuddling and/or feeding to sleep, lots of dummy use. But 3 weeks ago we got rid of the dummy and he now goes into his cot awake - for naps and bedtime. He now puts himself to sleep without much fuss at all (amazing after such a long time with the props!). All naps are now longer than the previously typical 40 min so he can definitely make it through the end of a sleep cycle, although he does still tend to cry out before re-settling (this happens in the evening too). But still the night wakings persist.
When he wakes at night with an ear-piercing scream (jolting awake at the end of a sleep cycle?), we do PU/PD or even just some brief patting in the cot. In the early part of the night this works but as the night goes on it takes longer and longer until we reach the 'grand finale' 1.5-2 hour wake up when there is nothing that will re-settle him seemingly before his body is ready to sleep again - he's obviously desperate to sleep and gets more and more frustrated that he can't re-settle himself (even when we were cuddling it would still take 1.5-2 hours before he was asleep again). Could he be having the first part of his day at this time? How can I fix it? I'd do Wake to Sleep but every time I set my alarm he's awake already!
He stopped waking for night feeds around 4 months old by slowly sleeping for longer periods until the last night feed merged into the first feed of the day. And I think we then had a week or two of decent sleep before the new sleep pattern began. I'm certain he's not hungry when he wakes (particular hungry cry), and he's not even that hungry for the first feed of the day. I do offer water during the long waking and he takes a little.
We've seen the doctor to rule out reflux (or anything else). He is on laxative (Movicol) to prevent recurring constipation (which started many weeks after the sleep troubles). We’ve tried anything and everything for wind, teething – ibuprofen before bed makes no difference.
Our EASY has changed as we reduced to 2 naps, and we dropped the 10pm feed 2 weeks ago (he wasn't taking much, we never could dream feed and so we worried that waking him was disrupting the night – hasn’t made a difference). A very typical day is one like yesterday:
A 0650: awake
E 0700: formula
0845: solids
S 0940 (2h50min A time; nap 1h20min)
A 1100
E 1215: solids
S 1400 (3h A time; nap 2h)
A 1600 inc. wind-down – books, bath, short walk, quiet TV
E 1620: formula (late due to nice long nap!)
E 1745: solids
E 1855: formula
S 1930 (3h30min A time inc. 20 min in cot before settling)
1st wake: 2345, then several times briefly until 0400 when awake for 2 h, before re-settling for 1.5h.
The doctor, my health visitor and friends with babies all say controlled crying is the only way, but I honestly feel it's my job to teach him to sleep well, and not to punish him for not being able to do this.
Thanks for reading this far. What I’m really asking is whether I’m missing something obvious? Is there anything else I can try to help him sleep better at night?
Thank you.
