Well, I've posted quite a few times about my LO's crazy night wakings, he's been waking at least every two hours for the past month and a half, often with a stretch in the middle where he wakes every 3/4-1 hour. I was going crazy! PU/PD didn't work, neither did shush pat, I only fed him on one waking, the other times I would just give him a cuddle or hand him his lovey and he'd be fine.
After Friday night when I only got 1 hour sleep before 3:30am, I decided this had to stop, I was starting to resent him and the sleep deprivation was really affecting me. I had a few thoughts as to why he was waking so much: he recently cut two teeth and had a reflux flare up, both now resolved so I think he got into the habit of waking so often. I think feeding him once a night was confusing him, he wasn't sure at each waking whether he would get fed or not. He also loves sucking his rabbit's ear, but often couldn't find it in the middle of the night.
My LO is 6.5 months, BF and eating solids. He weighs over 7kg so I decided he didn't actually need to eat at night. So we went cold turkey on NFs, I made sure he had a good DF at 10:30 so he could last the night and I pinned his lovey to the chest of his sleeping bag so he'd always be able to find it. I decided just to give verbal reassurance so when he woke, I would go into his room, lie on the spare bed where he couldn't see me, and say our sleep phrase and sing our sleep song until he stopped crying. Then I'd leave as soon as he stopped crying.
Night 1: woke every two hours, went back to sleep within 5 to 10 minutes with me giving verbal reassurance. Woke at 6:30 so got him up for the day.
Night 2: woke every 2 hours, cried out for 5-10 seconds then went back to sleep - I didn't have to get out of bed!!!!
Night 3: woke at 12:30 cried out for 2 secs then went back to sleep - again I didn't have to get out of bed!!!
The interesting thing is he has to have his reflux meds on waking, then wait 1/2 hour before a feed. Even though I've cut out the NF, this wait doesn't seem to bother him at all. In the mornings on nights 2 and 3, I've had to get him up at 7:30, he's been awake in his bed, just sucking on his rabbit and not crying.
Lets hope it continues! I know there's often regression with sleep training, but I'm definitely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Thanks to all the people who offered me advice, I hope this might be useful for others, I know there are a few people going through the same thing with LOs of similar ages.
