6 month old - waking at night and won't go back to sleep

[jubbs]

Hi

So my LO will be 6 months in 10 days. For the past 2 weeks or so he has constantly been getting up at night. Our easy I think is pretty good - he does around 2 - 2 hr 20min A time and naps for around 1.5 - 2 hrs. If he does 2 good 2 hr naps than the third is a cat nap. He is usually asleep by 7:30/7:45.

I cluster feed at 9, and then at 10:30ish. He is good till around 11ish and thats when the problems start. when he wakes i can usually get him back to bed with a hand on his back.

This wake up is my biggest issue. I've noticed he gets up around 2ish, seems like he wants to feed and he will eat pretty well but then doesn't want to go back to sleep. He gets up at 2 and isn't crying. He is just talking and babbling away. He breaks out of his swaddle, turns around and is just wide awake. I have tried leaving him - the longest i left him was 30 minutes cause i was getting frustrated that he wasn't sleeping, and he doesn't cry - just babbles away. Once i go to him and reswaddle him then it turns into a full out cry. So i'll try and get him back to sleep with pupd and putting a hand on his back while he's in the crib. he'll fall asleep and then be up 10 min later. Continues till around 4ish where i'm usually just too tired and i'll bring him into bed (bad mom!!!!!).

I am getting really frustrated though - i've been really sick and so has my husband and it's just draining on both of us.

LO is swaddled, he does take a paci but spits it out when he doesnt want it (he isn't waking at night cause he wants it). He is on solids - doctor recommended it for other issues. I don't think its gas cause we dealt with that before. our room is a pretty good temperature but non the less our DS is still sweating a lot. He only goes to bed in a onesie and swaddle, we have a fan on in the room but he still sweats a lot.

I really need him to sleep - i can't take more nights of this. I know it will get better but its hard to see the end of the tunnel. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[lawell]

Your struggles sound similar to ours, but our DS does cry when he's awake for 2 hours in the night. He's 6 1/2 months.

When he was about 5 1/2 months he woke around 2:00 every morning and then about 5:00 for the day, but we've been able to get him sleeping until 7:00 with just one wake up at 4:00ish. Problem is sometimes that wake up can last about 2 hours. So I guess I'm writing to share some success and to empathize with a similar struggle.

The one big change we've made is stretching his A time to 3+ hours and getting in just 2 1.5-2 hour naps. We started this before 6 months. It sounds like your LO might do well with this if he's awake and happy at 2 am.

I'm still looking for advice on the early morning wake ups though, so I'm open to hearing others.

All the best to you, jubbs.

[lawell]

This is our EASY:
E - awake and nurse 7 a.m.
A - play, eat breakfast at 8 a.m., play
S - 10:00-11:30 a.m. nap
E - 12:00 p.m. bottle
A - play, eat lunch at 1:00 p.m., play
S - 3:00-5:00 p.m.
E - 5/5:30 p.m. bottle or nurse if I'm home from work
A - play, eat dinner at 6/6:30 p.m.
7:00 start bedtime - bath, books, singing and cuddling, back rub, sleep
usually wakes up 2 times between 7:30-10 p.m. - is up trying to crawl or sitting up (We're not as concerned about this wake up time because he goes right back to sleep if we lay him down and rub his back for a minute.)
10/10:30 p.m. "dreamfeed" - he wakes up for this
sleeps great between 10 p.m. and 3:30 a.m. - then wakes for 1.5-2.5 hours - usually back to sleep for at least 1.5 hours before waking at 7:00

[Bex09]

Totally agree with PP that if your LO is having long happy NW then he sounds UT. So at this age that usually means pushing A times slowly towards 3hrs and dropping the CN. So you could start by adding 5 or 10 mins to that morning A time and then as long as you get a good nap do the same in the pm and then shorten the CN by maybe 15/20 mins too. Just move slowly so as not to cause OT, you may find that just adding 10 mins A time and a slightly shorter CN is enough to solve the problem for now. What do you think?

[jubbs]

Thanks for your advice moms - so what i did yesterday is try and lengthen his A times. I should have done it more gradually i think but i think it helped a little.

He got up at 8:20 yesterday - i put him down for a nap at 11:10, he slept till 1:10. Then put him down for another nap at 4 and he woke at 5:30, went to bed at 9 (we were out for a family get together and when he got home he was very hyper cause he was passed around like a hot potato). He woke for feed at 10:30, then slept till 2:45 - had a good feed. Then he woke at 5:30, and was up for the day at 6:50. I tried getting him to go back to sleep but he wouldn't. Even when i put him on my chest.

I figured cause he didnt have a full night sleep don't want to make him over tired. So he got up at 6:50, went for a nap at 9:10. Does that seem ok?

How do i make sure he doesn't get up at 6:50???

My other worry is me getting a blocked milk duct. Cause he feeds when he wakes up - im going a lot longer between feeds. I think it  works better for him cause before he wouldn't really eat, just bob on and off - yesterday every feed was a full proper feed. but i'm scared cause i feel very full and hard. Do i pump it out? wont my body think he is drinking it?

sorry for so many questions. Thank you for your advice - i think it helped a lot.

[Bex09]

Wow great success with those naps after a longer A time! Sounds like that will work for you so stick with it hun. As for your BF question you would be best to post that specific question on the BF board for more experienced eyes over there.