My 4 mo DS has started waking at night for 2 hours before going back to sleep. He sleeps in a crib in his own room and was starting to sleep pretty well before this situation came up. He slept through the night a few times (8 pm - 5 or 6am) once he turned 3 mo, and if he did wake to eat it would usually be around 3-4am and he would go back down pretty easily (within an hour). Last week (right when he turned 16 weeks) he woke at midnight (very early for him). He was crying so I fed him but he showed none of his usual drowsy signs until 2 hours had passed and then he went right to sleep. He did this for 3 nights in a row so I began to suspect 4 mo GS.
I was EBF so began offering him supplemental formula. On the first day he took a lot of extra formula (like 6 oz) after 2 feedings and slept pretty well that night (until 5am I think). I began pumping after each feeding thinking I needed to increase my milk supply. I did a yield on day 1 and after 3 days of extra pumping I did another yield and didn't see much increase in my supply. I've continued to offer him a supplemental bottle after nursing but it's been hit or miss as to whether he'll eat more. Many times he will eat more but will also throw up a lot for ~2 hours after eating. So maybe I'm overfeeding him? We did get 1 or 2 good nights early on when I started the extra feedings, but they don't seem to have helped for the last 4 days or so. He still wakes up for 2 hours every night. Seems to me if he was really waking from hunger he should settle back down after eating (like he used to do) but that's not happening.
He doesn't fall asleep independently, but has been doing pretty well with sh/pat during nap and BT. When I try sh/pat during the NW it just seems to annoy him. Once the 2 hours have passed he'll go to sleep pretty easily with sh/pat. I've read other posts that say NW for extended periods can be due to UT. When he is awake at night he's fairly content as long as I'm with him. If I leave him he'll start to grumble and then cry and then I have to hold him to calm him down, but he still won't go to sleep until the 2 hrs pass.
We're on a 4 hr EASY and have been since he was 3 months. His A time is about 1 hr 50 min to 2 hours. His days aren't very consistent but on average a typical day is:
7:30 Eat
9:30 - 11:30 Nap. He always stirs at 45 min but I can usually keep him down by sitting with him during the transition.
11:30 Eat
1:30 - 3:30 Nap (same as 1st nap)
3:30 Eat
5:30 CN (30-45 min)
6:30 eat
8:00 eat (sometimes if BT is a struggle)
BT somewhere between 8-9pm
For the last 3 days I haven't been able to get him to take his catnap so he was definitely OT by the time I finally got him down at BT. Also, I don't DF. I tried for the first 2 mo but he never took much and didn't seem to help. I tried a DF 2 nights ago and he took 3 oz, but it just seemed to push his wake up time to 3am (instead of midnight). I didn't do a DF last night and he still woke up at 2:30 so I'm still not sure if DF will help.
I'm considering trying PU/PD because I don't want to enforce this pattern of hanging out with him for 2 hours, but since he shows no signs of drowsiness until 2 hrs pass I'm not sure if it would work or would just make him angry for 2 hours until he's ready to sleep again.
Any ideas?
