5 month old waking up every hour

[pamelamarieallen]

I have a 5.5 month old (late preterm, so 4.5 months adjusted). We've been doing pick up/put down for 3 and a half weeks now because neither of use were getting any sleep - like maybe 2-3 hours on a good night. At 3 months he had started sleeping 7-9 hour stretches, then he started waking up every 3 hours again, taking about 3 hours to go to sleep at night initially, and taking 1-2 hours to get back to sleep when he woke up. With pick up/put down, life is definitely better for both of us, but both of us are still sleep-deprived with him waking up every hour most nights.

Now after doing the pick up/put down method he will go to sleep in his crib. Yay! I put him down awake and he gets himself off to sleep after 30 minutes usually; sometimes I may have to pat his tummy and shush him but generally he gets himself to sleep without any help. However, he's now waking up not every 3 hours but every hour after 9:30 or 10:30 generally. I've been using the pick up/put down method to get him back down apart from 2 night feeds around midnight and around 4 am. Sometimes I can just pat him in the crib, sometimes I have to pick him up once, sometimes it takes < 5 minutes, sometimes (especially after 5am) he never goes back to sleep. Once in the last month he's only woken up 3 times, a handful of times only 4 times, but more often than not it's about 8 times.

Here's our loose schedule:
6:30ish - wake up (wish it were 7 or 7:30)
8:30ish - first nap, wakes up after 45ish minutes, use pick up/put down to try get him to sleep longer
12:30ish - second nap; same thing as first nap; I usually get him to sleep 2 45 minute naps each time, sometimes not
4:30ish - cat nap
6:30ish - bedtime

I didn't mention feeding times because I feed him frequently. I know he's 5 months old and doesn't need to eat every 2 hours, but he's a little guy and it's proven that pretty much the only way to increase the fat content of your milk is to increase feeding frequency and/or duration and do breast compression.

So any ideas?? I'm not very open to changing the way he feeds. I want to do everything I can to help him gain weight. But anything else I could do??

[ZacsMumme]

Hi there

First, I'm going to get a BF mod to take a look at his feeding...I do think you need to space those feeds out more though sweetie.

Re sleep I think your EASY looks good but the first A is too short which is why you are getting 45 mins. Try pushing it out closer to 2.5-3 hours gently over time. Maybe 10mins every few days. If you get a good nap then try for a 2.5 hr A again but after a 45 min nap I think you actually have to reduce the next A to ~2-2hs15 to prevent OT

Does your LO suffer from reflux or gas issues? The frequent NW often indicate discomfort? Teething at all? Do you only go in if your LO can't settle on his own?
Make any sense?