Thanks for the reply Becj86!
Ok, here are the answers you posed me questions to, then some more about last night:
So, Ishaan's general routine is he gets up around 07:30, feeds shortly after, plays a while, then is asleep again by the latest 11am (although this is getting earlier - I think his afternoon day care routine is having this effect), up by midday or so then off to day care from about 13:00 to 17:00 or so. They feed him there around 16:00 and he sleeps for about 30 mins after that. Back at home he is usually asleep by 20:30...and awake again by 21:30....! A certain amount of shush/patting will get him to sleep and as of last night I started the PU/PD in earnest and it seemed effective enough. He still usually however wakes around 01:00 or 02:00 for a bottle feed - which we had eliminated previously (see below).
When he wakes for his hourly wake up, his eyes are closed, but he is crying out in fits and starts - not continuously. I should say here that at 5 months old we were amazed to have him sleeping in his own room and sleeping through the night (all in the space of a week!), but then by 6 months, he started teething and that night time peace came to an end again. He has 4 teeth now (2 upper/2 lower) and more are on the way as he drools a lot and has his fingers in his mouth often, but I don't think it's just that.
He is a mixture of FF (assume this is 'formula fed'?) and solids mainly during the day. My wife gave up breast feeding at 3 months. So, we feed him a mixture of jars of Gerber's chicken & vegetable/turkey and mixed vegetables etc (american brands), our own homemade butternut squash and mixed vegetables and with each meal also a bowl of baby rice with pureed apple or pear. He seems to have gone off our own homemade mush lately though and is not mad on the Gerber's stuff any more either. So his milk consumption is going up again - grr! We know now that we need to introduce more foods etc. We tried small pieces of fruit (apple, pear, banana etc.) but he just screwed up his face and spat it out...
He used to have relatively bad reflux up to about 4 months, but this seems to have gone away now thankfully. He is teething as I mentioned above. He did indeed also have a bug last Sunday which caused him to vomit everything up - food, milk, water etc. My wife had it first however, then him and lastly me last Monday - yuch. We are all better now though, but Ishaan was exhibiting these sleeping changes before he got ill, so I think it is a reaction to day care and/or some separation anxiety. I think he is slowly relaxing into the day care routine (just yesterday for the first time, he didn't cray when he was dropped off there).
He never goes to sleep independantly unfortunately - possibly our worst mistake yet with him. My wife can get him to sleep, but when i do it it is much quicker - usually 10-15 minutes. She could take up to a half hour, so I do it mostly. Annnnd, he's getting heavier all the time... He's up to 9.5kg now.
He does nap in the day care place, but usually only 25-40 minutes. They all sleep at different times I think so there is probably noise around him. He's one of the ones not yet walking (or crawling for that matter) so maybe he feels a little left out? The rest can either crawl or bum around or pull themselves up into a standing position and can then walk around the walls etc. Once put in a standing position, he can walk slowly around the edge of a coffee table but very slowly. This is his second week in day care and we send the food with him - a pre-made bottle of formula (Arizona law) and a container of baby rice and a jar of Gerbers baby food or our own butternut blend.
I have struggled with a lot of guilt over this lately as my wife is a hard worker and needs he sleep so I try to take the brunt of the nights minding him, but while I have always considered myself a very relaxed and calm person, I have been appalled to discover that when sleep deprived, I'm horrible! I mean I don't shout or shake him or anything but I am a little more rough when picking him up than I want to be.
Anyway, so last night I was determined to be calm and methodical with him and shush/pat where needed and PUPD when needed. He pretty much woke up every 40 minutes and for the most part, PUPD worked fine (sometimes had to be repeated a few times), but that way he seemed to have minimal disruption to his sleep. I however am now knackered, but I will do it tonight again also and until it starts showing results!
So I think perhaps his nocturnal waking is because of separation anxiety - I think. I'd welcome any analysis of the above so we can hopefully get him back on track and us to sleep all night again!
Thanks for your time!
