Night Waking 7 month old

[nicolero]

Hi fellow parents!

I just wanted some advice regarding my 7 month old little man. He has generally been a good sleeper but has recently started waking frequently at night after his dream feed (and sometimes before). His routine is as follows:

6.30 am Wake Up
6.45 Formula (180ml) plus brekkie (cereal & fruit puree)
6.45 until approx 8.30 Play (swing, mat, chair, floor etc)
8.30 - 10 ish nap
10.30 Formula (180ml) followed by lunch (custard, fruit etc)
10.30 - 12.30/1ish Play
12.30 - 2 ish nap
3 ish Formual
3-4 Play
4-4.45 Catnap
5 Dinner (Veggies)
5.30 - 6.30 Bath plus little play (usually in swing/rocker)
6.30 Final nappy change and bottle
7 Bed
11.30 Dream Feed (Usually only takes approx 80/100 ml

Then ......... Sometimes he will snooze until 6 ish but usually wakes at 2, 4, 5 so upset that he needs to picked up. I can usually get him back to sleep but he wakes up regularly until morning.

Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks

[becj86]

Hi, welcome

If you could extend his awake times a bit (up to around 3hr) and drop the catnap, that should help with the sleep. 6-7 months is the age at which babies go to two solid naps per day. I don't suggest you jump straight from 2hr up to 3hr, its best to increase awake time gradually, in 10-15min increments every 3-4 days.

The dreamfeed may be a little late and may be disrupting his sleep - ideally its should be given between 3 and 4hr after baby goes to sleep for the night, when he is in a deep sleep.

[nicolero]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply

Roughly how long should total naps be for the day? Currently his first two  naps, which today he took at 9 and 1 were for around an hour and a half each. Its four hours away from bed time!!! What should I do?

THanks again xxx

[becj86]

Total naps are 3-3.5hr usually. So at 3hr A time, the routine looks a little something like this:
7 - wake
10 - nap
11:30 - wake
2:30 - nap
4 - wake
7 - bedtime

but you will find that you add in a catnap or early bedtime as you increase the A time slowly. So I'd do BT at 6 instead of 6:30 tonight...

[nicolero]

Ok great So I successfully increased his activity time a bit today. He needed a little nap at 5 to tie him over until bed time! I can see that this might happen for a bit as I push the day out and eventually, as his second nap starts and finishes later in the day,  I can respond to his tiredness in the early evening with an early bedtime!

Thanks again for your support - it's wonderful to be able to chat about this!

xxx

[becj86]

Keep us posted