nearly six months worsening nw and ew

[roxannesmum]

DS will be six months in just a few days.  We have had chatty nw around 4-5am for around an hour or so for a few months where eventually he would settle himself back to sleep most nights and havent been able to get rid of them but he is beginning to do this a few times a night.
He also has several night feeds due to problems with refusing food in the day ?cows milk intolerence with?reflux sine I stopped bf and he has been formula fed since december.  He is now on neocate for the past 5 days, the first coulpe of days he fed great in the day and we had our two best nights ever, but now things are worse than ever.  He does have a cold the last couple of days too but I just feel like I am making excuses all the time.  So I wonder if there is anything glaringly obvious that I am missing, putting aside the feeding problems.
He settles himself to sleep no problems for naps and bedtime, mantra cries for a couple of minutes then drops off.  We weaned him from dummy and swaddle at 4 months he is now in sleep sack and has a lovie that he rubs on his face or chews.  I am aware that he is feeding too much at night now but not sure what to do.

last few days easy-
0610 awake
        refused bottle through all of a time
0823 sleep
1025 awake
        6oz
1257sleep
1425 awake
        3oz
1545 tried for catnap due to short nap but no good
1830 6oz and sleep
2240 woke for df only took 2.5 oz
0100 woke took 6oz
0500 awake took 1oz chatting eventually settled woke him at 0745 (veery unususal)

0745 woke him
        1.5oz very tired out down early
0920 sleep
1055 woke up
1100 5.5oz
1300 very tired put down to sleep early
1518 woke up
1810 3.5oz
1824 sleep
2100 he woke up took 6oz
0200 4oz
0530 4oz crying wouldnt go back to sleep, got him up about 0630
0800 sleep


last few days have been off our normal easy we usually try for at least2hrs 20 A time and he usually has a good 1.5 hr min nap in the morning sometimes more, I have been waking him at 2 hours not sure if thats a good idea? afternoon naps are not so good generally anywhere form 30-1hr30, which can leave a long time til bedtime, he last had a catnap a couple of weeks ago but was advised to drop it as thought it was causing the ew and do early bedtime instead but hasnt helped really, we just end up putting him to bed early and i think this may be contributing to early wake ups.  His general mood is grumpy he cries a lot and we cant really put him down.  I'm sorry to go on any help would be wonderful and if this would be better on another board please feel free to move it

[becj86]

If he's only doing 2hr20 A times, he needs the catnap and a 12-13hr day.

Here's some info re: dropping the CN: All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months This transition can actually happen as late as 8-9 months, so there's quite a range.

We have had chatty nw around 4-5am for around an hour or so for a few months where eventually he would settle himself back to sleep most nights and havent been able to get rid of them but he is beginning to do this a few times a night.

This is usually because of UT - A times not long enough. Dropping the catnap usually comes with extended A times - you really need to get him up to 2hr45-3hr to drop the catnap effectively though.

[roxannesmum]

His a time is now 2hr 30 min- 2 40.  It seem no matter what we do he will only sleep for 10.5 hr at night and thats with nf and or df.  Should I maybe limit his first nap I heard that can help ew?  Also should I still be allowing nf and what about df?

[becj86]

Should I maybe limit his first nap I heard that can help ew?

How long is it? Pushing it later by extending the A time further could well help. Limiting it to less than 1.5hr is not advisable.

Its totally normal for a baby at 6 months to have a dreamfeed and one other night feed.

[roxannesmum]

Ah thanks that's good to know. He usually has at least two gourami have been waking him at 2.5 of he gets there