Several night wakings again after sleeping through the night

[ginacr]

My son is now 9 months old (on the 6th April) and from 8 months old he was sleeping through the night until 8 am in the morning. Then we went on holiday for a week (end of March) where there was a 3 hour time difference between there and the UK. While we were on holiday and since we are back he is waking several times through the night (he was sharing a room with us and in a travel cot). It started off as only once a night but now it is 3 to 4 times a night. On holiday when it was only once or twice a night I BF him when he woke and he usually went back to sleep. The last few nights since we are back from holiday my husband has been going in to him and getting him back to sleep but he is still waking a lot. For example last night after going to be at 7:30, he woke at 8:15, 12 ( awake until 1), 4, 4:30, 5:30, 6 and I ended up BF him around 6 am and this morning he slept until 8:45 am.

Any ideas as to why he is now waking so much during the night when he was sleeping through when he was 8 months old until 8 a.m.? What should I be doing to get him back to sleeping through?

[Erin M]

What does your daytime routine look like right now?  It could be that he needs a tweak in his routine or an increase in A time -- that long night waking could point to that.  Is it possible that he is teething? 

[ginacr]

Well it is a little all over the place since we got back from holiday a 10 days ago. He was sleeping right through until 7:30/8 am before we went away.

Last night he went to sleep at 7:20 pm, woke 9:20 p.m & I fed him then he slept through until 5 am. My husband went in and tried to get him back to sleep without success until 5:45 when I ended up feeding him. He went back to sleep eventually about 6:20 and then slept through until 8:45. Breakfast about 9:30 (had to get my oldest daughter to school first) BF at 11 am, then he started yawning about 11:30, so asleep again from 11:45 - 1:15. Then he had lunch at 1:30. Another BF at 3:15. Because he was so late in getting up this morning he can't have another nap, as there is no time, so that's a problem. I will get him ready to go to sleep at 7 pm, BF him then and he will probably go off to sleep again between 7:15 - 7:30 p.m.

The other night when he woke at 12 and wouldn't go back to sleep we ended up giving him some medicine in the end as he seemed like he was in pain this seemed to work and he went back to sleep at 1. He got his first 2 teeth a couple of months ago so I expecting the other top 2 to come down soon.

The main problems really are this EW between 4 am - 5, how do we stop him doing this? as he wasn't doing this before. And also after a feed at 5:45/6ish he is going back to sleep to nearly 9 a.m which means it is impossible for him to have 2 naps in the day. What should his A time be when he is sleeping until 8:30/9? and how do I fit 2 naps in the day when he is doing this?

[Erin M]

The other night when he woke at 12 and wouldn't go back to sleep we ended up giving him some medicine in the end as he seemed like he was in pain this seemed to work and he went back to sleep at 1. He got his first 2 teeth a couple of months ago so I expecting the other top 2 to come down soon.

You might try some meds before bed one night, just to see if it makes a difference.  Sometimes it just helped me to rule out possible causes of NWings. 

The main problems really are this EW between 4 am - 5, how do we stop him doing this? as he wasn't doing this before. And also after a feed at 5:45/6ish he is going back to sleep to nearly 9 a.m which means it is impossible for him to have 2 naps in the day. What should his A time be when he is sleeping until 8:30/9? and how do I fit 2 naps in the day when he is doing this?

OK, first off, I'd do as you're doing and get him back to sleep however you can.  Then (as awful as it is) I'd probably wake him at a time where you will be able to get two naps in (even if one of them is a capped nap, you're a little early for the 2-1, but you could also be at the very beginnings of that -- was he early to drop the cat nap by any chance? -- there's some info on that here: 10/ 11mo sleep gone wonky? Read this first! ).  You might have to do a slightly shorter A time if you wake him, but getting him up and moving when he's "supposed" to be up is going to help with those early wakings and your nights as well.