5 month old NW's

[tdees]

Hello,

I'm back! My five month old baby boy is a great day time sleeper, but is terrible at night! Can you please help me figure out what is wrong? I am so exhausted that I just don't know what to do anymore.

He is on a 4-hour easy, takes bottles of formula and EBM (he does not like to nurse - never has).

His daytime/night schedule looks mostly like this:

Wake up - 6:15 a.m.
Eat - 7:00
Sleep - 8:30-10:30 (always 2 hours)
Eat - 11:00
Sleep - 12:30 - 2:00 (usually 1.25 - 1.5 hours)
Eat - 3:00
Sleep - 4:00 - 4:45 (.75 hours)
E - 6:30
Sleep - 6:45 - 7:00

Wake up - 9:00 (give him paci and he falls right back to sleep)
Dream feed - 10:15 (full feeding)
Wake up - 12:00 (try paci, shush-pat, anything - usually doesn't work so I feed him again)
Eat - 12:30  (sometimes takes only a little and sometimes a full feeding)
Wake up - 5:00 (try paci, shush-pat - sometimes this works and he'll fall back to sleep but will wake every 15 minutes until I'm super frustrated and get him up at 6:00 OR sometimes I feed him (he takes about 2 oz. and goes back to sleep until 6:30 or 7:00 with no more wakings).

So he's eating once or twice in the night after the dream feed and waking up another 2-4 times to need help getting back to sleep. During the day he goes to sleep easily (put him down awake with a paci and he drifts off by himself). About half the time he wakes mid-nap and if I shush-pat him and give him a paci he'll go right back to sleep.

PU/PD does not work with him. He doesn't stop crying when I pick him up and it makes him cry even harder (and he has vomitted twice while crying so hard when we were trying to do PU/PD).

I have a two year old as well who was on EASY since 2 months old - slept through the night for 12 hours at 3 months old and never looked back. But our little boy is a mess!

Should I take the paci away? He goes totally crazy if one arm is unswaddled. He doesn't seem interested in sucking his fingers.

And he never eats much at the 7 a.m. feeding (maybe only 2-3 oz) but he seems so hungry in the middle of the night. Do I try to wean him off of one of the night feedings? But he seems so hungry and will just wake up every 15 minutes.

Please help! I thought by now he would be sleeping so much better but it seems to be getting worse and I am so frustrated and so tired!

[katie80]

Hi there, I think it sounds like you might have a prop issue with the paci/feeding to sleep. I think the best course of action would be to start resettling him at least at the 12/12:30am waking without feeding. Since he's had a full DF, you can be pretty sure he's not hungry at that waking. It may take awhile the first few nights, but he doesn't need a feed then. He may be hungry in the early morning still, especially as he wakes again after 15min if he does to back to sleep. So, I think it's ok to continue to feed at that one, even if it's just enough to get him til morning wake-up. You can gradually phase it out in the next month or so.

What is your feeling on the paci? Would you like to keep it? I do think it's a potential prop, but as it helps him get back to sleep for naps and since he's getting closer to an age where he will be able to replug himself, you can keep it if you want.

Your routine looks really good. Is he closer to 5mo or 6?  The only thing I would suggest is that he probably needs a bit more A time before the second nap (closer to 2h15-30min) as that one is not always a full nap.

Does he show any reflux symptoms?  Reflux 101 - General reflux information. Just wondering if that has anything to do with his wanting to suck a lot/possibly comfort feed in the MOTN.