7.5 month old NW- 10+ times- help!!

[linsn884]

My DS is 7.5 months old. Bedtime is around 8pm and he will sleep good for 30-45 min but then he is up about every half hour from then on until about 1 am. Sometimes its even more frequent than that. Around 1 am he has a FF of 8 ounces and then will go down and sleep till around 8 am. I can not figure out why he won't sleep through the night- or at least why he is waking SO much. I have another child that I am trying to get down to sleep as well so it's very difficult to keep going back in his room to either put in his binki or do PU/PD. He has a bowl of cereal with a thing of baby food and 4 ounces before bed. I currently swaddle him still- because trying to leave an arms or both out has been unsucessfull. When I pick him up he will calm right down and go right back to sleep (usually)  Any ideas?? I would think that by now he should be able to sleep 12 hours.

Thanks! 

[Layla]

Hi there,

I don't think all 7-8 mo can sleep 12 hrs straight. We had a night feed until around 9 months.

Would you be able to post your daytime routine? When you plug in the soother, does he go back to sleep? Do you think the soother may be an issue? How long before bed do you give him bowl of cereal? Also, when did the night wakings start?

[linsn884]

Here is our day time routine (he is at a babysitter during the day so I am not 100% sure if she follows this exactly but this is what we do on the weekends)

Awake: 8:30a
E: 9:00a- bowl of cereal, 4 oz formula
A: until around 10a
S: 10a-11:30
E: 12p Eat bowl of cereal, baby food, 4 oz
A: until 2:30/3
S: 3p-5p
E: 6:30p Eat 1 baby food, 6 oz
A: play, get ready for bed (bath)
E: 8:00p 4-6 oz formula
S: 8:30p
E: 1:30 Eat 8 oz formula

There are a few times when we put the soother back in and he goes back to sleep but that usually isn't the case. We try not to pick him up but 90% of the time we have to pick him up and rock him back to sleep. Sometimes we will do this, put him back in his crib and he starts crying again immediately. He is able to put his soother back in by himself- but since he is swaddled that doesn't help   I've tried not swaddling him but that seems to make things worse. I don't think the soother is the issue as he is able to fall asleep often with out it. The night wakings have been a problem for awhile but have gotten worse in the last month. The only thing I can think that has really changed is we moved him from a bassinet in our room to his crib in his own room. He isn't teething but did have an ear infection 2 weeks ago but is fine now.

As I type his schedule I am wondering if he is not getting enough formula throughout the day? But he has a bottle right before bed so I'm not sure if that is it.

[Layla]

I would look at spacing out your naps and limiting daytime sleep to 3 hrs to see if that helps with the nightwakings.
Something like this:
8.30 - awake
11.30-1pm - nap
4-5.30 - nap
8.30 - bedtime

Also try not to rock him to sleep anymore as he may have lost his ability to put himself to sleep and relies on you to do it. So try and stick with the pu/pd method. Can your partner/husband help with the other baby while you settle him to sleep or vise versa? Does he try and break out of the swaddle? You might need to look at slowly weaning the swaddle as I think most by this age do and that he can put the soother back in himself

Here is a link to the props section, which has a thread on paci/swaddle weaning success stories Props
And a link from the PU/PD board (FAQ section) which might have more information on pu/pd FAQ's - Frequently Asked Questions & Related Information

Let me know what you think