My 7 month old wakes every two hours

[wrightk78]

My 7 month old son wakes up every two hours (12,2,4) and then from 4-6 he wakes hourly (4,5,6).  I have tried the PU/PD but it doesn't work at night.  He will scream for hours and the only way he'll stop is if I nurse him.  During the day he can go 4 hours between feeds, but at night he habitually gets up at the same times. 

6am wake up
E- BF for 15 minutes
6:15-7:15- Activity
7:15-7:30- Solid foods
7:30-8:45- Activity
8:45-10- naps

10: E- about 15 minutes
10:15- Activity
11:15- Solid foods
11:30-1- Activity
1-2: Sleep

2- Eat about 15-20 minutes
2:30- Activity
5: solids
6:30 Bath, Dressed, Bf, bed by 7

Here's where it starts to fall apart

7-9:30 sleeps.  Sometimes (about half the time) he sleeps straight till 10 and I can sneak in a dream fed, otherwise he is up at 9:30.  At this feeding he gets a 3-4oz bottle of formula.  Now he will usually sleep until about 12, I go in and most of the time can PU/PD once and he'll go back to sleep.  Then again at 2, only nursing will get him back to sleep, then again at 4,5,6 same thing each time.  He will scream until I cave and feed him.  He does not like a soother and will arch his back and wail if I give it to him.  If he is VERY sleepy I can give it to him and he will accept it, but usually only for a short time. 

I don't know what to do, please help.

[vreitsma]

I am sorry you are going through this... Ours is 8 months old and doing the same thing.  I have read that if they wake at the same time each night that it's just a bad habit they have gotten into.  It happened with both of our kids.  Does up/pd work?  If they calm down without being breastfed then that's a good sign.  If they do then it will hopefully just be a matter of time and working at it that things should calm down.  Right now mine only calms down by nursing.  I hope this was helpful or at least encouraging.  Our 21mo sleeps like a champ now, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

[Layla]

Hi there and big hugs...you must be exhausted!

Looking at your routine, i noticed the A time before bed is 5hrs, which in my opinion is too long for a 7mo. My girls were only able to handle that long of a stretch when they were down to 1 nap.

I think i would aim at pushing out your morning nap to 9.30am so that he sleeps from 9.30-10.30 and then offering the afternoon nap around 2pm and then bedtime around 3-3.5hrs from when he wakes. By doing this, you reduce the A before bed, which i believe will help the frequent night waking. When you're working on stretching his A time, go slow and add 10-15 mins every 3-4 days but i would really encourage an earlier bedtime...even if its 30 mins earlier until you get there.

Did the nws coincide with dropping the last/catnap? or introducing solids or anything else you can think of?