At my wits end with 7mo don't know where to start

[Nuggie]

Hi all - I'm so sorry this is a long post and if it is the wrong place but after a good read of the FAQ and other members posts I couldn't find anything to fit.

I've been a member for a while and lurking in the background. Having successfully implemented EASY with my DD1 (3yrs) I have been trying to get DD2 on it too. She is nearly 7 months old. She is a completely different baby to my first and suffered reflux in her early months. She still has bad days and we have recently started back on infacol after some of her NW seemed to be wind related.

Weaning is fully established, since 5 months. Also since this time she has started to wake in the night. I thought initially it was due to starting solids, then perhaps a development leap (wonder weeks) then the 6 month growth spurt, then illness (cold) but now it's gotten out of hand completely and I don't know what's going on. I am exhausted and she is driving me to breaking point.

I will try and summarise what I think is going on. She started to reduce the amount of milk she would take in the day - I mean seriously reduced to about 2-300ml (7-10oz) so when she woke in the night I would feed her. So I would dream feed her, then expect a 3-4am wake up. Not a problem. Over the last few weeks however she has started to wake more frequently at night and I don't know where to start. Last night she woke at 9.45 (cuddled back to sleep) then 1am, 2am, 3am and finally woke for the day at 6.30. My husband has been trying to get up to and offered her the bottle at 1 and 3 but only at 3 did she take 4ozs. The other times I cuddle her back to sleep.

A typical day would roughly look like this:

E - 6.30/7.30 - porridge then bottle but never interested in more than an ounce of formula
A
S - generally 2.5hrs after wake time 9/9.30 1hour give or take

A - 10.30/11
E - 11 bottle
A
E - 12.30 purée and dessert
A -
S - 1/1.30 generally 45mins to 1hour

A 1.45/2
E - try bottle but not usually interested
A
E - 4/5 purée
A
S - doesn't usually take a nap here

E - 5.30/6 bottle
A bath bed routine
S - 6.30-7.30

Now I've written it down it does seem like she is in some sort of routine. She always takes her first nap in her cot but we are generally out for her second nap, or if not that would be cot too. She will go down no probs usually in the day.

However, take tonight for example, and the reason I am posting - she woke at 9.20pm so I fed her. She took 4oz. Then she screamed until 10.45pm. During which time I tried sshh/pat, pu/pd, but she started to arch her back and fight me so ended up just with hand on her tummy ssshh her. She had a brief respite for 10minutes in the middle but then started screaming again and I did the whole process again. I've never heard her scream like that before and it was heartbreaking.

I'm sure she is not poorly. I think. Maybe she is teething but not obviously. I don't know what I am going to do when she wakes in the night, other than try and be patient. I've got to try and stop these night feeds because that is half the reason she isn't interested in her bottle in the morning. Do I just go cold turkey on her night time bottle? Maybe offer water instead?

I'm pretty sure my pu/pd method was ok - when she started arching I put her down still screaming and tried to comfort with just my touch. There were times though when nothing I did stopped her from crying...heartbroken!!

[Ima shel Alon]

Hi there

Is Reflux under control? This is the main thing to check. If it's not then all what I say regarding routine doesn't apply. You can't ST and tweak A times with a baby in pain.

I have a few thoughts.
First thing I would do is reduce solids to a minimum. Solids till 1 year of age is mainly for play and for them to have fun with food, they still need to rely mostly on milk. You can still offer 3 meals a day as you do now, but don't offer as much as you do now. I hope that this will increase her day feeds. Also, always offer milk first and then after an hour or so you can offer solids.
The second thing I would do is wean the DF because with some babies at this age the DF starts to disrupt sleep (more here: Cluster & Dreamfeeding FAQ's - Starting, how to do it, stopping & problems).
The third thing I would do is work on her A times. At her age you should be aiming for her to be only on 2 naps (at 5-6m babies drop the CN) and to have her A times longer. Perhaps not the second A time, that seems all right to me, but defo increase the A time in the morning. To prevent OT you can do that gradually, by 10-15min every 3-4 days till you are more around 3:15h A time give or take. The later nap will bring your whole day forward, so second nap will be in the afternoon and then there will be enough A time before BT.

Re NF this is very much up to you, you need to decide if you want to keep on feeding her or not. If you don't want to feed her anymore then perhaps it's better to first change the things I have mentioned before and when she is more established on that, reduce her NF by 1oz every 3 nights, then you settle every NW with PU/PD.

What do you think?