9 months, wakes every 3 hours to eat

[beamsfan]

Hi everyone.  I've been reading through old posts but was hoping someone could help me figure out if this is a sleep "problem" or normal for some kiddos.

I have a 9 month old who had a lot of trouble sleeping as a "baby."  We finally did PU/PD at ~6 months and now he's able to settle himself to bed, by which I mean he no longer screams 1-2 hours when we put him in his crib to sleep.  He now is waking up every 3 hours, eats (breastfeeds if I'm home, bottle with breastmilk if I'm not), and goes back to sleep from 5pm until 4-6am.  We have started making him stay in the crib until 6am.

He only takes one 60-120 min nap at daycare during the weekdays.  He takes 2 naps/day over the weekend.  Daycare can't get him to take a morning nap while the other kids are playing.

During the day, he eats 4oz breastmilk every 3-4 hours as well as some solids.  We are working on solids, but right now he has 3 foods he can eat (allergy/gut issues) and so he gets food ~2 times/day.

We're not sure if his every 3 hour awakenings to eat are truly hunger or habit.  We think it's actually hunger because it's not a given time of day, it's based on when he last ate, and if I'm gone and my husband tries to give him a half-feed of 2oz, he cries until he gets a second 2oz bottle.

We're totally exhausted but happy with this schedule as compared to hours and hours of screaming instead of sleeping, so we'll continue on if he's needing to eat.  But we're hoping for some thoughts on whether this is actually just a habit, in which case we should work on breaking it now before it gets worse...

Thanks for the help!

[PaulsMom]

Hi there and welcome to BW!

Hugs for the nw's.  waking every 3 hours to eat at night sounds like a lot but there is a growth spurt at 9 months so he could be going through that.  Since your Lo is on a limited solid food diet, he may be requiring the extra calories in the form of milk at night.

I was wondering if you could post your routine in the following format (for example):
Wake up 7:00
E 7:00 bf
A solids around 8:00
S 10:15 to 11:45
E 12:00 bf
Etc.

At night is he waking at the same times eat night?  Does he eat and then go right back to sleep? 

[beamsfan]

Sure!  It varies a bit, which is why I didn't do it, but here's my best attempt:

Weekday:
Wake up 6:00 (he often wakes before this but we don't get him up until 6 at the earliest)
E 6:30 bf
A 7:00 daycare
E 8:30 4oz breastmilk bottle
A 11:00 solids at daycare for lunch
E 11:30 4oz breastmilk bottle
S 12-2
E 2:00 4oz breastmilk bottle
A 2-4 daycare, 4pm solids for dinner, 4:30pm bath
E 5pm bf
S 5pm

Then from 5pm-6am he wakes every 3 hours to eat and goes back to sleep.  He doesn't fall asleep nursing but finishes both sides and I put him back in the crib and he goes back to sleep.  He sometimes wakes more often but we just pat his back for a minute and leave without feeding him and he goes back to sleep.

In the early morning (4am-6am), he often wakes every 45-60 minutes but we don't feed him if it's been less than 3 hours and have found it's worse if we try to do PU/PD at that point.  So we pat his back for a minute when he first wakes up but then let him go back to sleep on his own.

I KNOW he doesn't get enough sleep at daycare, which is why we put him to sleep so early.  Last night he went a 4 hour stretch, which was AMAZING, but that hasn't happened in months.  So it makes me think it's hunger?

[Violet's mom]

So he won't eat more than 4 oz from a bottle?  Just pipping in that my LO uses a straw sippy and she will take a lot more EBM in that than she ever did in a bottle.  Worth a shot this weekend?

[PaulsMom]

Hugs Hun.  To me it sounds like hunger at night.  Does your Lo have reflux in addition to food intolerances?  What types of solid foods does he eat? 

Milk will have more calories per oz than solid food so I'm wondering if there is a way to get him to take in more during the day.  Agree with pp about trying a sippy as well. 

[Violet's mom]

Also, how long has he been in daycare?  I've heard of reverse cycling - when they start nursing again at night because they miss mom during the day.

[beamsfan]

Thanks for helping me think through this!

I've been back at work since 10 weeks and he's been at daycare since 13 weeks.  His sleep is tremendously better than it used to be.

He eats banana, sweet potatoes, and prunes consistently.  He has "passed" kale but doesn't like it and I tried beets this morning, which he ate if I mixed it with the banana.  He cannot have milk, soy, any grains or seeds, poultry, or butternut squash until 18 months when we will trial them under supervision.  He only has reflux when he's reacting to something (he reacts through breastmilk and I've been on various elimination diets since he was 4 weeks old).

He might take more than 4oz in a bottle.  How much more should I try adding to each bottle during the day?  I used to have a hard time keeping up with his daycare intake but I have a little extra each day now, so I could add some.

I tried him a straw sippy cup but he has just chewed on the straw so far.

[Violet's mom]

I would try another ounce in each and see if that helps.  Have you ever tried more in the bottle?  I know when mine actually took a bottle (stopped at 4 months) she would drink at least 5.5 oz...

Poor little guy is allergic to so much!  Do you have the reflux medicated?

[PaulsMom]

Hugs Hun.  Poor little guy!  Try one additional oz in the bottle but I guess I'm a bit concerned that if he was over full that it might bother his tummy.  I've noticed that the solids are purees.  Have you tried chunkier versions of banana or sweet potato?  Purees have lots of water in them so there are more calories in the non purée versions.  For my dd I bake sweet potato slices until they are soft (I do brush a bit of olive oil on them so they don't dry out too much in the oven though).  Bananas are easy to much with a fork and add milk if needed or just feed small pieces. 

Wrt the sippy I would start him off with a sippy of water at each meal.  I wouldn't put your precious milk into a sippy until he gets the hang of drinking out of it.  Although lots of bf Los use a straw sippy, I used a soft spout sippy (playtex brand) with both of my bf Los.  Actually to get them to understand that they can drink from a sippy I used a silicone topped nuby sippy but quickly swapped it for the playtex version once they knew they could drink from the sippy.