5 month old waking through the night

[Ljuicy]

My LO is just over 5 months old and for the past 8 weeks is waking all through the night.  There is no consistency, it can be hourly or just a few times a night.  He usually wakes crying, I leave him for a few mins and it just escalates.

Sometimes I can just put dummy back in and that's it but more often than not I have to get him out.  It will take a few mins to calm him so I do PU/PD but that just makes  him worse. He throws his head about and his arms and legs. I have to wait till he is fully asleep before putting him down but he only lasts about an hour, maybe 2 then I repeat the process. I'm exhausted.

I've tried ssh/pat too but he is just all over the place.

He shares a room with his 2 year old brother so does make it more difficult as I'm worried about waking my 2 year old up.

He has a dummy and lovie.  (Thinking of weaning dummy?)

His day looks like this:

Wakes up between 7:00 -7:30

E 7:30  baby porridge at 8:00
A
S 9:00 for 30 mins then 10:30 for up to an hour (he wakes up happy after 1st nap and very difficult doing PU/PD.with 2 year old around!)

E 11:30 puree veg at 12:30
A
S 1:30 for up to 2 hrs (wakes after 40 mins but gets back off with dummy reply and white noise)

E 3:30 purée fruit at 4:30ish
A
S 5:30ish for 40 mins

E 6:50
S 7:30

He goes down for sleep and naps awake.

He is bottle fed now and doesn't feed through the night anymore.

Please help! I don't know what else to do. Thank you

[Skadiver13]

Hi hun are you sure he isn't hungry? Have you tried feeding him? It isn't uncommon for lo's his age to still have 2 feeds at night. Hes on a loy of solids for a 5 month old they don't have near the calories formula has. Can you add your bottle feedings and amounts to your easy? I honestly think he may be hungry.

[Ljuicy]

Hi, thank you so much for your reply

I was actually thinking same yesterday as I've never done a dreamfeed. He used to have a bottle around 1ish but he wasn't taking very much so I dropped it a couple of weeks ago. But yesterday when he started the night wakings around 11, I fed him. It still took me and hour and half to settle him (usual problem that he will happily sleep on me) but he did sleep longer than usual. Only till 5 am though!

He currently has 4 bottles of 7 oz each. I weaned him onto solids early on the advice of the HV as he started waking through the night but it's not helped!

Shall I try giving him a bottle then around 11:00pm?  Was it too early to drop a feed?

Thank you!

[Violet's mom]

It might be that.  But if you dropped it because he wasn't eating much anymore then I probably would've dropped it too!  However there are growth spurts that appear here and there so maybe try increasing the amount in the daytime bottles and see if that helps?

How long has he been on solids?  Sometimes it can be pretty uncomfortable digestive wise - he never had reflux or anything did he?

Also, you mentioned weaning the dummy - is this a gut feeling you have?  Unfortunately if you continue putting him in his crib asleep he is going to wake up crying for you because that's where he fell asleep so you should probably work on getting him to fall asleep independently - does he fall asleep independently at bedtime or with the dummy?

Also, irt pu/pd it can take a very long time (I believe the BW said there would be 3 to 4 crying crescendos) - how long have you tried it for?  Anna is a big help on the pupd board if you want to go that route.

[Ljuicy]

Hi, thank you for your response.

I probably should have said before that he has reflux and has been in meds since a Few weeks old. He suffers terribly with his tummy too, which I don't think helps with everything.  He has been on solids for around 5 weeks now.

Yes, it's my gut feeling with the dummy although he does settle without it sometimes during the day. That's what I don't understand I always put him down awake for his naps and bedtime and usually self settles when he wakes early from naps (with a bit of help from white noise music) but just can't do it during the night. I try all the same things I do in the day. I know he is getting used to me picking him up now but I'm so exhausted by 3/4 o'clock that I give up!

It's been really hard having 2 under 2, I don't get to catch up on sleep in day anymore as my 2 year old dropped his nap not long after LO was born!

I probably do need to do Pu/pd longer but as he shares room with toddler I can only do it so long before toddler wakes up (I need a bigger house!).

I've just given him 5oz bottle as 3rd wake up since 11, so I'll see what happens! He is asleep on me though

[Violet's mom]

Yeah and pupd doesn't work if there is an underlying need - did he take all 5 oz?  I'd keep giving him the dream feed.  I had to wean my dd from the pacifier at 4 months - so if your gut tells you that is the problem you probably know best!

If you are still unsure - heres a couple of suggestions...

Have you worked on pushing a times at all during these past 8 weeks? 
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!!

That might help - he might be undertired which might make it difficult for him to put himself back to sleep. 

He might also be heading in the 2 nap direction
All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

See if any of those things help!

[Ljuicy]

Hi, thank you so much for that info. It looks like I should start pushing his A time a bit. Those links are really helpful.

Well he took all 5oz and I got 4 hours un interrupted sleep! I haven't had that for ages!! It felt so good.
So tonight I have given him his usual 7oz and will see what happens. I can't believe I didn't think of doing that sooner. I think I'm going to up his feeds in the day too and see how we go.

Thank you for your help! I'll let you know how it goes