5.5 months naps well, but up at random times in the night

[Fefekabob]

Hi everyone,
Needing help again...

My LO is 5.5 months old, falls asleep independently (occasionally needing a pat on the bottom if he is OT), He is EBF in the bottle and just started solids two weeks ago.

He has always had long A times and is pretty much a textbook baby.

Here is our EASY:

WU/E: 6:00am-- 7oz bottle
E: 8:00am -- 2 tbs oatmeal and 5oz bottle
A: 3.5 hours
S: 9:30-11:30am (2 hours)

E: 12:00pm -- 2 tbs veggie and 4oz bottle
E: 2:00pm -- 6oz bottle
A: 3 hours
S: 2:30-4:10pm (1 hour 40min)

E: 4:15pm -- 2 tbs oatmeal and 4oz bottle
A: 3 hours
E: 6:30pm -- 8oz bottle
S: 7:00pm

NW: 12:00 or 1:00am for 5 minutes, resettles with a pat on his bottom
NW: 1:30 or 2:30am for 2 minutes, resettles with a pat on his bottom
NW: 4:00am for up to 2 hours with on/off fussing, falling asleep for 5-15 minutes, crying, then PU/PD for up to 30 minutes, resettles, then is up 15 minutes later

If he is up till 6:00am, then he sleeps another hour and WU is at 7:00am. If he sleeps at 5:00am, then he is up at 6:00am and that's when we start our day.

I honestly can't figure out what to do with him. He has never STTN, but his NW were always very brief. I just stopped his 1am NF two weeks ago before we started solids.

The only thing I can think of is that his naps have gotten longer in the past month. He used to only nap 35-45 minutes about 3-4 times a day. Now that he is able to fall asleep independently, he naps much longer and I'm thinking those two long naps are keeping him awake at night. The early morning NW is when he is the most awake. In between all the PU/PD and resettling, he may start blowing raspberries, giggle/coo.

Where am I going wrong?

[Layla]

A couple of things... he probably doesn't need that much solids. When we introduced solids, we only did a small amount for breakfast and the rest of the day was breastmilk. We introduced 2nd meal sometime around 7 months and the 3rd meal at 9 months. I would cut out the lunch and dinner and I would do milk first and solids an hour later. We had a milk feed at wake up; just after 1st nap; just after 2nd nap; a top up (one side) around 1.5hrs before bedtime and then it was bath and bedtime routine and final feed before bed.

The other thing is he may not be ready to sleep 11-12hrs without any night feeds. I would feed at the 1st awakening and see how long he lasts and he may sleep through till morning or he may need another feed early morning. I offered just one side at night and so if she was going to have an early morning feed (around 5am), she would have the other side when she'd be up for the day and we would go from there.

Mine also dropped her catnap at 5.5 months and we had 3hrs throughout the day but she only did 2x1.5hr naps... you could try limiting morning nap to 1.5hrs to see if that helps too.

[Fefekabob]

Hello Layla,

Thank you for all your suggestions. As far as the feedings go, I cut back to 2. Oatmeal in morning and veggie or fruit at night. He is a big boy and definitely needs the calories during the day but dropped the night feeds all on his own. I would offer milk but he wasn't interested. He went from 3oz to 1oz to none completely on his own. He is 19lbs and can probably physically handle the 12 hour stretch.

I have been noticing earlier wakings and shortening of naps the past few days. He might be needing an A time increase in the morning (even though his A times are already so long.)

I think there is a combination of problems going on:
1) not getting the correct A times and not knowin how long to let him nap for
2) me responding so quickly when he cries out in the MOTN (to prevent DS1 from waking)

Unfortunately the baby has a ridiculously loud and piercing mantra cry and I hate that I have to intervene when really he needs to self settle. But we have had too many wake ups with DS1 (22 months and loves any excuse to walk out of his room). We march him right back to bed, but it's always such a hassle. I don't know how I can properly sleep train DS2 when DS1 is within earshot.

It's exhausting me and I am just so frustrated with our situation.

[Skadiver13]

Hi hun have you see this?

How can I sleep-train a second baby when I have a toddler running around?