Hi there!! It seems that every time I get something fixed, something else gets broken! DS just turned 8 months old. Around the time I went back to work, he started to wake up hungry at night... around 3 or 4am. He has always been a picky eater (percentile 5 or so in the weight curve), so the caregiver wasn't able to get him to drink much milk or eat much food at first. He is now back on track in terms of milk intake... actually, he is having more than he ever has (still low on solid food, but he'll get there... eventually!) but he continues to wake at night. I've tried feeding him, and not feeding him. Usually, he won't go back to sleep unless I feed him, but sometimes he won't go back to sleep ANYWAY, with or without the milk. I can't really do a proper wake-to-sleep because his wake up time varies from 3 to 4am. He does take the bottle, but I wouldn't think he is hungry based on total milk intake during the day. When I do feed him, I just give him a few ounzes so that he doesn't begin to replace his morning feed with this new middle-of-the-night feed. Could it be a habit, to wake up and have his bottle? Or could he really be hungry even though he has been having enough milk lately? Here's a typical EASY:
6:15 wakes up
6:45am Bottle (always breastmilk)
9:20am Nap for 1 hour and 15 min (if he has a bad night, at times he won't even last the 3 full A hours)
10:30am Bottle
12:30pm Lunch (not much, unfortunately)
1:45pm Nap for 1 hour and 15 min
3:00pm Bottle
4:30pm Fruit
6:00pm Bottle
6:30pm Bedtime
10:30pm Dreamfeed (DF has been getting progressively more difficult, he is taking less and seems sleepy, but I am reluctant to eliminate it since DS is low on weight...)
Then he will wake up between 3am and 4am, at times he will go back to sleep fairly quickly (30-45 min), other times he will stay awake until 5:30am! He won't cry. He will just lay happily in his crib, usually quietly, other times singing and chanting.
HELP PLEASE!!!!