My LO is 6 months old, and has finally gotten on a really good daytime routine - roughly 4hr EASY, but with a shorter morning wake time. He is taking two, consistent, 1.5-2 hour naps every day.
A few weeks ago, he had what I believe was a growth spurt. He was eating more often than normal, very vigorously to the point that I was sore, and he picked up a night feeding. After that was over, his naps sorted themselves out into his current schedule, and instead of dropping the night feed again, he just started barely eating during the day.
He has also started solids, but I always offer breastmilk first, less than an hour before solids, and we are doing finger foods rather than purees, so he is ingesting very little most of the time. I think the solids are impacting his milk intake minimally.
He eats at 11:00 and 4:00 overnight, taking both breasts and really filling up. Then when I try to feed him at 7:30AM, he will only take one breast and only for a small amount of time. Same at 11:30, and 3:30, and 7, his normal feed times (solids usually around 8AM and 5PM). Based on time spent eating, he eats as much in two night feedings as he does in four day feedings. But if I do not let him absolutely tank up on milk at his night feedings, he will NOT go back to sleep unless I am holding him, and will wake up the second I put him down. He will lie there, and fidget, and whine, and look like he just can't get comfortable, and work himself into a complete meltdown if he doesn't eat to complete fullness.
He is maybe mildly distracted during the day? But I don't think he is distracted enough that it is the reason he isn't eating.
He is capable of putting himself to sleep - for naps and at bedtime, we just put him in the crib wide awake and leave, and the worst case scenario is that we have to go back up in 5-10 minutes and rub is back a little bit to get him to sleep.
A few nights ago I stayed up and held him half the night hoping that if I held him from 11:00-3:00, maybe he'd eat at 3:00 and then be hungry to eat during the day, and hopefully reset himself. All that came of that was me losing sleep.
I'm just at a loss as to what I can do to fix this predicament.