5. 5 Month old waking every 2 hours at night

[Sunnyday01]

Hi, hopefully this is the right place!

My little boy is 23 weeks old today and over the past couple of weeks we are getting regular night wakings, probably every couple of hours through the night.

He's quite a big boy...nearing 20lb and is on 4hr EASY. He goes to bed quite well at 7pm after his last feed of the day, although increasingly after his feed he lays awake in his cot talking to himself, despite showing signs of tiredness before getting ready for bed and his feed. We were doing a dreamfeed at 10.30pm but we have found it is increasingly hard to wake him and he wasn't taking his milk as he was so upset at being woken (due to his slight reflux we are unable just to put the bottle in his mouth to 'dreamfeed') so we decided to drop it and then offer him a feed when he woke up on his own. This has generally worked ok, with him actually wanting a feed around 2.30-3am, where he takes his feed nicely and settles back to sleep well.

Even when we we're doing the dreamfeed, we were still get NW at 1.30, 3.30, 5.30 etc.

He does have a paci which we use to resettle him at night and for his naps.

Part of me wonders if we are in the 3:2 nap transition but he hasn't quite worked it out yet. In the mornings he generally wakes at 6.15ish for the day and can go around 2hr45 a time before his first nap, but I only ever get about 38 mins, I've tinkered with his a time for weeks but that first nap is never longer than 38mins. In some ways I don't mind this too much as we do a lot of morning baby groups and this allows us to get to them. the 2nd nap of the day is a bitore ucessful and we tend to get 1hr 30 to 2hrs on a regular basis now. However he wakes up around 2-2.30 which is too long until bedtime but fitting a catnap in plus enough a time before bed is getting hard. Plus he doesn't always want that nap. The only time this week when he had a good stint of sleep is when he had 4 hours between waking up from his 2nd nap and BT!

do you think the transition could be causing the NW?

Here is a example of an average day for us

WU - 6.15
E 7
Nap 1 -8.50-9.35
E- 11
Nap 2 - 12.15-2.15
E - 3
Catnap - really hard to get in but we are trying to aim for no more than 20-30 mins before 5pm but it's getiin ghard

Bed and final feed - 7

I don't mind him waking up in the night still but it seems crazy that it's every 2 hrs - last night it was 11 30, 1.15, 2.30 (feed), 4.15, 5.30

[FPT23]

Hi! He very well could start transitioning already! Sometimes they start early on but the actual change won't occur until later. So don't try and get stuck on just two naps a day just yet... But, I would start by increasing his first nap. Seems like he needs a push in A time to increase that first morning nap. See if that helps some.
If not, then just leave as is. schedule looks pretty normal.

Has he started any solids? Waking every two hours sounds like a discomfort thing? Could it be reflux or anything? Have you also considered teething? Also common around this age already! Try medicating before BT

[Sunnyday01]

Hi, thanks for the respobse, I pushed hus a time today and got a longer nap but it really threw him out fir the rest if the day. So think I'm going to continue ruth our normal routine and APOP fir the cat nap uf I need to.

Also discovered some teeth near the top if gums tiday so think that could be it too!

[FPT23]

Ahhh yesssss teeth! We forget about them sometimes

How did the longer morning nap throw off his day? If I may ask

Hopefully it is teeth and these NWs pass xo

[Sunnyday01]

Hi, sorry for the delay in responding I've been ill for the past two days

The longer nap threw out his day as he had a shirt afternoon nap and wouldn't resettle and then was very tired at the catnap and was v unhappy when I woke him after 30 mins as I didn't want to affect his BT. Selfishly I want to keep a shortish morning nap and a longer lunchtime nap as it futs in with our lives better, if I let him have a longer morning nap we'll never get to do any groups etc which I feel is important. Interestingly though over the last few days he's naps have been a bit all over the place but it doesn't seem to have made a difference to his NWs at all.

I'm getting concerned about his NW, at the moment I can pretty much set the clock by them but I don't understand why as I've never fed him at these times, I only feed him the first time he wakes now as we've dropped the dreamfeed where we wake him and I still think he needs that early night feed. He's generally waking at 11.30 (feed), 1.00, 2.30 and then 5-5.30am. I'm at a loss at what to do, he's at a full 3 hours A time in the morning and I feel that's really pushing him at the minute.

I wonder if it's the paci - he has one to fall asleep and then spits it out soon after he is asleep, obviously when he wakes in the night we relug it but I'm wondering if it's time to go cold turkey......

Also is it a phase they go through?

Interested in your thoughts/experiences as at the moment his sleep is worse than when he was a newborn!