Hi All!
My 7 mo old baby has always been a great napper and goes down for bedtime independently- however I'm still struggling with some lingering night wakings. Wondering if anyone has had experience with this?
I'll start with some basic info- healthy baby, EBF, is doing well with purees twice a day, takes bottles of breastmilk fine, goes to sleep independently, uses a paci but not reliant on it. Here's a sample of our schedule.
630/7 WU
7: E (breastmilk)
8: E (purees)
9:30-11: S
11: E (breastmilk)
2-330/4: S (*sometimes I breastfeed him 2-4 mins before his nap to top him off)
4:30: eat (breastmilk)
5:30: E (purees)
7:00: bathtime/bedtime/E (bottle usually 5oz)
7:30: S
A couple notes: the past week, he's been SUPER distracted during daytime feeds- I can hardly get him to stay latched for more than a few minutes. That being said, I sometimes feed him a little before that second nap. I know that feeding him in a quiet dimly lit place ensures better feeding but during the day, with a busy toddler and running around with life, that isn't always possible!
I also think he might eat more with bottles- I'm wondering if I should just try pumping bottles during the day to see if this makes a difference..
OK, so now the questions re: night wakings.
Before I started my attempt at PU/PD, his NW would look like this:
11ish / 2:30ish / up for the day 630/7
Now...
NW #1: He almost always wakes around 3 hrs after bedtime. Like clockwork. I used to feed him during this waking, because in general he's super easy when he wakes at night if you're feeding him- I go in, feed, and he goes right back down. However, I really feel strongly that he doesn't *need* this feed for nutrients' sake. So this week I decided this would be the first to go. When he woke, I went in with the intention of doing PU/PD. (this is the approach I used with my daughter). When I picked him up (and the SAME thing happened for my husband the following night), he *freaked* out, his crying got insane, and he was incosolable. I waited and waited for him to calm down so I could do the PD, but it took forever and he wasn't 100% super calm by the time I put him down, but he settled way better with just patting his back (he's a tummy sleeper). So I finally got him settled, he went back to sleep, and I left.
NW#2: I told myself that I would feed him after a 5 hr stretch, so the next time he woke, it was 1230, so I fed him and he went back down.
NW#3: Now he had been doing his second wu around 230, and was then stretching till WU for the day. But now, he's waking up between 4-5 and I'm not sure how to approach this one- I know he's in lighter sleep so I feel like *this would be the time to feed him (and I have been feeding him this time the past 2 days)...
So my questions are:
1) Should I continue to shush/pat (minus the shush) and just hope he eventually starts dropping this first WU?
2) Should I shush/pat through the second WU as well? And just feed around 4/5?
Last night was sort of brutal. Went to bed fine at 715. Up at 940 (DH shush/pat), 11, 1130, 12:30, 5 (I fed at 12:30 and 5 only).
Thanks for the help!
