7 month old... up all night! help!!!

[chickadeebesty]

hi!
     i started my 7 month old ds on a four hour EASY (beginning at 7 am) over 4 weeks ago.  he, being spirited, resisted naps at first, but started settling pretty easily over the past two weeks.  i am in the process of extending his awake time to 2hrs. 15 min. at a time to help extend his naps (they've recently gone from 1.5 hrs. to 1 hr.).
     the main trouble now is constant night waking. for instance:  he went down around 8pm last evening and woke at 1:30 for a feed.  (the pediatrician told me to stop the dreamfeed when we went this week.)  then he woke up crying and unable to settle at 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, and 6:30.  at each of those wakings, my dh went in and flipped him onto his tummy (his chosen sleeping position) and he went back to sleep right away.  without being "flipped" his cries tend to become frantic and he cannot resettle.
     he is eating solids (rice and fruit at 7am and 7pm, and veggies and fruit at 11am and 3pm), and is bf.  i have made sure to cluster feed in the evenings, and have upped his calorie intake during the day... but he still seems really hungry at night and will sometimes be inconsolable without a feed.
     what do i do?  i know our quality of life would be much better with more sleep!!! any advice is much appreciated..........

[medorn]

I don't have an answer for you I just wanted to let you know that we are in exactly the same boat.  That sounds like a duplicate of my DD schedule.  I'm loosing heart, I don't know what to do to get her on track. She won't eat anymore during the day, I don't think she is hungry.  Well hopefully somebody who has some good advice will read your message and know what to tell us.  When I'm up with my DD tonight, I'll hope your not.  Good luck!

[Erin M]

A few thoughts, though I don't know if any of them will help...

First off, did your pediatrician give you a reason for stopping the dreamfeed?  Was you LO sleeping through before you dropped it?  If so, I might try doing it again, or dropping it more slowly.  My DD will be 7 months on Thursday and we still dreamfeed right now, though I have been trying to begin dropping it by feeding less and earlier in the night. 

Can your DS turn over during the day?  If it's a problem with him getting back to his preferred sleeping position, lots of time "practicing" during the day might help.  That being said, we're having problems here just because DD has become so mobile the past few weeks. 

Is there something else bothering him, like teeth?  That's our other non-sleep culprit these days!

Also, knowing that every baby is different, are you sure you don' t need more awake time - Katie can generally do about 2.5 - 3 hours most days. 

Hope your sleep issues straighten themselves out soon!
-Erin

[chickadeebesty]

thanks for the replies!
things have been going better the past few nights.  i DID extend the awake time, and i think that may have been the key.  that spaces out the feed times, and he is quite capable of going longer, as you said. 
i completely dropped the dreamfeed and have my dh going into his room during the night.  the lo is still waking once or twice, but nothing like when i wrote the first post...  now he is screaming between 1 and 3 because he has pulled up in the crib and doesn't know how to get down!!!   we are practicing that a lot during the day, so hopefully he'll get the hang of it soon.
phew.  they go through so many changes at this age that it is challenging, and every night a different story!
i appreciate the help.