Not taking bedtime bottle

[Lizzie]

Hello, hope someone can offer some thoughts on where I maybe going wrong.
DS is very nearly 8months old. He is now on only 3 bottles a day of 8oz & may occasionally leave an oz. The last four nights I have had a real battle to feed him his bedtime bottle. This is our routine:

6:30/7: Wake
7: 8oz bottle
8: cereal with 2/3oz whole milk (won't take formula)
9ish: Nap, usually 1hr 15min

11:30/12: Lunch, 2 ice-cubes of protein & 1 fruit or yoghurt
1ish: Nap, usually 1hr 15mins again
3:15/30: 8oz bottle

Catnap: 4:30-5/5.15
Dinner: when wakes, same as lunch
6:45: Bath, Bottle :cry: , Bed

Lately he has been SOO tired at bedtime I can no longer put him down awake. As soon as he touches the mattress he rolls onto his tummy, then his side, then his back all the time crying so I pick him up put him back on his back & this carries on till he eventually collapses but then sleeps through from 7:30 - 6:30 most nights though he rolls constantly in his sleep.

He is cutting 2 more teeth - could it be all down to that?

I know alot of babies can do without a catnap at this age but he has a complete meltdown as he would be awake from 2:30-7:30?

Sorry for waffling, I hope this makes some kind of sense...

Thanks for listening!

Lizzie

[Johno & Aurelias Mum]

Hi Lizzie

I think the catnap is fine, if it works - don't change it.

The rolling thing - did he used to be swaddled or has something else changed here?  Rolling could be discomfort or it could be that he doesn't feel cozy or it could be that he's too tired at this stage.  My DS does this thing where he is obviously tired but he throws himself around whinging at me and I am desperate to say stop fidgeting or you'll never go to sleep!  Mind you DH does it as well  :lol:

How about you give him a sippy cup at teatime of milk, that might replace some of the bottle so you needn't worry so much about calories.

Has he just passed a big milestone in activity that is making him more tired at bedtime than he used to be?  If so, that can have all sorts of knock on effects.

Hope some of this helps!

[Deb_in_oz]

Hi Lizzie!

olivia is the same age and recently we went through this exact scenario where for 2-3 nights she refused bedtime bottle until an hour or so later  :roll: - she is on more bottles, but we are dropping Df starting last night with weaning plan.

anyway, we have a very similar day to you so thought i woudl share some thoughts:

is he eating a lot of dinner solids? i found with olivia it is such a delicate situation after 2nd nap between 3:30 bottle, 5 ish solids and then bedtime bottle - too much for her.  on those days when she eats well at 3:30 and dinner she is too full for bottle, so i started limiting dinner for a few days to maximum of 6 TBS of food = large jar and usually by 6-6:30 she was looking for her bedtime bottle already. we had the next couple of days where by 6pm she was crying for bottle, now it has settled down over the last few days and now she eats between 5-7 TBS at dinner (5pm)  and has her bottle around 7-7:15. the whole thing was about a week.

the rolling around bed: has he been rolling on the floor for a while or recently started rolling over ?  olivia only rolled one way until 7 mo and then when she finally figured out how to go from back to tummy this led to having to learn to sleep in different positions and we still have hiccups some nap times with settling due to moving around the cot.  i just revert to shh/pat for those times and keep her in one spot so she is not driving herself crazy rolling around for ages and this helps her settle to sleep withing minutes. (other times she is fine doing this for a little while and then settles herself - i go in if i can tell she is getting wound UP instead of winding DOWN with the movement)

definitely agree that developmental changes can affect that and also make him exhausted by bedtime - olivia is desperate to crawl (only goes backward or in circles) and is practicing A LOT so i think this is physically exhausting her - despite staying in same routine - lately she is very cranky after her dinner solids until bedtime - just getting agitated and hyper and then overtired by bedtime - i am putting this down to the crawling attempts - is he doing anything new or trying??

BTW our routines are almost identical (we only do catnap if 2nd nap is 45 min or wakes before 3pm) so i think that is all fine. if you try  pushing out his 2nd nap til 1:30 or so maybe he will extend his nap a bit and cut out catnap - olivia is starting to do this but not all the tim (she used to only have 1hr 30 second nap - after a 45 min 1st nap - and now 2nd nap is anywhere from 1hr 30 - 2hr 45 depending on her  :roll: )

[Lizzie]

Thanks so much for replies!!

About 1.5 months ago I started leaving one arm out of his swaddle at night but I still swaddle both arms for naps, still manages to roll about all the time though. Thought about leaving an arm out at nap time but i've just got him sleeping past 45 mins!!

Sippy cup sounds ideal but he hasn't quite mastered this yet. Still thinks its a toy!!

Deb: He has 2 ice cubes of meat &veg (2/3oz) & yoghurt or fruit (2oz) for dinner which is what he was having before. But I think its alot of food to take in small space of time..

He's been rolling both ways since 5 months &like Olivia finds it difficult to settle into a comfy position!

Will definately try extending A time before his 2nd nap. 2hrs45 sounds ideal!!!!

Thanks for all your help, hopefully it's one of those off weeks!!