growth spurt? hungry?

[maricar]

my ds is almost 6 1/2 months... i just started sleep training a few days ago.  he used to be nursed to sleep and would wake often during the night either to be comforted or to feed.  i'm happy b/c there has been progress.  he is now able to put himself to sleep in his crib (something which was impossible before) although a lot of the times it does take a lot of pat/sh's & pu/pd's.  my current issue is:  ds has been having night wakings where he won't settle with pat/sh/pu/pd.  so then i wonder if he's hungry.  unfortunately (& i feel so  bad b/c of this) i can't tell whether it's a hungry cry... and i don't want to ignore it if he's hungry so i just end up feeding him.  how do i know if he really is hungry or if he just needs to soothe (like he used to before)?

also how do i know if he is going through a growth spurt?  to try & get rid of the night wakings, i've been trying to feed him more in the day.  could he be getting used to being fed so often in the day and expect it at night too?  or does he really need it b/c of a growth spurt?

i'm not sure if anyone can answer my questions but i just feel so helpless right now.  tonight he went to bed at 7pm very easily but woke up at 9:30.  he wouldn't stop crying/screaming so i thought he might be hungry so i fed him.  we waited 10 minutes after feeding him and dh tried to put him to bed again.  he has now been crying/screaming non-stop for almost half an hour.  what do we do?

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

It's rough, I know! I too can't always tell a hungry cry from something else. You've done really great with the sucess so far!    I personally tend to err on the side of caution for night feeds - if it's been a good amount of tiime ( like 5 hrs if he can usually go 4 hrs during the day) then I'll offer. If he's waking at odd times and/or really chows down during night feeds when he's already eating well in the daytime, then I'd suspect hunger.  Some moms offer a paci or water to rule out hunger too.  But many bf babies need an overnight feed for up to a year (or so!). Is he waking many times a night and does dh have more luck resettling him?

[GraceKellysmom]

Why did you wait 10 min before putting him back to bed?

It really sounds like something else is going on here - is he cutting a tooth or coming down with a cold?

[maricar]

thanks for the responses.  to answer the questions from the last two posts...

his night wakings have been inconsistent since we started sleep training at the beginning of this week:

sunday - df @ 11:30, wake to feed @ 3:30
monday - df @ 11:20, woke up @ 1:30 tried to pat/sh/pu/pd & ended up feeding @ 2:00
tuesday - df @ 10:15, woke up @ 12:30 & ended up feeding @ 1:00, woke up @ 2:30 but settled back down, then woke up @ 4:30 & ended up feeding @ 5:00
wednesday - no chance to df since he woke up @ 9:30 & fed @9:45, then wake to feed @ 5:15

i can understand if the span between last feed & waking is about 4 hours but when it's less than that i'm not sure what to do.  btw, his bedtime is between 7 & 8.

dh & i probably have about the same amount of luck resettling him at night.

i waited 10 minutes b/c that's what i thought i was supposed to do to make sure that feeding & sleeping were separate for ds.  am i right?  or is that just during the day?  can i just put him right back into the crib after feeding him during a night waking?  also what if he falls asleep feeding during a night waking?

and so far... no teeth & no cold so i'm not too sure what was going on last night.

thanks for taking the time to help me