What are we doing wrong?

[Mom2Ben]

Can you please help!??!! 

Our son is 5 months and a great baby all day.   He is on a 3.5hr easy routine right now  - we are trying to push him to 4, but that has been hard.   He's doing one cycle at 4 hours.   He is napping great, puts himself to sleep, no props, etc. etc.

But the nights are making me crazy!   He is still waking up once or twice even to eat.   But they are different times every night.   One night he'll sleep until 4am, one night he wakes at 1am, then its at 2am, then last night it was 12 and 4!   What is the deal?   How do I make this stop?

He DOWNs the bottle.   We usually try to see if we can comfort him first, but it becomes obvious that he is really hungry.   I have tried to add more ounces to his bottle, but he doesn't take anymore than 6oz usually.   We tried starting cereal, but that hasn't helped either.

I need some sleep people!! 

Any advice?

[Johno & Aurelias Mum]

Do you do cluster feeding or a dreamfeed?

[Mom2Ben]

We cluster feed, but do not DF.   We tried to DF, and it seemed to work against us.   He would wake up more!

[ruthiejess]

hi

You say you have started him on cereal - you could increase the amount slightly when you give it him, or you could try to introduce him to some fruit or vegetables.  Have you tried to go onto the next stage of formula milk? Sometimes thes are more satisfying for hungrier babies. 

He also sounds like he may still be unable to differentiate between night and day if he still waking a couple of times in the night.  In my experience with my own 3 kids, they have naturally dropped the night time feeds once they have got used to the routine of bath, milk, cuddle then bed - all done very quietly and without too many interruptions.  If they have woken in the night my hubby or me have gone in to see them, placed them back down to sleep avoiding any eye contact or talking to the baby.  They have then usually gone off to sleep.  My bench mark for how long to leave them to settle themselves has been about 5 -10 mins, or if we have had to go in the room more than 2/3 times in about 30 mins.  Obviously this goes on your own judgement and how fractious the baby gets. 

I have gone on a little, but I hope this is of some help.  Good luck! :wink:

[Johno & Aurelias Mum]

It sounds like you do have a hungry baby so hungry baby formula would be a good one to try.  I think if you increase the routine to every four hours then you may be able to get 8oz bottles and that will fill him better.  Also, it will get him used to longer stretches without food.

If he's waking twice a night, I think I would accept for the moment that you are going to have a night waking.  I think it would be worth doing a dreamfeed - it may have been your timing was out slightly before and then you do another at 2am for a week or so.  I know this may seem a backward step but you are in control.  What sort of timings do you have for the evening and cluster feeds.

Post back and I could make some suggestions.

I am going to be travelling all day tomorrow but I will check in again as soon as I can.

[Mom2Ben]

Thanks ladies for your replies.    Well I think it definitely has been a growth spurt.  The  next night after I posted this he ate THREE times, finishing the bottle off each time.  Then yesterday, for the first time he ate all the rice cereal I made for him (usually he spits it all out) and then cried when there wasn't anymore, so I fed him a full bottle even after that. 

So I will ride it out and hope that it passes soon...

Thanks!