help required for night time

[gaylee]

my son is almost 7 months old and has never slept for anymore than 6 or 7 hours at a time.  he goes to bed at 7.30ish and lately he has been waking up at about 10.30ish just for a cuddle or his blanky.  but he then tends to waken up about 1am and at this time i give him a breastfeed as he is reluctant to go back to sleep without it.  we moved him into his own room a few weeks ago and initially he only got up once during the night which was great - he would have a quick feed and go straight back to sleep.  but now he has started waking up for 2 or 3 hours at a time round about 2 or 3am   we tried the pu/pd technique for a few nights when he first moved into his own room and it worked fine.  but now the problem seems to be that he is crying but he is still asleep and it doesnt seem to work, the only thing to do to calm him down is to waken him up and then he sometimes refuses to go back to sleep. sometimes he is playful other times he is just v tearful.  he seems to eat well through the day he has 3meals and about 4 or 5 breastfeeds and a formula feed before bed.  he is a big boy he weighs 22llbs!!  but he seems to still need 1 or 2 feeds during the night.  i have tried dreamfeeding him but it sometimes makes no difference.   he used to have a dummy but we got him off that a few weeks ago and he seemed to be fine with that but last nite my hubby and i decided we would give him it during the nite to see if it would help.  last nite he was only up for 1 hour!!   can anyone suggest anything that might help?   :-\thanks a lot

[Jo-FrasersMum]

Hi gaylee

Yes, some babies at your DS age do still need a feed or two during the night (my DS did too).  I found that it was easier just to give him the feed that he needed rather than fight him to get him back to sleep only to have him wake again shortly after (like the time it took me to get back into bed  )  I think you need to try and make sure that your DS is falling asleep independently at the beginning of the night (you don't say if he is using the dummy to fall asleep) and then if you can't resettle your son quickly it might be that he needs a night feed or two.  He is also getting used to being in his own room - that takes some getting used to and he probably needs just to check that you are still around and will still come to him if he needs you, until he gets used to being in a separate room.

HTH and good luck
Jo

[gaylee]

thanks for the advice.  i think we need to teach him to go to sleep on his own but it just seems so hard!!  last night he was up for almost 3 hours again and i decided to take him into bed at nearly 6am, it was the only way i was going to get a bit more sleep.  i had already fed him twice but it seems to make no difference.  he has just went down for a nap after struggling with me to stay awake but he will probably only stay asleep for 30mins!!  still i can live in hope!!  thanks again