Hi!, my ds is 7 months old. He has being in an EASY routine since he was born. This has work great for us. I guess he is an angel/textbook baby, because he adapts very easy to everything. He has not waked up at night since he was 3-4 months. And when he did, he could easily fall asleep on his own. But recently, the last 3-4 days, he has starting to wake up during the night, either at 8.30pm, 11 pm or later. I dont know if it is because he is teethiing or because he is hungry. His routine is as follows:
7 am Feed. Bottle (between 5-6 oz)
7.15-8.30am Activity time. The activity time varies each time, either reading books, singing, playing on his own on the floor or on the chair. It all depends on his "mood". If he gets bored, I changed the activity and position, etc.
8.30 am Fruit. Around 50 gms
8.50 am Sleep
11 am Feed. Bottle (5-6 oz)
11.15-12.30 Activity time (as above)
12.30 Food: vegetables, fish, chicken or soup. Around 50 gms
12.50 Sleep. Here it varies, can sleep only one hour or two.
If we wakes up at 14, then is activity time and eat at 15. If he wakes up at 15, then
15.00 Feed. Bottle (5-6 oz)
15.15-16.30 Activity time
17.00 Cat-nap. 45 minutes. Sometimes, however, he doesn't want to sleep at all
18.00 Bath, activity time
19.00 Feed, bottle. (5-6 oz. Sometimes less)
19.30 Bed time
And usually he sleeps with no problem instantly. Some times he talks and takes him some time before falling asleep, but we know he will eventually fall asleep with no problem. And he used to wake up until next day at 7 am. If he waked up before, usually was just fussing or manta cry, so he fell asleep on his own after a few minutes. When he woke up some times at 6.30 am, he would talk to himself, and wait until we came for him around 7 am. And when we did, he would give us a HUGE smile. And we stopped using the pacifier since he was 5 months old. He preferred sucking his tummy instead.
So, as you can see, he was just in a great routine! But suddenly, this last 3-4 days, he has being waking up 2-3 times at night. Before yesterday, we wake up very often, crying. It took a while before he managed to fall asleep. Yesterday, he woke up at 11.30pm, and took me ONE hour before I decided to give him the bottle (he did not eat very well that day. AT 7pm he did not want his bottle, so he ate at 8.30 4 oz and back to bed (my mother in law took care of him that short evening at our house). So after trying to make him asleep for one hour, I thought he could be hungry. He ate 4 oz and fell asleep right away. He woke up again at 2.30 am, crying, but it took me just a few minutes before he fell asleep again, and then until 7 am, as usual.
During the day he behaves beautiful, smiles and plays the whole time. However, sometimes he doesn’t want to eat al the 6-7 oz at 7 pm, or he doesn’t drink at all his dream feed (we are working in cutting the dream feed, as suggested by T.H.)
I don’t know if it is because he is hungry, or because he is teething, or any milestone, or overtired? I don’t want to do any accidental parenting. We worked very hard in not doing anything like that before, so I don’t want to start now!
Please help! Is this suddenly night waking a normal behavior???