My 7 month old little boy has been waking in the night for the last 2 months....

[Robs]

My 7 month old little boy has been waking at night for the last 1.5 months and it doesnt seem to be improving.  Initially he has a tummy bug, which i thought was the problem.  then we were away at the coast for 3 weeks and the weather was extremely hot and humid, so i thought that that was what was worrying him.  Now we have been back in the city for 2 weeks and he is still waking.  Generally he starts to wake around 12.30am - sometimes 2.30am if we are lucky, and once he is awake, he seldom settles for another 2 hours - we give him a pacifier, but seems as though as soon as it falls out of his mouth he is awake again.  The only other thing that changed about the same time as his sleeping patterns is his feeding.  He was on a 3 hourly feed schedule up until he was about 5 months old and then i started him on solids and changed him to a 4 hourly feeding schedule. 
Now i am starting to wonder whether he is waking at night and refusing to settle because he is hungry....

His routine is as follows:

First feed - btwn 5.30 & 6am (sometimes 7am if he has woken and only gone back to sleep at around 5.30-ish...)
He will generally go to sleep about 2.5hrs after that - sometimes for 1.5 hrs (unusual), mostly 45 mins... - so lets say on average he goes to sleep around 8.30-ish till 9.15am
His next feed will be around 9.30-10am - solids first and then bottle
He will only sleep again roughly around 11.30 / 12am depending on how long it takes to get him to sleep and again, not for more than 45 mins (usually!) so lets say he sleeps till 12.45 - 1pm.
His next feed will be around 1.30-2pm - solids first and then bottle, but he isnt mad about this meal at the moment - trying to figure out what proteins he will eat with his veggies....
He will hopefully go to sleep again 2.5 hrs after last sleep, so roughly 3pm, and maybe only for 30 mins...  sometimes this afternoon nap is later, just depends on how the rest of the day has been..
He then has his cereal & yoghurt at around 5pm and bath at 5.30ish, and his bottle at around 6pm.
He will generally go to sleep fairly happily on his own with a pacifier and soft toy dog by about 7pm (unless he has had a late afternoon nap)

Hope this information on his routine helps!!!


Does anyone have any advice for me?
Thanks a mil!
Robs

[teezee]

could you pls post routine?..it sounds as if lo is getting too much day sleep.

[Robs]

His routine is as follows:

First feed - btwn 5.30 & 6am (sometimes 7am if he has woken and only gone back to sleep at around 5.30-ish...)
He will generally go to sleep about 2.5hrs after that - sometimes for 1.5 hrs (unusual), mostly 45 mins... - so lets say on average he goes to sleep around 8.30-ish till 9.15am
His next feed will be around 9.30-10am - solids first and then bottle
He will only sleep again roughly around 11.30 / 12am depending on how long it takes to get him to sleep and again, not for more than 45 mins (usually!) so lets say he sleeps till 12.45 - 1pm.
His next feed will be around 1.30-2pm - solids first and then bottle, but he isnt mad about this meal at the moment - trying to figure out what proteins he will eat with his veggies....
He will hopefully go to sleep again 2.5 hrs after last sleep, so roughly 3pm, and maybe only for 30 mins...  sometimes this afternoon nap is later, just depends on how the rest of the day has been..
He then has his cereal & yoghurt at around 5pm and bath at 5.30ish, and his bottle at around 6pm.
He will generally go to sleep fairly happily on his own with a pacifier and soft toy dog by about 7pm (unless he has had a late afternoon nap)

Hope this information on his routine helps!!!

[teezee]

ok i am a little confused looking at that routine - maybe you could post it something like this:

eat 6am
activity ?
sleep ?
eat ?....

give me a hypothetical day..for instance today what happened?? from seeing the inconsistancies day to day  i think that your lo needs a little more structure..for example - start your day at a designated time, if lo wakes a half hr before or after that time go with it but don't feed any earlier or later and that way your day will be pretty much consistant with the next kwim??

[Robs]

apologies for the delay in response - just moved home, so things have been hectic!!!

Routine seems to vary really - which could be the problem....  Not too sure what to do about it.  Basically, his routine will always depend on what time he wakes up and when his first nap of the day is...  could this be the problem?  If so, how do i fix it?

Tx so much for the help!!!!

[teezee]

i'd say go with the flow and try to extend A time when you can to get it to a 'normal' time that coincides with your routine - if it varies somewhat if lo wakes early than so be it - hopefully doing this it will start to fall into place. do you wake lo up in the morning at a designated time or let lo sleep? instead of letting lo sleep you may want to wake at a specific time so you can start the day at the same time. have you tried getting lo back to sleep somehow? shhhing, patting, wake to sleep?? do you have blackout blinds? could it be the light coming in??

[Robs]

thanks for the feedback - all i can say is that things have not really improved too much...

basically LO wakes up around 5am each morning, and does not want to go back to sleep - try and give a dummy but more often than not, LO doesnt go back to sleep.  Do you think SH PAT would work - or should i resign myself to the fact that i have an early riser....

Also, in the evenings when LO goes down around 7pm, it is not unusual for him to wake about 45 mins later crying until either I 0r Dad get there to pick up or give dummy, sometimes he does this at least 5 / 6 times before 11pm when we go to bed - how do i fix this?  I think he can self settle, cause he does it sometimes at night, and has put himself to sleep before on his own in his cot by talking to his animals...

HELP - i am so confused - i thought I had an EASY baby, but something has changed in the last 2 months and I am running out of ideas of what to do...  there seem to be so many variables and i dont know where to start!

[teezee]

it really sounds as if lo is overtired and/or overstimulated before bed. maybe put lo to bed a bit earlier and keep A time really 'boring' and see if that helps. when my lo had the same waking habits after first being put down it had a lot to do with those two factors and improved tremendously when i addressed them appropriately. hth! good luck and let me know how things are going!

[teezee]

also wanted to add that at this age usually either the shhing or the patting will work as both are usually overstimulating causing lo to wake more. or even just put your hand on lo's back/tummy so that he knows you are there.

[Robs]

thanks teezee, well i took your advice yesterday and kept A time really boring and so we didnt have the usual wake-ups 45 mins after going to bed which was great - tx!  LO is still waking early though - 5.15am this morning, plus i think we had a wake up once before that - but dad got up to replace dummy, which seemed to work...  is there anything specific that could be causing the early wake up?
LO's naps are really not that long in the day - mainly 45 mins 3 x a day, but saying that he is sleeping at the moment and has been for over an hour now....  Thats the thing, it seems to change every now and then, and im not sure why!

Also, another question, what is the latest that LO should be napping in the afternoon, plus how long should his awake times be during the day - he is now 10 days short of 8 months...

Tx for the advice!

[teezee]

at about 8 months my lo was able to nap no more than about 2.5 hrs during the day but no less than 1.75 hrs. having this balance really was ok, any more or any less def caused some wakings/early mornings. you may need to somehow get that pm nap to be a little longer - have you tried wake to sleep? could you repost a routine as it must have changed a little over the last little bit? when my lo was smaller her naps were sometimes erratic but when she started sleeping better at night, and i got her on a good routine with good A times it pretty much evened itself out.