w2s bombed!

[BabyBsMommy]

Help!  I'm on my own for the week with my DH away on a trip so maybe I am panicking unnecessarily but here is the scoop - I had finally gotten my lo to take the df about 1 1/2 weeks ago after a long time (since he started EASY at 7 weeks til now at 16 weeks) but he was still waking betwen 1-2am.  We were able to pat him to sleep quite quickly then tried w2s and it worked only once.  Because I didn't have enough milk pumped one day I didn't df one night and his sleep pattern was actually better, slept through the 1-2 am wake up until his usualy feed between 3 and 4.  Anyways, that worked for a few days during which time I stopped the df to see what would happen.  Then, two nights ago, he woke again between 1-2 and DH was able to settle him in 20 min.  So last night being on my own, I decided to try w2s again since I didn't want to have to get up for that waking if I could help it.  When I went in to do it, he was in such a deep sleep I almost didn't because I had a gut feeling he was going to sleep through on my own but then did it anyways thinking that I have to stick this through!  It took my  5 min to get a stirriing from him.  2o miin later he was up and WIDE awake and smiling!  I tried for a half hour to get him back down but he was raring to go and have fun!  I ended up caving in and feeding him (he did take a good feed) and he went right back to sleep within minutes of me putting him down. 
So, should I try w2s again?  If he was going to sleep through, will I have kick-started his wake-ups again with this failed w2s attempt?  I'm so nervous that tonight is going to be wacky again!  I am exhausted after getting up at 12:20, 12:45, 4:00, and then he was up at 6:00 with tummy gas! (I know many people have it a lot worse than this but because this is a new problem as he usually only has that short wake and the one feed I'm worried!)
 

[Kimberly®]

your LO is at the age where a night feed is still normal. Some even have 2. If your finding that he wont settle feed him, more then likly he is hungry. Try feeding him for a couple nights and gage where he is at, if he dosn't take good feeds try pat/shush or w2s again. I agree it could be a growth psurt, thats another reason to feed him at night, however make sure you encourage him to take more at each feed during the day. Given a few days the growth spurt will pass and you can resume w2s or pat/shush. Remember that he is still quiet young though and he may in fact be waking once to feed.

[BabyBsMommy]

Thanks, Karita and Stacy.
Brenden already wakes for one feed between 3-4.  When I fed him at 1 last night, he woke up at 4:45 for another feed - wasn't quite as hungry then as usual but took a decent one.  His usual wake time is 7am but he woke shortly after 6 with bad gas, likely because of extra feeds through the night!  If I go back to feeding him 2 times for now (and he needs it) - should I still continue to feed him right at 7am when he wakes?  Right now we are on 4 hour EASY except I am going to start giving him his last feed at 3.5 hours because he can't seem to quite make it that long and then he can get into bed a little earlier - he's been taking such a long feed at 7pm that he is missing his 7:30 bedtime for the past few days!

[Kimberly®]

Yes keep feeding him at 7am. He may not take much for the time being, but given time the growth spurt will end and you can once again eliminate a night feed, start with the later one first so he eats more at 7, then move onto the earlier one

[BabyBsMommy]

Thanks again!  I actually was trying to eliminate the first night waking so I'm glad you said to do the second one first - that makes more sense, I don't know why I thought it should be the other way around!  Hopefully after the growth spurt, he'll go back to eating between 3-4 which was perfect because it carried him through to his wake up just right!  It was nice to see him move to one night feed a week or so ago because he had one big one instead of two 7 or 8 minute "nibbles."  I will definitely feed him at the first waking tonight and see what happens for the second....I think I'm just a little uptight being on my own for the first time for four days!

[BabyBsMommy]

Just an update:
Well, the two feeds continued for the three more nights that my DH was out of town.  Then, last night on his first night back, he went back to only having one.  He went to sleep at 7pm (about 45 min early as his naps were way out of whack yesterday so the poor thing was exhausted - fell asleep at the boob for the first time in months and nothing I could do would wake him so I just plunked him in bed) - he stirred 45 min in and needed a few minutes of patting.  Then he woke up at 11:15 and there was no way I was going to feed him as even with the spurt he didn't eat until at least 1 so I patted him back to sleep for about 10 min.  He woke for a feed at 2:30, needed a pat back to sleep at 5:00 and woke for a feed at 6:30 (30 min to an hour before his usual wake time) - he was falling asleep after this one so I put him back in the crib but he woke up 5 min later so I kept him up - guess it was the earlier bedtime!
Now, we'll just have to wait a few nights and see if any of those weird wakings continue to see if we need to use w2s for any of them!