Please help with strange night waking!

[BabyBsMommy]

   I am absolutely exhausted!  For about 3 weeks now, 4.5 month old Brenden has been waking after his 7-7:30pm bedtime somewhere between 11-12:30 each night.  If my DH is home, he can put him back to sleep with a hand on his tummy in 10-15 min.  DH is currently working midnights so I've been on my own doing it the past 2 nights.  He has a hard time falling asleep when it's me helping him during this wake up (smells my milk?) and the first night I was up with him 12:00-3:45 and last night 12:30-3:00.  At the beginning of the waking he isn't hungry at all.  The first night I gave in and tried to feed him at 1:30 but he just nibbled and bobbed off and on and didn't eat much, was wide awake still and didn't go back to sleep until I tried to feed him again at 3:30 which is closer to the time of his usual once a night feeding.  Last night, he wasn't hungry until 2:30, despite the fact that he had been stirring for over 2 hours.  He is never wide awake during this time (well, except for that night 2 nights ago I mentioned when we was more awake after I tried to feed him the first time), squeezes his eyes shut, kicks his legs and generally just seems to doze off and on every 5 min or so.  He puts himself to sleep for all of his naps, at bedtime and at almost any other wake up through the night.  I don't understand what is going on with this waking?  I have no idea why he can't put himself back to sleep here.  I've been wanting to do w2s but everytime he wakes 2 or 3 nights in a row at the same time, I'll be ready to do it and then that night he'll wake up early or be in too light of a sleep (can tell by all the little noises) when it's time to do it.  I still have two more nights of dealing with this on my own and then a few more a few days later and I can't get by on 2 hours of sleep!  I am thinking of just giving w2s a try tonight and going in at 10, 11 and then 12?!
Please, please, any insight or suggestions would be appreciated SO much!!!!
In case you need to see our routine, it is pretty much like this, bumped up or down if he wakes a little earlier or later....
7am wakes up and E
8:45-9am S
10:15-10:45 wakes, A
11:00 E
12:15-12:45 S
2:15-2:45 wakes, A
3:00 E
4:15-4:30 S
5:00ish wakes
5:45 - 1 tbsp of brown rice cereal (just started solids 2 weeks ago, I know, I know about doing it in the morning but he wasn't hungry for his 11am feed when I gave it to him at 8, then would cry at 2 for his next feed and again, want his last feed almost an hour early, too.  He was waking before starting the solids, anyways and giving it to him now has kept up his bm feeds - will still introduce new things in the morning but not planning on doing oatmeal until 5 months, nothing but these two cereals until 6 months)
6:15 - bath
6:45 E - takes a full feed here with the cereal in his tummy, unlike when I gave it to him in the morning.
7:00-7:30 to bed, always asleep by 7:30

[KellyC]

Hi there

I wonder if the solids might be giving him a tummy ache.  Does he seem to be in pain?  I've just had a quick look at a weaning guide I have and it suggests 1 tsp of baby rice after the 11am feed to begin with - could you try this for a few days so you can watch to see how it affects him during the day?  If all ok you could move it back up to 6pm.

In the meantime I would do a dreamfeed at around 10pm or 11pm - that way you're disrupting his sleep cycle (which is the purpose of w2s) but you're also giving him some extra calories which will help you to better assess whether he's hungry at the next wake up or whether it's something else causing the wakings.  I would do the DF at the latest time you think you can catch him before he wakes himself - so probably 10pm?

Kelly x

[BabyBsMommy]

Thanks for the speedy reply, Kelly.
I sent a pm to you in more detail but basically my concern is that the df will continue to disrupt his sleep.  It took me a long time (1.5 months) to get him to take it and then once he did, he had more night wakings.  Only one was habitual and we eliminated it with w2s but then one day when I missed a df he actually slept much better, right through until 2:30am so I wonder if the df was more disruptive to his sleep cycle than anything!
As fo solids, I don't think they are bothering him...we started out with them at 8am, one hour after his first bf, and did this for 4 or 5 days until we could see he was comfortable.  The only thing we noticed, as I said, was that he wasn't very hungry at his 11am feed but then ravenous early for his 3pm and 6:45pm feeds.  Moving to the evening with the cereal eliminated this so I don't know if I should move the solids back again or not...
I'll update soon and let everyone know what I decided to do and what happened!

[KellyC]

Hope you got my PM and let me know how it goes!

Kelly x

[BabyBsMommy]

Thanks, I did, Kelly.  For anyone following this post, I decided to not do the desperation w2s last night.  I was too tired so I just decided to wait and see when he woke up and would feed him then.  I heard him at 12:30 off and on but didn't feed until 1:15 when it seemed he wasn't drifting off any more.  He took a huge 20 min feed.  Went right back to sleep and woke again at 5:15 when he took not as big of a feed but still at 10-15 min one.  Slept off and on until 8am but always went back to sleep on his own after a few minutes.  I think he was maybe catching up on the lost sleep from the two nights before?!  I think I may have found a connection I overlooked, though!  He went onto the true 4 hour EASY three weeks ago and that's when this strange night waking started.  After seeing how much he ate last night, I think he may still need 6 feeds but his body needs to be on 4 hour EASY based on his A and S time and the size of his tummy.  I make sure he eats as much as he can take through the day - when he starts to fuss when I'm bfing, I burp him and then offer it to see if he wants more - sometimes he doesn't but other times he does.  Maybe he'll just need two feeds at night until he grows a little more, I'm just going to watch for him to start taking less at one of the feeds.  In the meantime, I think I am going to try the df again and stick with it for a week - I've never done it for more than a week and after reading more posts yesterday on dfs, I read many people saying that night wakings may increase at first but stick out a full week so maybe we didn't give it long enough.  A df may also move his second feed back to 3-4ish so he will be hungrier for his first morning feed.  I'll post what happens in a few days.