8 month old and still not sleeping thru night-HELP!!!!!!

[Graeme's Mom]

Hi there,

My DS is 8 months old and still not sleeping thru the night.  I have had him on a 4 hour easy for about 2 months now.  He sleeps great for his naps-at least 1.5 to 2 hours each.  I don't have to do any pu/pd at naps and at bedtime he goes down all by hisself.  He does us a pacifier but doesn't depend on it that much.  I am confused as to whether or not he is getting enough to eat during the day.  I give him (4) 6 oz. bottles a day but most of the time he only will eat 5 oz. each; sometimes 4 oz. at at least one bottle.  He eats 4 tbls. of cereal, (3) 4 oz. jars of babies food and (1-2) 2.5 oz. jars.  He weights about 19 lbs.  I can offer him more oz. of formula but he just won't take it.   I have been giving him a dreamfeed at night but have been trying not to do this because I think that he is becoming dependant on it.  At first he was waking at regular times so I used pu/pd and it worked for a while.  He still did not sleep thru the night but he wasn't asking for food either.  I could get him to sleep the rest of the night after he woke that first couple of times.  Now, he is waking almost every hour.  I just don't know what to do.  Here is his schedule.

6 a.m-7 a.m:  wake and bottle (6-7 oz.)
7a.m.-8:30 a.m.:  activity
8:30 a.m.:  breakfast (4lbs. cereal 4oz. jar fruit)
9:00 a.m.: nap (1.5-2 hrs.)
11:00 a.m.:  bottle (5-6 oz.)
11:00-12:30 p.m.:  activity
12:30 p.m.:  lunch (2.5 oz. jar veggie, 4 oz. jar fruit)
1:00 p.m.:  nap (1.5-2 hrs.)
3:00 p.m.:  bottle (5-6 oz.)
5:30 p.m.: dinner (2.5 oz. jar & 4 oz. jars)

Please help me, I need much needed sleep.  Please tell me what I need to do or what I am doing wrong.

[Graeme's Mom]

I forgot to say when he goes to bed. At 6:30 he has a bath then pj's book ant bottle of 5-6 oz.  He is in bed between 7-7:30 p.m.  Sorry about that.

[teezee]

the df at this age may be disrupting sleep. tracy suggests giving the df up at about 7 months for this reason. you could wean it by making the time earlier by 15 min every few days until it coincides with the last feed before bed, adding more water than formula, or by slowly reducing oz's...you could go the cold turkey route also, but this may be hard on lo.

also, for 8 months your lo seems to be getting an awful lot of sleep - although all lo's are different - at 8 months my lo didn't go longer than 2.5-2.75 hrs or so of naps per day without having wakings.

i would extend A times slightly throughout the day, and cut back on the morning nap and hopefully that will solve the problems you are having in addition to dropping the df. good luck! keep us posted!!