hungry or night wakings?

[Ruggie]

Hi

DS is 4 month old and has been waking alot more at night for about 2 weeks now. With a toddler as well, I dont think I can last much more.

Routine is as per 3.5 hour EASY (starting to lean towards 4 hr EASY) schedule starting at 7 . Naps are about 1.5-2 hours. A time consists of either looking at mobiles, playing on mat, tummy time, sitting on rocker, watching older brother and/or talking to mommy.

During the day I BF, 1 1/2 breast each feed. He gets a bottle at bed time and DF each time taking around 90-130ml (around 4oz).

On a good night he would wake twice at 3-4 ish and 5:30ish. On a bad night he would wake at almost every 1.5 hour starting at 1. Whe he wakes, I can hear him fusses about. We only go in after he starts crying, which is everytime he wakes. As he turned 4 mo last week we started doing PU/PD and then pat him as he fusses away after we PD until he is calm and let him settle himself. Some wakings takes 5-10 min to resettle, other takes about 1 hour.
I only feed him after 3:30 wakings to eliminate hunger as the cause.

There is no props, he is an independant sleeper for naps and night sleep. After settling routine, I put him in his cot awake. For naps, he fusses abit and then sleeps (he wakes at 45 min which I need to help him transit with some patting. Started using W2S and that works so far). For nights, he would roll his head from side to side and eventually falls asleep.

Getting really tired, please help.

[Fenella]

i know ds #1 started night waking again just before we weaned him which i think is quite common though not as often as you indicate sorry i can't be more help

[Colin Macs Mom]

I think that you should get him on a 4 hour easy now. Other than that it sounds to me like you're doing a great job teaching him to sleep independently and to self-soothe! 

[MGardner]

Hi Ruggie, I think we might have the same baby. Every night is different, good nights sound like your good ones. Bad oners sound like yours. It is about 50/50. I am so tired too and am on my last leg with getting up night after night. Days are good here too, he's finally an independent sleeper like yours. I'm really looking for some advice. I don't know if he is waking out of hunger or there is something I am missing. If you try anything that seems to work, let me know and I will do the same.

[Ruggie]

Hi MGardner


We had 2 good noghts where he slept til 6:15 and 6:45. and then it went haywire again. Last night we were up every 1.5 hours again, must be relarps. Still battling with 45 min naps too. I am not doing anything special, just sticking to EASY as best I could, tho I noticed I have to clusterfeed from too. 2pm feed 4-4:30 feed then feed again at bed at around 6:30. Those days seem to generate better (ish) nights.

[knackered]

Hey guys - up until 5 nights ago my 7 month DS woke at least once, more usually twice, looking for food. I assumed that these were hunger wakings but I couldn't make him eat more during the day. I always did the DF as late as possible (about 11pm), thinking that would make the liklihood of just one waking greater. After reading something on this site, I decided to move his DF half an hour earlier and that night he slept straight until 6 am!!! I've done the DF at 10.30 every night since and the earliest he's woken has been 5.30! This morning it was 6.30! Isn't that amazing??!! I don't know whether the same would happen to your LOs but it's worth a try? I think the 11pm feed broke into a sleep cycle and this then disturbed him for the rest of the night. Though it could of course be conincidence!

Let me know if this has any effect on your babes.

Anna x