why oh why won't he sleep!!!! sorry long post

[lochiesmum]

Hi all, I have posted here before about the very same thing, my 5.5 month DS just will not sleep for more than a few hours at a time during the night (or day for that matter). He is on 4 hour easy and has been on easy since 4 weeks old, he has started solids but at this stage thay are really just taste only, not replacing any milk, in fact if he has not had all of his bottle I will not give ths solids at all. He has one one occasion last week, actually only got me up twice in the night, I loved that night and wish for many more like it!!
His normal day should (and mostly does) look like this
0600 to 0630 Up for the day
0700 Feed 180 to 250 mls (about 6 to 8oz, he can finish this amount but just lately has not even been getting close, more like 5 to 6 oz)
0830 to 0900, depending on when he woke up, he will go down for a nap here, he will wake at 40 mins on the dot but can usually be resettled to go back to sleep for another 40
1100 - Feed, bottle first and if he finished it, some pureed veg (2 icecube size only)
1230 to 1300 Nap time, same as for the morning will always wake after 40 mins but will usually go back to sleep
1500 Feed - again is usually between 180 to 250 mls (6 to 8 oz)
1630 to 1700 - getting tired and cranky by now and needs another nap, have to be carefull here as he can easily slip into "nighttime sleep" and miss his last activity time, why is this a problem, if I let him sleep here, he will be wide awake and ready to start his day at 4am!!
[/b]1730 Small feed of 2 teaspoons of baby rice and one cube of fruit (apple or pear) with Losec (mild reflux)
1830 bathtime
1900 last feed for the day and bed
2300 dream feed, he will sometimes wake for this, not sure why
0200 to 0300 will wake for a very small (3 oz) feed, I have tried not giving this but he just will not settle
0500 he will wake and if I am really lucky, he will put himself back to sleep (really this has happened at least 3 times!!!)
Just lately (seems like forever) he is waking anything up to 10 times a night, sometimes every 40 mins, he is not hungry, and I know that he does not need that early morning feed as he will just drink less at 7am but have not the strength at the moment to take on that battle. When he wakes he is not crying but soon will if I leave him to himself. We are battling with the swaddle and have been for some time, he will fall asleep at 7pm with no dummy and no swaddle, but the only way to get him back to sleep at night is to swaddle him up tight and give him his dummy, something that he really objects to (the swaddle) he can sleep without the dummy and will always spit it out to sleep but it helps to remind him that he should be sleeping.
He is also waking really early, today we were up at 5am and this has sent his whole day off, I left work early just so I could get him home from childcare and hopefully get him a good nap before his decides it is nighttime at 5pm ( he would then be up at 3am, you could set a clock by him!!!)
This is my second week back at work, and this was his second day in childcare, neither of these things seem to have changed the situation, except that I am not coping with the lack of sleep as well as I did when I was home all day. For the other days when I am at work he is looked after by grandmothers, I know that my mother supports my schedule and will follow it completely but I am not sure about my mother in law, she has very strong ideas and I am scared she is telling me one thing and doing another.
Please, can someone take a look at this and give me some ideas, not sure where I am going wrong and getting really run down
Many thanks

[Layla]

Hi there. I am sorry to hear that you're having a hard time with night sleep. I remember when my lo was 6 months (or so), we fell into a habit of going to sleep around 5ish and her wake up was also at 5am. What had happened is that I was told to cut the catnap at 6 months and as a result she was very tired by late evening and it forced me to offer her a VERY early bedtime. She had nightwakings (more than the 2 times she would wake up before for feedings) so I brought back the catnap but started offerting it at an earlier time so that it would not let her go into the "night mode". My 1st thought was that maybe give the catnap at about 4ish, he should wake up before 5pm and that way he can go to bed at around 7ish with wake up b/n 6-7am. But if he has always woken up frequently at night maybe there is something else behind it. If your MIL is anything like mine, she would deffinately say one thing and do another  so maybe when he is in her care, if she does not follow the sleep/nap times, that could mess things up as well.

Sorry if not much help 
Layla

[Petra-Kate]

If your MIL is not following the schedule that could really mess things up.  (In my case my MIL would follow the schedule but my mom probably wouldn't.) The only other thing I see that might make a difference is that you are insisting on your son having the formula before solids.  You might want to go ahead and up the solids and let him have them whether or not he finishes the formula.  I thought my son didn't want more solids because he wasn't finishing the formula. After going to the pediatrician for a check up and finding out he didn't gain as much weight as expected, I offered more solids and the little guy doubled his intake of solids!  As an unexpected bonus he began sleeping through the night! (BTW DS has reflux too.)  I do not know if that will help but I hope it does. 

[Peek-a-boo]

Is your LO falling asleep independently--going into the crib awake and falling asleep without your help?  Are you using any props to get him to sleep . . . feeding? dummy? rocking? ect.?

If he's waking ten times at night it sounds like something is there when you put him down that is missing when he wakes and he's trying to fix that before he goes back to sleep.

Bethany

[lochiesmum]

Apart from the swaddle, he will fall asleep by himself AT NIGHT, during the day he needs his dummy and some times patting to get him off to sleep, also I know he can put himself back to sleep as he does this occasionally when he wakes at 5am (he did this morning, bless him!!!) He LOVES his solids (will easily eat 5 teaspoons of baby rice with 2 cubes of fruit puree) and I get him to have his milk first as I am worried that he will not have the milk in preference for the solids (possibly a bit paranoid here but I have limited solids on advice from baby nurse). I spoke last night with a baby nurse and her advice was to give him his solids as long as he was getting about 900mls of milk a day. We had a really good night last night, he still woke for his dreamfeed at 11, he woke again at 0130 but I easily settled him back to sleep and then again at 3am when i fed him, again at 0430 settled easily, I heard him around 0530 but he put himself back to sleep waking when I got up about 0630, believe me this was a GOOD night. I really think that it must be centered on his daytime sleep, I picked him up early from childcare yesterday and he slept for 2.5 hours as soon as I put him down, so he clearly is not sleeping well when he is there during the day. I will have a talk with MIL in th emorning and explain the problems, hopefully she will understand

[lochiesmum]

We had a GREAT night, he only woke once for a feed around 3am and I heard him wake at 5 but he put himself back to sleep and woke when I got up at 630. thankyou all for taking the time to read my post and respond with great suggestions, I am eternally grateful that this site exists