Hi,
I feel so bad about always posting a question instead of reading everything I possibly can. It's just that I'm hitting a new low and I'm afraid my husband who does the night watch to help me is sinking too.
I have a 7 month old boy who for most of his 7 months was a fussy eater and sleeper. During the day his naps would be short and he didn't like to breast feed so we switched to bottle. He doesn't really like that either unless I'm walking around with him and distract him while he eats (this is much better than forcing him to eat). He's slept through the night for a total of a week and it seemed to be right before a growth spurt at 4 months. From then on, his habits of eating, sleeping, and waking in the night are very erratic. Lately he was on a 12:30 wake up to eat 4 to 6 ozs fast and then back to sleep. Then it was 3:00 am take in the same amount but harder to get back down (didn't use PU/PD). I'm trying to feed him as much as I can during the day, but its hard when he really doesn't have an appetite or interest for food. I'm wondering about our routine.
Here are the answers to the questions.
What’s his/her daily routine?
6:30am awake if lucky and play in bed, 7:00am feed 4-8oz of solids, plus a 4-6oz bottle right after (Dr's instructions), activity time until 9:00am nap, has been doing fairly consistent hour and a half nap (sometimes will wake early and impossible to get back down (haven't done PU/PD at this point, because he just looks so alert we get him up, even if he's only napped 20 min., usually stays happy at this point), 11:00 feed the same amount of solids and formula from bottle (Gentlease). 1:00 p.m nap sometimes short sometimes long like today he did an hour and a half in the morning and hour and 15 in the afteroon), 3:00p.m. 7 oz of formula is the goal, which sometimes doesn't happen. Sometimes we will give him a catnap (usually only lasts about 20-30 min. between 5:00 and 6:15. 6:30 or later we start giving solids 4-8oz and then sometimes a bath, bedtime routine and then bottle before husband lays him down by hopefully 7:30. We dropped the dream feed, because he would wake up at 4:30 or later with a very wet diaper or a leak and then be wide awake and fussy for the rest of the morning (couldn't get back down). We decided to try PU/PD down last night because I really thought he had had a good eating day, but he woke on his own at 10:00 and wouldn't go back down using PU/PD for an hour, so husband gave in and gave him a bottle and he ate a good 4 oz. and went straight back to sleep as soon as head hit the mattress. I don't know if I can add that much more to his diet during the day. Any thoughts there? Is that our problem? Hunger?
What’s nap routine?
9:00, 1:00 and sometimes catnap between 5:00 and 6:15 p.m. Sometimes he will do the whole two hours, sometimes he will wake early and I either can get him back down, or just let him stay up and play after that.
What's bedtime routine? Time? Bedtime is solids at dinnertime 6:30 then a bath, then new sleeper, diaper, sleep sac because it's cold in Colorado right now, swaddle with one arm out (we've been trying to wean, but going very slowly because he's so alert most of the time), feed bottle in the dark with white noise machine running. When he turns his head away from bottle and closes eyes, husband lays down on his side hopefully by 7:30 at the latest. Sometimes we won't hear a peep, other times he will fuss for a little bit (very slight) and go down. Sometimes we will hear cry at 8:30, 9:00 or 10:00.
Do you bottle or breastfed?? Bottle since 3 months old. Gentlease 4-7+oz
How many wakes per night? Mostly one, but sometimes we hear him wake slightly in the middle of the night. Has gone back to sleep on own, so we know he is capable of doing that.
What’s your LO like when waking at night? How long is he/she up? He's very cranky and fussy. I believe my husband (who takes this time of night) sometimes lets him fuss a little too long. He gets a diaper change and really screams at that, even with my husband trying to be as quick and gentle as possible. If he gets to eat, he usually goes back down quickly. If it's after 2:30 am, sometimes it takes up to an hour. We have not tried PU/PD, because he's usually not screaming only wide awake when my husband puts him back down in the crib. He just starts crying again in about 30 to 60 min.
When you go to him/her is she fussing or crying? Or is it a mantra cry? Usually just fussy that turns into a cry because he's gotten out of his swaddle and had turned himself around in the crib.
What have you tried to settle?? We usually reswaddle (lately with one arm out), sometimes give paci and hold on side and pat bum until he calms and is closing eyes and quits jerking head, fingers, and feet.
What do you do for A time and how long is it? A time is usually for a hour or less because it takes him so long to feed (up to and hour and 15 min.) He gets to play in his playpen with toys and squirm around, or in his jumper, or practicing crawling (not doing yet) on a play mat.
Are there developmental issues such as teething or milestones? Just learning to move around more. Babbles more.
Do they have a prop? If so what is it? The only prop that he maybe has is swaddling and we do use a paci to help calm (he usually spits it out and my husband clams he doesn't even use it much at night)
Do they have a lovie? No...wondering about that in connection with weaning from swaddle.
Anyway, we keep trying things...we are wondering about routine (have seen the liquids first thing and for snacks routine but wondering how to fit into our day and when to nap). Also wondering about adding more food, cluster feeding, dream feeding, keeping more active, if we are holding too long to settle, etc. The book has made us more confused and frustrated.
If anyone has some spare time to offer a word or two we sincerely appreciate it. If not, it is surely understood. There seems to be so many out there with similar but different problems.
THANKS!
