5.5 month old suddenly waking multiple times at night - HELP!!!!!!!

[samsmam]

Our 5.5 month old has been on EASY since birth and while he has sometimes struggles with daytime sleep, he has always slept really well at night.  Even in the early days, he might wake 1-2 times but would feed quickly and settle back down without drama.  He STTN from about 9 weeks so we were very lucky.  Recently however things have gone really wonky and I'm hoping someone might be able to help.

Yesterday was a typical day and his EASY looked like this:

7.30 E (milk and baby cereal)
7.30-9.30 A
9.30 S (2 hours)
11.30 E
11.30-1.30 A
1.30 S (45 minutes - woke and tried to settle but he wasn't interested I took him up)
2.15 E (milk and carrot & parsnip puree)
2.15-4.45 A
4.45 S Catnap for 45 minutes
5.30 E (milk and bedtime banana cereal)
5.30-7.30 A (including a walk with DS1 and DH)
7.30 S

We had wakings at 8.15, 11.30, 1.15, 5.10 (I fed him at this one and he didn't resettle until 6.20) and then he was up for the day at 7.15.  At each NW (apart from the 5.10 one), he was taking 15-20 minutes of pat/shush to resettle.

He takes the paci and is swaddled though recently he has made a fair fist of escaping from this.  He is learning to sit up and I think he likes to practice this as sometimes when you answer one of his NWs, you see him throwing his legs in the air in an apparent attempt at sitting up.  This morning at about 6.10 DH unwrapped him, placed him on his side and gave him a teddy to cuddle and he did eventually settle in this position.  He has no teeth but has been drooling a whole load from about 7 weeks!  The only other noteworthy thing is that for the early part of the day he doesn't seem too interested in his milks.  He is bottlefed and will take approx 100ml at each E time and I try and get the other 110ml into his over his remaining A time, though not always successfully!  In the evening he does feed a lot better and will take a full feed.

Any ideas on how we can get our sleep back?  Would love to hear anyone's ideas as we are getting a bit desperate here!

TIA

[samsmam]

bump.  cana anyone help me on fix this?  am in desperate need of some sleep!

[samsmam]

Thanks JAY3. 

I have been doing 2 hour A times and putting him down at the 2 hour mark as it is very difficult to read his tired cues.  By the time he is showing any tired cues he is very obviously overtired so I have been watching the clock to know when to put him down.  Maybe, as you say, 2 hours is now getting a little short for him, so I will try and extend these like you suggest and see if that helps.

Re meds, yes we have tried meds and I honestly don't think giving him them makes any difference.  Thye don't seem to stop the wakings and they don't make the settling any shorter.  Will def bear it in mind though if you think that that might help.

We started him on solids about 4 weeks ago, but we've only really been giving him 3 proper meals for about 2 weeks now so maybe this is causing him some pain.  Not sure how I can help him with that.  Should I drop the solids?

Thanks for your help.

[Shiv52]

Hey there

At your LOs age he should be taking between 28-32 oz  (so about 900 ml) of milk in a day.  Solids at this stage are only for practice but do not provide the calories needed to fill them up.  Milk contains the most important nutrients until your LO is a year.  It could be the solids are having an effect.   We started weaning at 5.5 months but weren't on 3 three meals until 8 months.

If you find he is cutting down his milk I would reduce quantity of solids and I would also offer milk and then solids 45 minutes-1 hour later.  That should ensure he is filling up properly on milk and not the emptier calories in solids if that makes sense. 


The sitting up could also be having an effect.  Developmental leaps do tend to mess with sleep.  We'd a nightmare when our LO learned to pull to standing.  Tucking her in very securely with a blanket (and towels in between cot bars and mattress to hold it in place) helped keep her lying.  Bless her but she would actually stand while sleeping and then wake up all disorientated wondering how she was suddenly standing.  It does settle though.

Nice to see some one else about from Ireland!!  xxx

[samsmam]

Thanks to you all.  We have made some big changes and things have been a lot better the last 2 nights so fingers crossed this will continue.  In case this is helpful to anyone else, here's what we did...

Removed swaddle and paci:
Both DH and I both thought that some of the reason for DS2's NWs was that now that he is getting more mobile and more in control of him arms that he objected to being restrained.  With this in mind, on Tuesday during the day, in a desperate attempt to make some changes, I tried (again!) to remove the swaddle. When I did this, I found that he kept removing the paci with his hands and the flinging the paci and his little arms about.  He was never a real paci baby and he would always spit it once he fell asleep so I figured that it was probably acting as more of a physical distraction rather than having any pacifying effect. So I decided that if we were going to remove the swaddle, we would have to remove the paci too.  Too my surprise, he settled relatively easily (15mins pat/shush) for his second daytime nap and his catnap.

Extended A times:
On JAY3's suggestion, I extended his A times from 2 hours to 2h15-2h30.

Reduced amount of solid food:
On Shiv52's suggestion, yesterday I reduced the amount of solids I was giving him in favour of concentraing on getting closer to 900mls into him during the day.

Persevered with pat/shush:
I had been reluctant to use pat/shush for that long at nighttime as I was worried that DS2 would wake DS1, but the past 2 nights I have persevered with it while knowing that he was getting his ca. 900ml and didn't NEED the extra calories in a nighttime feed.  Surprisingly DS1 hasn't stirred at all during my nighttime pat/shushing!

Results:
Last night was the best we have had in quite a while... we just had one waking 5.15-5.25 and just the 10 minutes of pat/shush sent him back to sleep until 7.15.  In general, DS2 seems much happier and is napping lots better in the day also, now that he has "relearned" to self soothe without the paci and swaddle..  This afternoon he put himself to sleep without the paci, the swaddle or any intervention from me.  I do feel that we have made some pretty big changes but the results have been great. 

Thanks again to you both for your suggestions.  We seem to have solved our problems for the most part (at least for now, anyway!). 

[Shiv52]

Just want to say a huge WELL DONE  to you and your DH!!!  Paci and swaddle weaning are huge achievements as are increasing A time and sorting milk vs solids but to do them all at once AND see such improvements in such a short space of time is FAB!!!!

Glad the ssh-pat is working and not annoying DS1!!!

Hope it lasts xx

[samsmam]

Thanks Shiv52.  I think the swaddle/paci thing only worked because he'd been fighting them for quite a while and we hadn't realised that he didn't want/like/need them.  They had both worked so well for DS1 when he was little. 
As you say, lets hope it continues and that I haven't jinxed things by saying its all good now! 

[Shiv52]

Still very impressed! 

Lots of people from Ireland about the boards these days!  Where abouts are you from?  I'm in Belfast!!

[samsmam]

Cheers.  Yes, there are a few people from Ireland about.  I'm in Ballinteer in Dublin.  I found this website when I had my first in July 2008 in Singapore.  Was a godsend when I didn't have any family support out there.  Is easier being home now with my family around to help!  Especially with 2

I love these forums and all the way that everyone is so helpful.  It's saved me from losing my marbles on more than one occasion!

Good luck with bub number 2.  Not long to go now!

[Shiv52]

Yeah its great to be near family.  Mine were invaluable when I had DD!  And you're right, not long to go at all before number 2 comes along!!  Have already got my mum, and two sisters taking a week off each shortly after DH goes back to work so that should really help!! 

Hope the good sleeping continues xx