DS still sleeping on us and waking 4-6 times a night....

[paleandinteresting]

DS is 27 weeks and has always been a bad sleeper. The best night we've had is DS waking twice, but for the past month he had been waking every 1-2 hours. I always breastfeed him to sleep. He was EBF until a couple of weeks ago when we started weaning him.

He'll have 2-3 naps during the day, lasting 30 min to 1 hour and then he goes to sleep at around 8.30pm. DS is very restless and easily wakes himself up if he is in his cot (which is next to our bed). We've got into the habit of him sleeping on DH as he is a lot more settled. However, DS is fairly heavy now so this situation isn't ideal.

DS is content during the day. Just wondering what could be causing the frequent night waking and if there is anything we can do about it. DS doesn't have any teeth yet, so could be teething I guess. Weaning hasn't made it worse or better. Could he be hungry and should I give him more food (he's currently on fruit and veg finger food)? Even if he was waking 3 times a night I feel we could manage, but not sure how much longer we can cope with this frequency... Any suggestions gratefully received!

[minipie]

Two possibilities that I can think of (it may be both together)

one - he may be overtired. overtiredness causes more wakings 2-3 naps of 30-60 mins with an 8.30 bedtime doesn't sound like much day sleep. my DD is a similar age and needs 3 hrs day sleep and a 7pm bedtime (she wakes at 6) or she gets overtired (and she's not a particularly sleep-loving baby, in fact the opposite!). can you try to get him more daytime sleep (using pram or whatever works) and earlier bedtime for a few days and see if it helps?

two - he may have a sleep association problem, in that he needs your breast or being on your DH's chest to get himself back to sleep when he momentarily wakes between sleep cycles. if so, he needs to learn to get back to sleep by himself - there are two ways to do this I think, some form of controlled crying (including gentler versions like pick up put down, shh pat, gradual withdrawal) or the no cry sleep solution version which avoids crying but takes a looong time.

[minipie]

ps I doubt it's hunger, though there is a growth spurt at 6months so it's just possible that's a factor.

[MumOfTheMoos]

Second having a look at the no cry sleep solution and increasing day time sleep and earlier bedtimes.

Plus, my DS woke up a bit more when he started weaning but settled back down to more sleep after a couple of weeks.

[minipie]

actually, dd also woke a bit more when she started weaning - I think it was poo related! Has your DS been struggling to poo at all, or had much more active bowels?

[paleandinteresting]

Thanks for the suggestions! Will try putting him to bed earlier tonight and also use the cot.

The frequent waking started before weaning, but his poos have changed and he seems to 'notice' them more. Hopefully this will settle down soon.

Seen lots of people mention the no cry sleep solution, must look into it.

Thank you!

[MB34]

Oh my, I could've wrote this OP! How did it go last night?

My DS is 25 weeks and wakes up to 10 times a night although we've only started weaning in the last few days and he's not always bf back to sleep - I'm trying to soothe him in other ways and trying to only feed every 3 hours in the night as he can go that long in the day between feeds (sometimes works, sometimes doesn't).

For the last 2/3 weeks I've been following some of the suggestions from the No Cry Sleep Solution but so far have seen little change. However, it does say in the book that it may takes weeks or even months for big changes to happen.

I've been talking to some other mums at a group I go to and a few have said that when they moved their LO into their own room, they slept better! That's what I'm trying tonight - this may work for you but it may be a huge change for your DS so you may want to try to change his sleep associations first.

Another suggestion one of the mums made was to give a bottle/sippy cup of water during the night as DS may not want to bother waking up if he knows he's only going to get water! As I'm not in the full swing of weaning yet, I'm going to try to just feed up until 1am (normally 2 feeds) and try and settle him with a dummy after this if he won't settle any other way (shushing,patting etc).

Good luck!