6 month LO turned insomniac!!

[LittleMissSnowShine]

Hi everyone!

I have two DSs, 1 is 3.5 years and the other is 6 months. DS2 was a fantastic sleeper right from birth up til about 6 weeks ago, he used to do 12 hours , sometimes with a dream feed about 10pm, other nights going right through without waking at all.

About 6 weeks ago it all changed!!

We had gotten through the 4 month 'sleep regression' danger phase and I was feeling quietly smug confident but about 3 weeks later the night wakings started.

At the minute he goes to sleep about half 7 or 8, with much resistance. Then he wakes up again at half 10 and will scream the place down unless he gets fed. He goes back down easily enough, about 10:45 after his milk.

Then he wakes up at 12:30, usually also wants fed.

And then he wakes up again about 2:30am and he is very very difficult to settle again at this point. Sometimes he is hungry, sometimes he needs teething gel or Calpol (he is dribbling buckets at the minute but no sign of the first tooth), but generally he is very very restless and nothing will get him back over again. He screams the place down if we put him down in the cot and he can keep that up for a very long time. Last night he was awake from 2:10am for 4 hours !!

Needless to say, with a 3 year old to get up with at 7:30 I can't keep this up indefinitely! DS2 seems to eat plenty during the day and he has milk from either boob or bottle after breakfast, lunch, mid-afternoon and after dinner. He is a big lad for 6 months but I'd say the portion sizes he eats plus the rice cakes he likes to gnaw on are keeping him going ok. If his teeth are bothering him I make sure to give teething gel / Calpol. He is well wrapped up going to bed and the room is dark and quiet. We have a sleep sheep toy and a nightlight. He takes naps during the day but nothing longer than an hour or so, so I don't think he is sleeping too much during the day.

But despite all this he wakens every 2 - 3 hours after bedtime most nights and when it gets to 2am we have a lot of difficulty getting him back over. I get the feeling it corresponds to his REM cycle but I don't remember this level of restlessness with DS1, who was also quite wakeful until he was about 8 months but he was always easy to get back down to sleep.

Apologies for the ramblings but any tips at all would be very much appreciated!!!

[ArtemisTheHunter]

No tips I'm afraid but just wanted to say we are in similar territory with 6mo DD. She was sleeping well until xmas, it's been going downhill since, but the last few nights have been appalling, up every hour last night and so far every 2 hours tonight. Like your DS she eats well during the day (BF and a few weeks into weaning) and there are no visible signs that teeth are bothering her particularly. So I can't fathom the 2am screaming or why she takes hours to resettle during the night! Daytime naps are pretty awful, she just seems resistant to sleep...

So just offering solidarity really and hoping some advice will come along