6 month old waking screaming between 7-10pm

[porsmork]

Hi there, hoping someone can advise...

Dh and I have a consistent bedtime routine for our 6 month old boy;
6:30pm, bottle (6oz), nappy, pjs, cuddle, music/song, cot, dummy.
He settles himself to sleep by about 7pm. He has 3 or 4 naps a day, roughly 2 hours apart. All sounds great, but...

Every hour, pretty much in the hour, he will wake, wailing inconsolably, dummy goes back in, and he settles again. This goes on until dream feed at about 10.30pm.

He then sleeps until about 3 (sometimes 5), when we feed and he goes back to bed until about 7/8 am.

I don't mind the night feeds, he always downs about 6oz, so he is hungry, but does anyone have any advise on how to settle him better between 7 and 10, I feel he's missing out on a good chunk of sleep here? He's always done this, so don't think it's teething or illness related. Any similar experiences would be great. I dread getting rid of the dummy, he relies on it so much!

[FATEdestiny]

I wouldn't consider getting rid of the dummy for a long time yet.

Unsettled sleep is often down to either hunger or over-tiredness.

Are you weaning? Has this caused a reduction of the amount of milk he's having? Early weaning shouldn't mean less milk, it wants to be solids on top of usual milk. Remember that things like fruit and veg hold very few calories so should not be replacing milk feeds.

If not hunger, then look at your daytime naps. Could he sleep longer? Maybe he's ready for fewer longer naps rather than frequent short naps. Is there too long a gap between last nap and bedtime?

It could also be teething, but this would affect all sleep not just early evening.

[porsmork]

Thanks, yes, we're weaning. He has breakfast, lunch and dinner (at 5pm)and has not reduced the amount of milk he has (ff), about 2 ice cubes worth at each meal. Day time naps are minimum 40 mins and sometimes up to 1.5 hours at lunchtime. Last nap of the day around 4pm, he gets very cranky if he doesn't nap every 1.5-2 hours.