My little boy is 8 months old and was a good sleeper when he was tiny - without any particular encouragement from us, he was sleeping through for 9-11 hours a night from about nine weeks until he was four months. He used to feed very frequently in the early evening and then zonk out.
Then the four month sleep regression kicked in and it's been up and down since then, he still sleeps through occasionally but more often than not doesn't.
He moved into his own room just before six months (so 2.5 months ago) and initially it went well with him mostly staying in there from going to sleep around 7.45/8pm (he's breastfed and I feed him to sleep/drowsy) until around 5am when he'd wake up hungry, come in with us, feed and go back to sleep in our bed for 2-3 hours before waking up for the day between 7 and 8. As recently as two weeks ago he had a decent stretch of doing this.
Now, however, more often than not he's waking around midnight. We always try to settle him in his cot at first but usually he'll wake up again after 5-10 minutes. Usually we manage this about three times before giving in due to tiredness, bringing him to our room and co-sleeping. He always zonks out as soon as he's in my arms until waking up for a feed 3-5 hours later. He's getting hungry earlier than before though - it's now more like 3.30/4 than 5 which, while I know not bad for a breastfed baby, is definitely a regression for us.
So, two things:
- How would you try and get him to stay in his cot for longer? Do we need to bite the bullet one night and keep resettling him over and over until he gets it? Maybe sleep in his room to do it or would that be a mistake? I definitely won't leave him crying at all.
- How would you deal with his need for a feed getting earlier? He hasn't taken brilliantly to solids, he's having three "meals" a day but sometimes this is barely any food, still far more interested in milk, so I'm thinking it's genuine hunger because he's not filling up enough for his age/size?