Sleep is for whimps

[nonk]

I am desperatly seeking suggestions on how to get my 19 week old to sleep. He was managing 6 hours then 3-4 hours a night but for no known reason has reverted to 1 - 2 hourly wake ups and often is awake for 2+ hours in the night. He is breastfed. In desperation I have started one meal of veg puree a day but isn't making a difference. he never used to cry much at night but now belts it out. As far as I can muster he isn't teething. He is still in our room. Most advise has been controlled crying but he initially settles really easily and controlled (or uncontrolled!) crying at 1, 2, 3,4,5 am is not my cup of tea although if I have to I will..... any advise welcome with open arms!!

Could you try replacing his last feed with formula? It could be just that he's grown so much his appetite is bigger and as breast milk is more quickly digested he's waking up hungry more often. I know a few people who have done this and it has helped enormously. My DS is 13 weeks and if he doesn't end up sleeping for longer more regularly over the next month i'm going to give him a last feed of formula to help him go a bit longer.

Just marking my place and feeling your pain. My nine week old has gone nuts in the last week. I love her but I'm pretty much at the end of my tether. I'll be interested to hear other's suggestions.

Tried the formula for the last feed and it hasn't made any difference. I tried again in the early hours of this morning as a desperate measure and he slept for the grand total of 45 minutes afterwards. Formula isn't worth the hassle!!

I wouldn't bother with formula. If you mess your supply up, it will be more time in the night to be awake. Is he having a little growth spurt? My DD goes between 5 hours and 1.5 hours between feeds from week to week. I spoke to the nurse about it and she said that it is normal and that it would pass. It isn't a linear thing to go longer and longer.

BTW, not an expert but I was always told that "real" food like veg actually has less calories than breast milk so it won't make them sleep if they are not ready.

growth spurt? can you try and get as much into him before your own bed time?

Can't really offer any advice but just so you know you're not alone my DS got into a pattern of sleeping 10pm - 5.30am then quick feed and back to sleep till 7.45ish when fairly little then at about 4 months it went right out of the window! It might be the '4 month sleep regression' or a growth spurt or a developmental spurt that is affecting your LO's sleep. Probably not what you want to here but my DS is now improving and is 6 1/2 months, so it's taken a while, but we're down to 'only' two wakings per night at midnight and 4am roughly. But he does go to sleep much better in the evenings now and is generally asleep by 7.30pm. We had a stage of completly random wakings, sometimes after 40 minute, sometimes 4 hours, then they got more regular and about every 3 hours, then down to every two hours. I coped by cosleeping and feeding whenever he woke to get him back to sleep, though later he was definately hungry, I'm not at all convinced he was earlier in the phase but it was the quickest way to get him back to sleep and I'm too soft and lazy to try anything else!

DD did this at about 3 months for a whole month, and the HV advised me to try formula instead of BF - she was a hungry baby. So, I did swap, and she settled into a better sleep pattern, and slept through the night at 5 months old. I have heard that BF babies can be hungry babies and my DD certainly never went 4 hours between feeds when BF - she sometimes only managed 2 hours.
She's 5 now and is still always hungry though!

One thought is temprature actually? It's getting much milder so maybe if you've got him well wrapped in grow bag or blankets he might be getting hot?