6 month old waking every 2hours at night & VERY restless when he does sleep -HELP!!

[PipIsOutNow]

hello!!

my 6month old ds has never slept thru but he got tot he stage where he was going 7/7:30pm - 8/8-30am with just one feed which was heaven. BUT he was admitted to hospital just before xmas with pneumonia and had to stay over 2 nights. he slept ok for the 2 nights he was in but since then he has been waking every 2 hours at night and he seems to be starving coz he's taking 7oz every time he wakes too. and when he does sleep he's really restless grunting and arching his back when he loses his dummy, i put it in he spits it back out etc. last night i must have had (no lie) about 1-2 hours sleep at the most and all of it was broken. i just cant take it anymore!! my partner is really good and will get up to feed him coz he sleeps thru everything even the squealing and blowing raspberries at 4am but I disturbed every time he does anything.
Last night he didnt go up till 9pm coz he wouldnt go to sleep (he had a 7oz bottle to go to bed) then he woke at 11 screaming and drained another 7oz bottle, then screaming again at 1 and drained another 7oz bottle, then he managed a whole 3 hours break and didnt start until 4 am BUT it took him ages to go back down after 1am. At 4 am he spent an hour squealing and screeching high pitch, chatting, laughing, blowing raspberries etc which we just ignored but he carried on with. 5am he had another 7oz!! then he woke at 7am.

It has been this bad for about 10days now, he was out of his routine after hospital but not to this extent. I just dont know what to do. He is in bed with us, so I'm going to try him in his cot tonight to see if it makes a difference.

He is also on solids and eats well throughout the day which I thought would help him last longer thru the night not shorter!!

Can anyone offer any help or advice becuase I'm supposed to be going to work as a Primary Teacher Feb/March and I dont know how I will survive on so little sleep as my partner works nights Mon-Fri.

Thanks in advance,

Pip xx

Weetabix or similar just before bed?

Growth spurt and developmental leap. He's hungry! And his brain must be learning something new. That combined with the illness (he must be catching up) means messing with your sleep.

I'd stick to your routine, give plenty in the day and gradually reduce his bottles at night by an ounce a time. Keep it calm at night and it'll probably stop as soon as it started.

I remember my DS going doolally around 6 months - he'd be awake for 1-2 hours in the early hours. It was like he couldn't switch off. DH and I took turns with him so we could get sleep. It stopped after 2 weeks.

DrSeuss how would I do Weetabix for him? With his milk obv but is it enough to just soak it coz its quite bitty isnt it?? might just be me being stupid!!

Iggly I think u may be right. I thought it might be a growth spurt for obvious reasons. With the developmental thing I agree too. He is constantly stimulated and on the go. He's nearly sitting by himself, rolling everywhere and getting frustrated that he cant crawl yet. He lies there chatting and experimenting with the new noises he can make too...just have to ride it out and hope that he sorts himself out!!

If you soak it for a bit in some milk/formula it turns to paste. Lots of other stuff would do too, just went with that as it is a complex carb so will digest slowly. Baby porrige? Banana? Sugar free rusk?

DD was a lot like this, truly starving. I would try to get as much solids into her at tea time and took to giving her a banana before bed. We were BFing so I would feed her as often and as much as she wanted, particularly during the early evening and at bed time.

I think for DD it was when her brain was really starting to process things. She was sitting up and taking everything in so I think she struggled to turn off sometimes too. Provided DD wasn't crying we just left her chatting in her cot.