Need advice.

[biddeford]

My son has slept straight through the night since he was 11 weeks old. He goes to bed for 7pm every night and is awake for around 8am. He’s 6 months old now and for the last 2 weeks he’s been waking anywhere between 4am-6am for a bottle. I’ve tried the shushing back to sleep but he is hungry and gets more and more frustrated as I try and re-settle him. He’s always been a straight through the night sleeper, and now he’s waking again. Anyone have any experience? Is this just a faze?

There I should a sleep regression around six months, so it could easily be that. I’m wondering if you’ve dropped any daytime bottles though?

@JiltedJohnsJulie I haven't dropped any of his bottles. We are in the process of BLW. He has porridge for breakfast, and then I offer him a selection of finger foods throughout the day, like broccoli and carrot etc. Should I be feeding him a certain amount? He's still taking all of his bottles. He drinks 5-6oz every 3 hours or so. Won't take anymore.

If he’s still taking all of his bottles, it won’t be hunger then. Think it is probably the 6 month sleep regression, sorry.

Try a blackout blind. Maybe the sunrise is waking him.

@BertieBotts He has a black out blind. So it's not the sunrise unfortunately.

@JiltedJohnsJulie He's just been through a regression at 4 months. Not another one 😅

Really sorry to tell you this but there might be a few more heading your way, the next one is due at 9 months...

@JiltedJohnsJulie Oh joys haha. All part of it I suppose. I am grateful he's a super sleeper otherwise.

I’d agree that it’s a sleep regression. Has he started any new skills he might be trying to practice, like rolling over? My DS is a great sleeper but always out of whack for a week or two when he picks up a new skill.

If it helps I found the 4 month regression the worst one but I would stop feeding when he wakes and offer extra solid food in the day instead.

@Temple29 He's rolling over a storm lately. I have tried not to feed him but he just cries and cries, and will not resettle. I have been up for an hour the last few nights just shushing but he gets himself so worked up because he's hungry.

He's growing and cant go 13 hours without food or drink, that's pretty reasonable really.

Sleeping for 13 hours is a long time for a baby. I’m not surprised he wants to get in with his day after 11 hours and wants breakfast. You can either try and put him to bed later and give him supper as well as milk, or put up with earlier starts. I have to say nearly everyone I knew had babies waking up at 6 if they went down at 7. An early night like that never happened in this house and I just don’t think 13 hours sleep is really sustainable. Few people I met got early nights and late mornings. Most were up with the lark like yours.

Oh sorry my mistake, I didn’t notice the 13 hour part. In that case I would give him breakfast. But I did find rolling/crawling/standing changed things in the short term and then went back to normal after.

@SerendipitySunshine That's my point, he's not going 13 hours. He's going 9 hours (7pm-4am) and then waking for food.

@BubblesBuddy He's done 13 hours straight since he was 11 weeks, he loves his sleep. Doesn't have long naps in the day, so gets most of his sleep throughout the night.

No, but while growing 13 hours is too long to expect him to go without food and drink. It is completely normal that he'd need a bottle at 4am.

Yes but he has changing needs. Just because he slept a lot from 11 weeks, and 13 hours is a lot, you cannot expect this to continue. He is still doing 10 hours. That’s good. So you either settle him later or get up! Most of my friends got up. Took it in turns with DH. My DC went to bed later and did sleep until 7-8. They never went to bed at 7 in their lives. If you went back to work you wouldn’t want him waking at 8 would you? You’d never get out of the house!