Help me hive mind!
For the last few days my 8 month old has started waking up every 1.5-2hrs overnight, seemingly totally unable to settle himself. I'm knackered and going back to work next week, and while I know everything is a phase, wondering if I'm missing something obvious? Or do I just need to suck it up and wait for it to come good again? Apologies for the long post.
Background is we've had a lot of change and upheaval recently - we were visiting family in Aus in January, and he coped admirably with travelling to the other side of the world, all the disruption and sleeping in a different place every few nights. We've been home 4 weeks now and because of that and the fact we're mid renovation, he has only just gone into his own room. We have also just transitioned fully to formula after 6 months EBF and the last two months combination feeding. He's been on formula exclusively for the last 3 weeks and seems perfectly happy. He also LOVES solids - he's not a big baby but recently I can't seem to fill him up! He has 3 meals a day as well as roughly 4 bottles usually.
He had short naps from newborn - 27 minutes on the dot, you could set your watch by him and we were stuck on 3-4 naps. We used to rock him to sleep, but over the last month we have worked at putting him down drowsy in his cot and gradually withdrawing, and 3 weeks ago it was like a miracle, one day he just woke at his usual time and then as I watched on the monitor just reached for his dummy and put himself back to sleep! Since then naps have been much improved and we're now on 2 a day which seems to suit him much more.
Initially, the solids and change in naps made a huge difference. For two weeks he was regularly going to bed at 7.30, sleeping 6hrs or so, waking for a sleepy bottle around 1.30 and going right back to sleep for another 5-6. But this week it's all gone to hell and I cannot figure out why, it's like he's forgotten how to do it! He wakes up crying every 1.5 - 2hrs and he's SO hard to settle. Unless I go back to rocking him to sleep, I can be in his room for an hour or more trying to get him to lie down. He just flips up onto his hands and knees, wailing. If I leave him to it, he gets into a state and cries harder. He also seems hungrier, smashing bottles if I give them to him, despite increased calories in the day.
He's an extremely energetic baby - he started crawling a month ago and now is constantly on the move and pulling himself to standing on anything he can get his hands on. He's usually cheerful, he only ever really cries if starving hungry or in pain - although we have just been settling in at the childminder ready for me to go back to work and he is not happy at being left, screaming in fury every time I leave him there. However he's absolutely fine as soon as he sees me and when he comes home, eating, napping etc - so not traumatised or anything, just separation anxiety I think. He also just cut his first tooth, but doesn't seem in pain and Calpol before bed / during the night hasn't helped.
Writing it out seems obvious there's a lot going on ...travel disruption, new room, developmental leap, change in feeds, teething, childminder... It's just he was doing it a few days ago so I KNOW he can! Help me I'm so tired....
Our routine is:
7 AM wake up - used to offer milk here but he didn't seem bothered and it put him off taking his solids, so now we go straight to breakfast
7.45 - Breakfast, usually a big bowl of porridge, banana pancakes or avocado and toast
9.ish - 150ml top up bottle, usually leaves 30-60ml
9.45ish - nap, 45min to an hour.
11- Snack - cucumber sticks or baby puff things, or fruit
12 - lunch - something filling and heavy on protein eg. roast or steamed veggies with chicken and polenta chips, pasta with bolognese, spinach fritters with egg, toast and hummus or homemade baby ketchup. Usually a combo of BLW and spoon feeding as he's happy with both (as long as he has his own spoon to hold) and more goes in. Sometimes a pouch if we're on the go, normally about 120ml and he will eat the whole thing.
1.30 - 150ml top up bottle, usually drinks most
2 - nap, 1.5-2hrs
3.30-4 - 150ml bottle, usually drinks most
5 - dinner, similar type of thing as lunch, usually a bit lighter/easier to digest. Have tried giving a heavier dinner, no change.
7 - bath, pyjamas, sleeping bag and story
7.30 - 180ml bottle which he normally demolishes, and straight to sleep
Any ideas??