19 weeks EBF and sudden night waking - ready to wean?

[BraveGirl]

I thought I had the perfect baby....

He is EBF.
By 14 weeks we'd eliminated the night feeds.
By 18 weeks he was sleeping through until approx 6.45am, self soothing if he woke.

His daytime routine ran like clockwork: at 9am he would sleep approx 1hour, then feed at 10am. At 12 he would sleep for 1hour 30 mins and feed at 1.30pm. At 3.30pm he would sleep for 1hour and feed at 4.30pm. Bedtime routine started at 6pm with story, nappy off time and bath. Bedtime feed would be at 6.45pm lasting 1hour. After this he was put down awake and fell immediately to sleep with no fuss.

He's always been on the small side, tracking at 2nd percentile.

Last night (19+ weeks), he woke at 1.10am, and couldn't be soothed back to sleep. At 2.30 am I fed him. He still wouldn't sleep. He finally fell asleep at around 3.30am. He slept for an hour and woke again. Soothing and reswaddling worked this time. He slept until 8am this morning, so our routine is out of step.

I took him to the HV clinic this morning to find out if there's something I'm not aware of (growth spurt etc). He has gained weight, but is dropping on percentiles. They thought this might be an indication that he is ready for weaning and have advised me to squeeze an extra daytime feed is and wait and see. Could my LO be ready for food - he's not showed any other signs? He's not really interested if we eat around him. He's certainly not sitting up unaided.
I wondered if anyone else has any other ideas/experience of this?

Thanks!

Latest update, DS will be 21 weeks tomorrow and is just as bad. Last night he woke at midnight for feeding (he hasn't woken that early for feeding since he was 9 weeks old) and such crying and screaming. I'm starting to wonder whether he might alos be teething? He's been dribbling since he was about 8 weeks, but no sign of teeth. There are a couple of vaguely white patches on his gums, and I've noticed when he's been feeding in the night he is grabbing and scratching at his ears, combined with the really loud and unhappy cries - would it be a sensible deduction to assume teething as well as development spurt? Oddly, it is only really the night he is like this.
I checked his temperature twice last night I was so woried, but it was normal both times.
I did read that the powders aren't to be recommended, but I can't give him a teething ring in the middle of the night. We do have calpol, but as he has no temperature, I'm wary. What should I do?!!

what not another brick said

you bf him more oftne

there are more calories in BM than in pureed pear or carrots or baby rice

I tried bf him more often, a couple of times mid way between his feeds - he really didn't want more and struggled to stay on for more than 3 minutes, then it upset his routine further by preventing him from napping - normally he plays after a feed and couldn't understand why after feeding he should be taking a nap!

I think you might need to be a little more flexible on the routine.it does need to adapt to meet yourbabys needs.rememberhehasnt read the same baby book as you

My original post may sound like I'm a routine driven haridan, but I do react purely to my DS. The only principles we have are that he feeds when he wakes, because he usually poos when feeding I change him straight away, we then play until he is tired - usually 2 hours. If he poos again, I change him again. When he shows signs of tiredness (and my DS goes pink around his eye sockets, starts to rub his eyes and gets clingy) he goes for a nap and then we repeat. His bedtime routine is the only really fixed routine. I have tried offering him the breast at other times and he clearly doesn't want it - arches his back and turns away.

no you dont sound like a harridan and there is nothing wrong with routine if it works for you and your baby . your baby sounds like he's more interetesed now in what's going on about him - its a lovely stage but very tiring

Actually that sounds familiar - whenever I've fed him somewhere different recently he's been rather unfocused to say the least!! He's becoming far too nosey for his own good!

Hi bravegirl, never looked on this website before, but so glad I did. Been reading this trail and feel massive relief that it's not just my baby who is doing this... He is 17 weeks and this has been going on for two and a half weeks so far! He used to like being swaddled, but has been getting out of his blanket, so we thought that was why he was waking and moved him into a sleeping bag the night before last - seemed to be better - only one wake at 11.45 and after 45 mins settled back to sleep and didn't wake until 7am, but last night we were back to the same . He woke 5 times last night so eventually I tried to feed him at 5 am, and he went back to sleep after that! It's so frustrating when you know they can sleep through but just aren't doing it... at least now I know we're not alone!

Not read all the links yet, but feel a bit more positive about it - he was a good sleeper before this so fingers crossed!

[Rubs eyes and waves to Fayzer]
Welcome to the club! I agree - the worst part is totally knowing they can sleep through without any problems! Of course it is all my fault after proudly mentionning to some friends that he was reliably sleeping through.
Last night DS woke at 0120. As I didn't feed him the night before until 0130 (despite it being his second waking) I refused to give in and finally got him back to sleep at about 0200. Yes, I am that stubborn. I fed him when he woke next at 0315 - at least this way I feel like we're making some kind of progress towards not feeding until the morning and that he might remember that he doesn't have to be fed when he wakes at night. Either that or I'm delirious through disturbed sleep...!
We're still in he moses basket here - being on the small side, we still have to cross over to the cot. Oh joy...more disturbed sleep to come!

This is happening to me too, I'm so tired I can't even spell properly so apologies for any mistakes! My DS is 21 weeks on Sunday and for the past 2weeks he has been waking every 2 hours. I was wondering whether to start weaning too but after reading this thread I think I will offer more bf. But I am with you BraveGirl when you say it's hard to get more bf in, my DS is also so distracted at the breast now that it's difficult to get him to eat when he's supposed to!

I bought the BLW book (arrived yesterday) and actually the waking in the night at 4 months (-ish) is apparently a very commonly misunderstood sign that babies are ready to wean!
It sounds Binky55 like your DS has it real bad - waking every 2 hours sounds like the worst kind of hell. You must be just nodding off as he goes again!

Are things on the up????
After 2 weeks of broken sleep and returning to feeding in the night, DS woke twice last night (23.50 and 02.35) but didn't need feeding to get back to sleep. Each time it took about 20 minutes of a combination of soothing, lullabies, cuddles and sucking on fingers/dummy, but he did go back to sleep. I heard him wake again around 04.15, but this time he self soothed and went straight back to sleep.
Admittedly, he did then wake at 6am, and would only sleep in my arms until 06.30, when I fed him and we started our day. I now have everything crossed that this sticky patch might just be coming to a conclusion and that AngelDog's predictions of a return to normal service might be a reality...

I can answer my own question - definately not....
Waking every hour last night from 2am onwards.
We have tried moving into cot as he seemed to be waking himself up banging his head on the top of the moses basket.
He seems to have a fairly good night (perhaps 2 wakes, no feeding) then alternating with a crappy one (up to 5 wakes and feeding at some point).
Is this normal?!

The only thing that worked for us in the end was to co-sleep from around 24 weeks until he turned 1ish. I too had the amazing sleeping baby until he hit 20ish weeks when it all went a little crazy!

I was driven a little insane by the sleep deprivation and co-sleeping changed our lives. I would never have done it with DS1 (far too scared) but it was all that we could do with DS2.

He is 19 months now and still not a brilliant sleeper so I still feed him at night. He spends the majority of his night in his bed though so co-sleeping doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up with a toddler in your bed.

Urgh the thought of co-sleeping absolutely terrifies me!
During the first month I used to have nightmares about squashing him in bed (recovering from emergency C section, I fed him in bed) and was so drowsy at nights I couldn't remember my husband putting him back in his moses basket once he'd finished feeding. I would frequently wake up and start searching the bed for DS (even when I was asleep in a different room). It took at least a couple of months before I stopped having the nightmares so am very reluctant to co-sleep!

I used to have the same nightmares with DS1. Absolutely none with DS2, and so long as you make some adjustments to your sleeping arrangements it is perfectly safe. Good luck!