what has happened to the bedtime rountine and self settling - help me get it back please

[benne81]

My DS 17 week old has been an OK sleeper but it all seems to be going wrong and I don't know how to sort it out.

We started bedtime rountine (bath, feed, bed) at 8 weeks and from then on he would sleep from 7pm til at least 11pm. For the last couple of weeks he has started waking half an hr to 40 mins after going to sleep. I took the easy road and fed him and then he would sleep each time. Tonight I decided that rather than feed I would settle him (rocked) which I did but then after a further 45mins he woke up again - I gave in and fed him.

Which leads me to my next problem -self settling. Initially my DS was always maasively grumpy at night so I would feed then sway to dozey and then put in the cot - his eyes would open but then he would go off to sleep. Now I'm finding he is needing more rocking to get to sleep and doesn't really self settle, basically I'm now rocking him to full sleep to get him to sleep in the cot.

His sleep at night is ok usually waking once in the night but a couple of nights ago he woke every 2 hours. I'm worried about him getting worse, being unable to self settle and needing to be fed to sleep. How can I prevent this from happening?

Does it sound like the 16 sleep regression, should I try PU/PD anyone else experienced it and come out the other side? Should I stop feeding again when he wakes after his first sleep cycle?

If you know he's had a full feed the 1st time then dont feed him again otherwise he will just begin associating sleep with feeding and start expecting further down the line, I'm currently experiencing this with my dd who's 6mo. She usd to go down fine and then got worse and I created bad habits for her! I'm sick of family,mostly MIL, but do you think dc could be teething?

Forgot to say I haven't tried the pu/pd route. Most of the time I'm too exhausted and give in and give a cuddle or moveher into my bed.

I think they do go through regressions/teething/bugs/growth spurts if you have established the self settling, then just going with the flow could be a good thing, feed more, stroke heads and hopefully they will return in time to the self settling way.

My ds2 had a big blip after being able to put him to bed awake after his last feed, he would wake shortly after and require much stroking/patting etc. I was pulling my hair out after 3 weeks of it and seriously considering cc. As it happens, he went back to normal shortly after, it can happen.

Even now at 2 he has the odd night where he will wake and not be settled in his cot, it's not that often, but if a drink/hug/pat doesn't work, we get him up for a bit and settle him down, he might play for a bit, bumble about, but will usually go down happily when he has calmed down.

Oops sorry just read that he doesn't self settle. I did actually rock my first and third children to sleep, but it was about this time that they just didn't want it any more. Have you tried a dummy or swaddling?

I was clueless with my first and was trying to rock her to sleep, she would struggle and fling her head back. I put her in the cot with a dummy et voila she slept.

Again with my third it was around this time that he started resisting the cuddling to sleep, we swaddled and dummied and he slept much better (second child never needed the cuddling to sleep lark).

My ds2 would always wake if you cuddled him to sleep after that, it was like if he went to sleep in one place, then woke up in his bed he would freak out, but if he fell asleep in his bed he was fine.