7 month old awake for hour & a half shouting every night

[Felicity17]

Hi - I posted a little while ago about my little boy who was waking multiple times a night shouting for his dummy! So we bit the bullet and got rid of it at the beginning of this week. He now goes down to bed at night with only about 5 mins of shouting! But now he wakes up every night somewhere between 10 and 11.30 and is awake for 90 mins (almost exactly)...he shouts on & off for an hour and then the shouting develops into crying!! We have been checking him periodically and he eventually falls asleep! He will then sleep through till 3/4am when I feed him and then he sleeps through till 7. So great, except for this wake up! Any ideas on why he wakes for this exact amount of time?? And how I can stop it? He woke up at 11.38 this evening...and he has just settled, almost exactly 90mins later!!! He is on 3 solid meals a day, so should only need the one night feed??

Who told you he should only need one night feed? 7 months is young to be on 3 "solid meals" a day and only one night feed IMO.

My second baby slept through at 7 months, but my first child didn't sleep through till he was over 2 years old. He does now, he did it in his own time, (no sleep training required!)

Loads of babies just aren't ready to sleep through at this stage IMO. Is it a problem for you that he's awake at this time? Have you tried feeding him? What happens if you put him to bed a little later?

If it was me I'd start with feeding him more at night, and also accept that it's just his sleep pattern, he'll grow into sleeping through when he's ready.

It's quite young to expect a baby to sleep through (5 hours) and definitely expect some disruption after removing his source of comfort. You could try to help him go back to sleep, if he is able to at bedtime, 90mins is a long time for baby to be trying to go to sleep. When he's a bit older you can get a feel for when something's not right but at that age I checked for no poos, winded a bit and feed and was able to out back down. I'd say if he's awake he wants something. What are his 3 solid meals? A month is a short time to progress from a mainly milk diet to a mainly food diet. Milk should be his majority until at least 1 year, maybe he's getting to much solid/food and not enough milk and nutrients.

Thanks - I think! I am now questioning everything I am doing as a first time mum and feel pretty horrible, but thanks for your replies. Just to clarify though, I don't leave him for 90 mins crying - I do check for all the things you mention. Also when I say 'solid' meals, I meant he is having solids three times a day...he loves his food, but he is still having the same amount of milk that he was!. Half his food ends up on the floor anyway!! I know he is still little and will get better at sleeping - was just wondering why he would wake for such an exact amount of time each night...that's all!

Felicity don't question everything you are doing, every baby is different, you're doing a great job.

Don't question everything you're doing. My 7 month olds are not having any night feeds (generally) so you're right not to assume hunger. I have just taken away the dummy from one of my twins so I sympathise! I think awake for 90 minutes might indicate too much day time sleep-how much is your baby sleeping in the day? Also-sometimes babies get into a habit of waking at exactly the same time each night and you can break the habit by 'disturbing ' the baby slightly before hand-ie going in and patting him gently just before..sounds counter intuitive but can work!

Thanks Peanut14 and chocolatedrops31 :) Glad we have rid of the dummy as was getting up multiple times replacing it, but not sure which is worse...up for 10 secs popping it back in every few hours or awake for 90 mins while he plays and shouts (& eventually cries?). He does sleep fairly well during the day - usually has three 45min - 1 hour naps at about 8.30 / 9, 11.30/12, 2.30/3....depending on when he wakes in the morning. He was having 4 shorter catnaps but that stopped a little while ago. I had thought about doing the wake-to-sleep thingy but he doesn't wake at the same time every night...it's usually somewhere between 10 & 10.30? Will see how we go tonight!

Sorry...somewhere between 10 and 11.30!

Not an expert but id give it another week to see if it settles down. If not then id cut the day time sleep to 2.5 hours-my twins sleep from 945-1015 ish and then 1-3. So if you cut the later nap out gradually and push forward the earlier naps, you might see a difference. Chatting for such a long time suggests to me being under tired (not hungry) and apparently dummies can sometimes mask under tiredness-ie assist in getting an under tired baby to sleep quickly. We just got rid of the dummy last night and my baby still woke 4 x, each time crying for a couple of minutes-hope that stops!!