Regression/growth spurt/time to start sleep training?

[McFox]

Hi, advice required before exhaustion gets the better of me please

My DS is 5 months old in a couple of days and his sleep went haywire 3/4 weeks ago. Previous to that he'd been sleeping from 7pm to 6am. Now he's awake every 2 to 3 hours and is hungry enough to eat between 150 and 210ml. He falls asleep again straight after eating.

He wasn't gaining weight well until about 6 weeks ago but I moved from bf to ff at that point on doctors orders and since then he has put on 4llbs or so.

Putting him down isn't a problem, he self settles pretty well (he will occasionally wake after 45 mins and will not go back down for a while though) it's just the frequent night waking that is.

He naps well during the day, usually 1 x 45 min 2 hours after getting up, a longer sleep of about 1 1/2 to 2 hours early afternoon, then 2 naps of about half an hour before he goes to bed at 7/7.30pm.

So, do I just ride it out? Or do I start trying to wean him off one of the night feeds? When he gets up in the morning he often doesn't want his breakfast bottle at 8/9ish, so I think that he might be eating too much during the night. We got up at 8.30 this morning and he's only had 140ml so far.

My DH works away during the week and I don't have my family nearby, so it's pretty difficult somedays.

Sorry that was long - any thoughts would be appreciated!

Hi mcfox
No advice I'm afraid but lots of sympathy as we're in a similar position and have been asking ourselves the same questions!
DD is 18 weeks and day and night sleep is all over the place. We were up at 8:30, 11, 2, 3:15 last night. Tried to settle her without food but in the end I fed her at 8:30, 11 and 3:15. She is BF though and has always gained weight well.
Will be watching with interest for any wise words of advice.

Thanks redrose, hopefully there is some good advice out there for us!

I am watching too. DD2 (5 months) is doing the same thing. DD1 never did this so I don't know what to do!

We actually had a good night last night

He slept from 8 til 1am, had a quick feed with his eyes still shut, then slept again until 5am and took another full bottle. That was him again until 7 and back down for a nap at 9am for 45 mins. I almost feel human!

Fingers crossed this is the start of things improving...

Fingers crossed for you too! X

What strikes me from your post is that your DS is having far too much daytime sleep for a child of his age - I suspect that may have a lot to do with it. My youngest has less nap time than that at 10 weeks!
Sounds like things may be getting better but if not I would aim for: half hour morning nap, 2 hour nap post-lunch and then if it's absolutely essential, 15 mins in the afternoon no later than about 4.30.

Hmm I'm not convinced that too much daytime sleep is the problem, I am surprised that your 10 week old sleeps less than that though! I suppose that they are all just different.

Things have been better for the past few nights, with only 1 feed between 10.30/11pm and 6am which is fine by me. Fingers crossed that things continue to improve.

How much is he eating during the day? When my LO was able to take 40 ounces during the day, I stopped night feeds. (That was the recommended amount for his age, and he alway did well with those guidelines.) To stop I decreased the night feed by an ounce every day until we were down to three ounces, then stopped altogether. If he has enough during the day it is worth trying this, but if not maybe you can try to add an ounce or so at each feed, or even another small one somewhere?

As for sleep, 8:30 is late for a baby that age. With that taken into consideration, maybe one of the half hour naps needs to go? LO was also a good sleeper and still is at ten months, with a few very rough spots during teething and growth spurts. Could he be waking up because of teething? With a 7:30 bedtime no napping after 4pm helped. When he got into the habit of early waking a few weeks ago I pushed his bedtime up to 7. He is sleeping more solidly and through to 6/6:30 again. I am very happy with solid hours and hope this continues