He was doing really well,but beginning to wake again... HELP!

[moosh]

Have a 3month old ds who is bottle fed and takes 5 bottles at 6oz. About a month ago he began sleeping till 6-6.30. Previous to that he would wake at 4a.m. and I would give him just 2oz of milk to get him back to sleep. Then out of the blue he began sleeping right through, if he stirred at 4a.m. I would just ssh him back to sleep or give him his dummy and he would drift of pretty quickly. The last week or so he is beginning to stir at 4 and it is a battle to keep him going. He is moving around and behaving as if he is really hungry but is having adequate milk during the day. this morning he was damp at 3.30 so I changed him and tried to put him back in the cot but he screamed and screamed. I have ds1 in his own room and didn't want him awake as he suffered a few night terrors last night and needed sleep.
So I treid to give him 2 oz of milk he was having none of it so I had to give him nearly a full bottle. Not sure what is causing him to wake at this time again for a feed, am a second time mum so know all his different cries. Not sure whether to up a bottle to 7oz and drop an ounce of his 2.30p.m. bottle not sure if his tummy could take it as he can get a little windy and colicky at times. He doesn't sleep too much during the day infact IMO he doesn't sleep enough, has 40 mins in the morning and 1-1.5 hrs in the afternoon and a cat nap at 4.30-4.45p.m.
Has anyone got any suggestions or been through this too I would be grate ful of any imput. Thanks a very tired moosh.

Hi moosh,

Poor you! That's amazing that your 3 month old started sleeping thru so early, and it must be so hard now that he's slipping back.... I know that GF is a controversial subject here, but I personally found some of her advice useful (and some not so useful). In Contented Little Baby there's information about dropping the last feed. If I recall, it's something like dropping back an ounce every three nights, and then going to cooled boiled water (sometimes with a little sugar, but I didn't do that). What I can't remember is whether at 2 oz. you were supposed to move on to 2 oz. of cooled boiled water. I'm sure someone else here will know.

Moosh ... I am not surprised you are tired ... hugs ....
I would do one of two things if I were you ...
a) Up his bottles to 7oz ... (FWIW my DS was on 8oz bottles at 3 months)
OR
b) Wake him at 10.30pm for a sleepy feed - it might not work straight away if he has got into a habit of waking at 4am but after a couple of nights he might drop that 4am again.

Your DS is clearly a bit more hungry ... he is probably going through a growth spurt ... my DD started waking at 4am again at 3 months ... but after a few nights she settled down again ...

I was just sitting here thinking about it, and was coming back to post and tell you NOT to do what I'd suggested, as I think the baby needs to be much older. Good thing Ghosty is with it this morning! Sorry for my s2pid advice.... Hugs to you, moosh.

Thankyou guys, I have tried to give him just water when he woke, but screamed until I gave him milk. I do wake him and give him a sleepy 6oz feed which he drains. He drains all his bottles so I may up a couple to 7oz. He is a bit sicky so am reluctant to up them all. But I will up the morning bottle to 7oz and the 6.30p.m. but drop his afternoon bottle by an ounce and see how he goes. I too think he is going through a growth spurt at the moment and he is a good weight at 13.5lbs. Someone suggested that he could be getting ready to be weened, ds1 was weened at 3.5.months so I will give it a few weeks, monitor him and see.