Wits' end...don't think they ever began.

[lemonslemonslemons]

I really hope someone has had a similar experience and can give me something advice...

...DS is nearly 7 months. For the last few weeks he has been waking up about an hour after I put him to bed and has been almost impossible to settle, staying awake/crying in bed sometimes for a couple of hours.

Our usual routine is this:
4pm BF
5pm purée something
5:45 bath
6:15 bottle
6:30 bed
Then he wakes up anywhere between 7:15/8:30 and will cry sometimes till 10pm when I give in and give him a breast feed.

IF I feed him at 10 he will usually just wake once more during the night for a feed. If he doesn't feed at 10 then he will want feeding about 12 then at 4.

I know he isn't waking due to hunger at 7:30, because he was fed an hour before.

I really don't know what to do. I find that DH and I are up and down the stairs all evening trying to re-settle him. Any ideas??

Give him more at the 6:15 feed?
What happens if you feed him at 7:15? Does he sleep longer? You think he isn't hungry because he has just had milk but maybe he is. I would absolutely eliminate that before letting him cry till 10 before feeding him.
Then see if he can do say 8-2 and wake for a feed and then sleep through again. If he can, you know he just needs more milk.
How many bottles/feeds is he having in the day? Mine was having 6-7 feeds plus three meals and a small snack. And then one more overnight feed.

When does he wake for the day and what naps does he have in the day?

It sounds like he may be either over tired or under tired in the evening... but hard to tell which without knowing how much he sleeps at other times.

Also is he teething?

Wow...maybe he is then (sorry to sound stupid!).

During the day he has 3 breast feeds (8am, 12pm & 4pm). He also has porridge about 8:30am, Lunch about 12:30pm and purée at 5pm.

I must admit, I've not tried feeding him again when he wakes because I assumed he would still be full from the purée and an 8oz bottle!

Our whole schedule for the day is this:

7am(ish) Wake
7:30/8am breast feed
8:30 porridge
10am nap (1-2 hrs - we were napping him at 9, but tried to push it a bit later as he will only nap twice a day)
12pm breast feed
1pm lunch (baby led weaning stuff)
2:30(ish) nap (1-1.5 hrs)
4pm breast feed
5pm purée stuff
5:45 bath
6:15 8oz bottle formula
6:30 bed

Oh, and I don't think he is teething at the moment. Shortly before Christmas he had all top 4 teeth come through on the same day! He's just over a stinking cold.

He might just need a comfort feed? A lot of babies do, it's worth a try? :) Perhaps he needs another nap earlier in the day, and it makes the bedtime one seem like a nap rather than sleep for the night. We had the same issue, but it did pass eventually!

Ok unlikely to be overtired on that I'd have thought, though I guess he is missing a lot of sleep in the evening.

Is it possible he is not that tired at 6.30 if he's slept say 2.30-4, and so he is seeing the 6.30 bedtime as a nap?

How tired does he seem at 6.30? If not that tired then maybe try pushing bedtime back a bit and see if it helps?

I've tried a few different things with his naps, but it makes no difference. I wonder if getting in an extra milk feed in the day might help. Maybe do something like this:

7:30am FEED
8am breakfast
10am FEED then nap
12:30pm bottle
1pm lunch
2pm nap
4pm FEED
5pm dinner
6pm bottle

So he is going from 8:30-12ish on your original routine sans food. Most older kids won't manage that (my 5 year old has a snack at school at 10). I would be upping what he eats and drinks in the day time and you might find it makes a difference. Ours was something like this:
Wake at 7 am feed
Breakfast at 8 am
9-10 Nap
Wake at 10 and feed
10:30- small snack- rice cake or something or some fruit to gnaw on.
12- Lunch
Post lunch feed
Sleep from 1-2:30
Wake up at 2:30 very hungry and feed. This was usually a bottle feed.
Dinner at 4:30/5.
Breast then Bottle at 6:30.
Initially he needed a feed at 10 and then at 4. By 9-10 months he had dropped the 10 pm feed. And was doing 7-4. And by 14 months had dropped the 4 am feed.

That's really good advice, thank you. The reason I had dropped to 3/4 feeds is because he wasn't feeding for very long, so I thought if I do less feeds then he would be hungrier and therefore take more! Especially as I am breast feeding so thought he was just getting foremilk...

At his age they are very efficient. By 5 months my son could drain a breast in under 10 mins. So I don't think the length of the feed matters all that much. Otherwise offer the breast more frequently in the day so he is nice and full for the night.

Out of interest, was your lol waking for the 10pm feed or did you do it as a dream feed?

Dream feed. To be honest I may have perpetuated the habit as I think he began to wake up out of habit rather than hunger at 10.