Any advice welcome, struggling!!

[user1492964816]

Hi everyone

My Baby is 15-16 weeks and over the last 2 weeks his sleeping has got progressively worse.

He used to do 8-4am, feed and then down again, usually untill about 6/7 however now; he goes to sleep at 7.30-8 (usually falls asleep feeding - bottle at night) but he now wakes up crying after about 20 minutes asleep, it can take a while but we usually can get him to drop off again , dummy, ssshhing, moving onto his side. But he will wake up again about an hour to 2 hours later crying - where we go through the same process to get him back to sleep.

During the night he has started waking frequently too, can be 1/2/4 etc, he usually feeds any time from 3am-5am depends when he wakes up during that period.

Day time he can nap ok - usually has 3 naps 30 mins, 1 hour and 1-2 hours- but I'm worried that he's becoming reliant on napping in the car seat or pushchair as I usually like to get out and about.

I've read so many things about a sleep regression at this age also that their sleep cycles are maturing and they struggle to get to sleep themselves if they've been used to an association (ie-being fed to sleep) I'm so confused I don't know where to start but I really want to nip it in the bud in case it becomes the norm. It's so demoralising.

Thank you in advance to anyone!!!

Just good old fashioned cuddling them still they stop crying and putting them down awake. Be really boring. Repeat till you want to poke your eyes out. But it will take less attempts every night. The important thing is that the falling asleep part they do in their bed without your input, and that you are not leaving them to cry alone in the dark. They will eventually go to sleep even if it is exhaustion at first but when they realise you will always be there if they need you, they don't need to cry for you as much. Good luck.

Thank you for replying, it's just so hard, sleep deprivation is the worst and you just want to be able to solve the issue straight away but I don't know what the cause is.

Have you tried making is milk feeds more frequent in the daytime? Calorie loading in the daytime means fewer calories needed at night and deeper sleeping.

I have thought about it- he can be a bit of a nightmare with some feeds he suffers from wind quite badly. I'll try and bulk it up a little where I can see if it helps.