He WAS a good sleeper. Please help!

[DoubleCarrick]

Ds is 6.5 months old. At 3 months he was sleeping through. At the minute we're having about three night wakings. The final one is usually about 4am and he is normally awake for an hour - wide awake and playing and cooing.

He was such a good.sleeper and now I feel.like my friends babies are taking over. I know he's not too bad though.

I think weaning could be the problem. He's never been a milky baby and as a maximum will only have about 70ml at a time. He feeds roughly every three hours during the day and small amounts of finger food X3 per day. I always offer milk before solids.

He goes down really well between 7 and half past - self settles after a feed with no crying.

He's tired during the day as he has a restless night. I genuinely think he's waking up hungry as the other night he woke at 4am to play and refused a feed because he'd had one two hours previously so I don't think it's comfort feeding. I don't know if I want to drop night feeds as I don't think he's taking enough milk as it is

I bring him into bed with me when he wakes for the hour as it's easier - I'm pregnant and exhausted. Last week, however, he did stay in his cot all night so I'm not convinced he's messing around just to come.into bed with me.

I'm at mums this week and annoyingly when he woke at 5.15 she took him off me so I could have more sleep (I was very thankful) but then she opened the curtains in the living room and played with him for an hour before he was ready to go back to sleep!

He naps well in his cot and seems to be moving from X3 naps a day to X2 naps a day currently.

Any advice would be appreciated! We're more along the lines of gentle parenting so wouldn't do cio. Thank you!

How do you get him to sleep?

Put him in his cot. Give him milk. Then leave him. He's always awake after his feed, tends to roll around a little, suck his comforter and make a few talking/moaning type sounds and drifts off within about ten minutes. Sometimes one of us sits in the room, sometimes we just leave and close the door. If he ever gets distressed we go back and comfort - usually he just wants a little more milk and then will drift off independently.

I'm currently sat on my bed and he's just laying in his travel cot (at mums) stroking his hands together. He'll be asleep within a couple of minutes

I'm a bit confused as to what happens to get him to sleep.

He is having him milk while lying in the cot? Is he left with a bottle on his own? Is he lying flat in the cot to have his bottle?

Is his comforter a dummy? What happens if he can't reach his comforter?

What are you doing when he needs extra help to get to sleep?

Ah sorry. We put him down and give him milk while he's in his cot. His comforter is a little lamb with a fleece thing on it. We gave it as he was scratching his exczma which has really helped as we thought the scratching was bothering him. He was waking up in the morning with really deep scratches.

He pushes the bottle away after a while (we hold the bottle), rolls over, moves around for about five minutes and is then asleep.

He doesn't seem to lose his comforter. It's always next to him when I go to him in the night and often he's holding it, chewing on it.

If he doesn't settle we offer more milk which then allows him to finish his feed, then settle himself again.

He went down beautifully at about 7.30. Fed at 9.30 (a full feed for him, 80ml) a small feed at 1.30.

I decided to do an experiment to see whether he was waking because he wanted me so brought him into bed at that point to see if he'd sleep through. Also took his comforter to see if it was distracting him. He woke at 4.30, had a full feed and then wouldn't go back to sleep. He was slightly sick five times (!!!) and after 45 minutes I got fed up with him rolling around in the bed. I put him back in his cot (he's in my room while at mums) with his comforter and he chatted to himself till about 6.15 and then went back to sleep with no input from me.

I'm beyond tired - I was up till 11 talking some things through with mum last night

Is there a reason you are giving him the bottle in the cot? It must give really bad wind, baby's head should be above the stomach for a feed. Do you wind baby at all at night?

I would suggest that at bedtime you start with moving feeding out of the cot at night wakes. At bedtime and naptime completely disassociated feeding and sleeping, so give the bedtime bottle before bath and changing into night clothes.

Make sure you always, always lift baby into your shoulder and wind until burping after a feed. Is this something you usually do or not?

I think most of your problems are winding related. Very easy to solve. Stop feeding baby in the cot, feed in your arms with baby in an inclined position with head above tummy. Then after the feed is finished, put baby in an upright position (like with gead on yoir shoulder) rub and pat baby's back until a burp comes. There are other winding positions, if you Google.

Always always wind, after every feed. It is more important to wind well at night, because if baby lying flat.

We used to find that putting him down after a feed would disturb him. He's probably grown out of that by now though so that's a fair point.

He's not a massively windy baby but has been extra sicky at mums as we've gone from hard to soft water.

I think I feed so late because I worry about getting enough milk into him and he doesn't take much until he feels ready to go to sleep.

I'll try feeding him out of the cot for a couple of weeks and see how it goes.

We don't really tend to wind after a feed but hold him upright and he will often burp. We were very religious about winding him but then he became really hard to wind so we just hold till he burps.

Thank you - I shall update

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This sounds like your story...

Thank you so much for this reminder!!!!

I've always been pretty baby led and have felt like it's worked quite well but I'm starting to doubt myself and I have no idea why.

Actually that's a lie. I love bringing Ds into bed. He properly curls in like a little spoon. I'm due baby number two when he's 13 months though and although I have no expectation for him to be able to sleep through, I won't be able to have him in my bed as a newborn in a Moses basket will disturb him.

I've just tried to wind him when he was rubbing his eyes. It didn't work and now he's laying in his crib wide awake. Funny though, he rolled onto his tummy and burped within seconds.

Sleep is so hard. I need to remember he's a baby and I'm very lucky he'll self settle and has learnt that without being left to cry. Very lucky.

I will definitely stop feeding him in his cot though

Fed outside his cot and has settled himself to sleep with his Lambie. It's taken 25 minutes from start to finish. Can't complain. Let's see what the night brings

Last night was better. 9.30pm quick feed and 2am quick feed. Then he woke for the day at 7.15 (although restless from 4am onwards). Spent the whole night in his bed.

He only had two naps today so went down at 7 and has literally just had a feed (8.45pm) so we shall see how tonight goes.

This is going to be my little online diary

Four improved nights - 1) 4am feed, 2) 3am feed, 3) 5.10am feed, 4) woke up screaming at 11pm, snotty and uncomfortable, calpol, slept through in my bed till 7.30 although restless because of the snot.

I guess we're passing out of the phase now, thank goodness!