7mo awake every 2 hours

[NewMumSept2014]

Someone tell me where I'm going wrong please? DS is 7mo. He was a good sleeper to about 5mo but hasn't slept through since. I've posted a few times recently but things are still much the same. At the moment our routine is:
6.30-7am wake up time
Then breakfast (porridge and fruit or weetabix then yoghurt)
9.30-10am milk and nap
12am usually have to wake him at 2 hours
Then Lunch
3pm milk and nap
4-4.30 awake
5.30 dinner
6.30 bath
7-7.30 milk and bed.

There's definitely room to try and increase the amount he eats and I've been working on that.
Over the last few weeks he's been awake at about midnight (crying but goes back over with shhhh-patting) then 2am (screams until gets a bottle ) and is then awake (sometimes happy sometimes shouting and crying on and off) until 4am.
This was bad enough but the last 2 nights he's been awake screaming every 2 hours all night. Last night I gave him calpol (in case teeth annoying him) and a bottle and he was still crying on and off until after 4am (despite attempts to settle him).
I've tried increasing and decreasing the afternoon nap and it doesn't seem to make much of a difference.
Need advice/thoughts please! Think he's intent on driving me insane!

I am in exactly the same boat! 8 month old, waking once a night is suddenly up every 90 mins. Sometimes to feed, sometimes just awake!! He use to go to sleep straight after a feed but now takes 30 mins of patting and then is awake again within the hour
People keep telling me is teeth/new skills but that cant be true all the time??!!
I am an actual zombie.
Any advice would be so appreciated!

Sorry to say this but I'm so happy I'm not the only one! He can wake up and roll over/ self soothe really well during the day but at night his default seems to be wake up, roll over, scream. We blamed it on learning to roll initially as he would get stuck on his tummy a lot but that settled and things are no better!

It's not "going wrong". Your baby is going through massive development (other mammals are born able to walk, remember). 8 month development leap/teething/more hungry due to weaning can all disrupt sleep.

Majority of sleep "problems" stem from unreasonable parental expectations rather than actual issues.

People keep telling me is teeth/new skills but that cant be true all the time??!!

It absolutely can. Have you any idea how many new connections are being made in your baby's brain? It can last a couple of months. A quick google should bring up lots of articles about it.

Was baby sleeping through at 5 months? As in 10 plus hours of uninterputed sleep every night for a while?

If giving baby a bottle in the night doesn't get her back to sleep, it would suggest baby isn't hungry.

If this is down to teething oain or illness, I tend to find 4 hourly daytime doses are more effective for overnight pain relief rather than a dose at bedtime or in the night. So for a trail you could try 2 or 3 days of giving 4 hourly Calpol doses through the day (max 4 doses in 24h) to see if that makes a difference. If it doesn't, this is unlikely to be due to pain.

Could still be an infection - ear infection and sore throat are the most obvious invisible illnesses. You would be best placed in recognising if you need to see a doctor about this.

On from that, do you have a 'ladder' of comforting methods? As in a series of things you do to give increasing amounts of reassurance when baby wakes. There's no point just continuing shush pat for hours if it's not working.

Finally, there are basic coping strategies. For example you'll cope more easily with needing to settle baby in the night of the cot is next to your bed and you don't have to get up, compared to having to get up, walk to another room and stand getting cold throughout.

I'd also suggest your nap times are all a bit late and that may affect your night. I'd try waking from that morning nap earlier. Say making it 9.30-10.15am. Then use that to shift your afternoon nap to 12pm.

At 5mo he was sleeping 9hours- 7 to 4 or 8 to 5. Never 10+ hours. Just to be clear he isn't crying all that time- I go in and settle him when he's distressed but a lot of the time he's just rolling about and talking to himself. If he doing that I usually leave him to it- to give him a chance to go over himself. (Although clearly that's not working either!) thanks for advice on timing of naps, I'll have to try that. And yes, in the short term think he definitely needs moved back in with us.

Tittygolightly - thank you. It makes sense what you say. I guess its like when we have things on our mind?!
I must admit unreasonable expectations creep in as it does feel like all my friends babies are sleeping so well (but maybe they dont always tell me the truth!)

NewMumSept2014 - does he go from fully awake to asleep on his own at bedtime?

That would be excellent self-settling if he is! My DD had developed some really secure sleep habits but at 8 months she wasn't ready to be going to sleep without my reassurance (and her dummy)

Nothing wrong with your babe, all normal!