Wide awake 1-2:30...what am I doing wrong??

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Exhausted FTM needing some advice!!

My DS is 6.5mo and has never been a great sleeper. He's never slept through the night. Used to be up 3-5 times a night, which I'd feed him back to sleep from. He's been way better lately, up just 2 times a night which he feeds and goes straight down.

But for the past week he's been wide awake from 1-2/2:30 - after his normal wake/feed at 10:30 - and it's slowly killing me! He usually wakes up crying, we'll try to settle him but he gets more worked up so I'll try to feed him. This settles him but he's still WIDE awake just wide eye staring at me. It takes another hour usually of me standing with my hand on him in his cot.

Any clue as to why this would suddenly be happening?? And how to get through it?

Hopeful bump....

Presumably as he's 6m you've just started introducing food? I wonder whether something is making him windy and waking him up then.

Dinner was the last meal I introduced for DD and when I did I made sure it wasn't heavily fruit based as I'd read that fruit at dinner can cause issues.

Aside from that, babies do go through phases of waking at different times. Just as you think you've settled into a nice new routine that works, they change.

I would try to avoid you standing with your hand on him in the cot for an hour as this will meddle with him learning to self settle. Will he wail if you're not right there or just be wide awake? I've always taken the view that I don't mind if they're awake in the cot if they're happy.

Is he still in with you or in his own room?

Thanks for the reply @INeedNewShoes

We have introduced solids, but only breakfast and lunch so far as I thought the same. He's also allergic to dairy, so watching closely for any other food allergies.

I try to leave him be (he is in his own room) if he's just awake but not crying. But after 10-20min it always turns into crying. He never falls asleep on his own though - for naps and bedtime we put him down very drowsy but still have to stand there with him until he's asleep.

I know CC isn't very popular on MN and I never thought I'd even consider it...but I'm not sure if that's going be our only option soon

I did controlled crying with DD at 8 months and it worked well (just a couple of evenings of letting her cry for 10-15 minutes before going to sleep and that was it). However, I had never stayed with her to settle her to asleep (apart from when she happened to fall asleep while feeding) so she has been used to settling herself from the outset as I used to pop her in her basket and leave her to it (because I was very lucky that she seemed content when I put her down!)