nappy change at sleepy feed? 5mo DS

[choolie]

DS is still waking 2/3 times at night and feeding (BF). The last waking at 5am-ish is a nightmare to get him back to sleep and I usually take him in bed with me. Hubby usually washes and changes him when we get up at 7am to have some time together before work, but was off sick this week, so I did it and discovered a hugely wet nappy at 7am. Went through to hubby in amazement and he nonchalantly said it was quite normal. So I started to suspect this might be the reason he wakes at 5am out of discomfort. we stopped changing him at his sleepy feed at around 3 months, so his nappy has been going through from 6.30 - 7am. (He had started to sleep through to 5am from 10pm, and went through a couple of nights till 7am, but it started going pear-shaped around this time - it didn't click it could be connected to the nappy!)

the last few nights we've both blacked out the curtains and started changing his nappy again at 10pmish, when he has his sleepy feed. The wakings have started to get better, but equally, he is now wide awake if I change his nappy at 10, usually stays awake for an hour and is quite difficult to get back to sleep. i'm concerned he's not getting quality sleep this way, and am quite missing our lovely sleepy feeds, where he barely wakes up.

So I'm not sure if it's the darker room, the nappy or a combination of both. Do you think it's worth changing his nappy at 10pm? how many of you still change the nappy at 5mo+? be grateful to hear from anybody about this! (Using disposables and have tried a few different ones lately to see if any more absorbent and drier - so any recommendations for a good night time nappy?) TIA.

DD is 5 months and doesn't have a nappy-change from 7pm-7am. Only once or twice has she been wet on waking. We use Asda own-brand nappies and find these better than Pampers. But I think it's probably worth experimenting as I sure different nappies are better suited to different babies .

IME, 5 months is a period where a lot of babies start waking at 5am. All 3 of mine have and there's a lot of threads on here from despairing mums who are being woken at 5am. I doubt that the nappy is making much difference to his sleeping, it's more likely to just be a phase he's going through that he will get over as suddenly as he started it.

thanks both so much, DS is stirring and I just quickly rechecked before deciding what to do! think will leave it tonight and see how we go then. I keep thinking that at the end of the day, when that glorious moment comes of him sleeping through, I certainly won't be waking him to do his nappy, so it makes sense to start leaving it now, and surely if I can reduce his night feeds, he will stop peeing as much at night anyway.

will give the asda nappies a go, ta for the tip.

We had the same thing for a while. We use huggies superdry (meant to last for 12 hours) and depending on how many feeds DD had in the night would dictate how vast the nappy was in the morning.

For us - the nappy copes 100% if DD has up to 2 feeds post bed time but more than that and it would start thinking about being gigantic. It wouldn't cope with 4 feeds. I used to change the nappy at 3am ish rather than 10pm ish as i found that she was more sleepy in the early hours and went back to sleep more easily. They're all so different though!

thanks, i have wondered about putting a stash of wipes, nappies and the little travel change mat in our room, like i used to in the early days and change the nappy middle of the night instead, so might give it a go if I think he's taken a lot of milk in. it's hard to tell now, as I think he's waking more from habit now, rather than a need to feed, but he does feed 6.30pm, 10pmish, then at least 2 more, say 2.30am and 4 or 5am.

It's usually difficult to settle him at 5am, so i might as well try the change then if he wakes again this time and if that makes a difference, then change him at the waking before that the next night. - sorry thinking as I type here! thanks for the tips.

That sounds a very reasonable way forward and we did that at the 2am feed too! Another thing - we didn't use wipes or turn the light on or speak etc to try and minimise the stimulation but just literally swapped the nappy over. This seemed to work really well.

Maybe change the nappy before the sleepy feed, so the sucking lulls him off again, rather than afterwards? I don't use wipes or anything - just a spot of cream and shove the new nappy on.

absolutely

well, quickest nappy change ever last night, just unzipped side of gro-bag and quickly swapped it over.
wakings 2am, 4am and 5.50am still, i guess i'll just be on this discussion list for a while yet then!
thanks for all the suggestions /moral support!

Then I assume it isn't the nappy that's waking him but he's genuinely hungry / thirsty that's raising him more awake out of his natural sleep cycles. You could try offering water at the 4am wake up or soothing him for a minute or two (does he have a dummy / favourite bear etc?) but be on standby with milk straight away if it's not that. They do go in phases and he's heading for or is in a growth spurt (6 months ish) - it's a big one and he'll need to eat loads.

Shame it wasn't the nappy as would have been easiest one to fix! think he might be waking more out of habit as still BF, so am trying to resettle first when he wakes now - I admit it's always so much easier to just feed as guaranted result, but think i need to help him learn to settle himself better.
cheers

what nappies are u using???....i used to use pampers religiously with dd and ds but with ds i found them full after a short time...so would have to change a couple of times in the night.I changed to huggies and i think theyre far better for him and he hardly ever gets a rash with them, plus i dont have to change at all and hes in bed from 7pm till 7am

we use nature nappies, but swapped to pampers for one pack, now I'm trying them all to see how they are, thanks.