7 month old terrible sleeper

[YoungMummy97]

Hello lovely ladies. Very tired mummy here😂
My son is 7 months old (8 months on 12th). He is a crazy little dude, has my house wrecked haha😂 He was an early crawler (4.5 months) and is now waddling around all the furniture babbling away to himself and has my nerves wrecked😱

He was a fantastic newborn, slept all the time!! Between 2 months and 4 months he would settle himself in his wee Moses basket and sleep from 11pm to 7:30am and this was an absolute dream then when the crawling came he would wake 3-4 times a night wanting a bottle or to be cuddled for a while. The day time naps became less and less. With the advice of my HV I began giving him a rusk about an hour before bed and this made no difference then at 5 months he began having breakfast, dinner and supper along with his bottles. He absolutely loves his food.

At 5 months we moved him into his cot which is in our bedroom as I’m still currently only in a 1 bedroom waiting for a bigger house. He refuses to sleep in it😔

His typical routine in the day would be:

7am - wake up
7:30am - breakfast
9am - bottle
9:30-10am - nap
12pm - lunch
12:30/1pm - bottle
2pm-4pm - nap (some days he misses this nap completely)
4:30pm - dinner
6:30pm - supper
7pm - bath (baby massage after)
7:30pm - book, bottle and bed

LOTS of playtime in between, he is a VERY active boy, loves rough play on the floor with his dad, playing with his stacking cups and fiddle board. I try to get him outside for a walk or to the park for an hour each day.

He will go to sleep perfectly fine and we place him in his cot at bedtime however he will only stay asleep for around 1.5 hours before he wakes up wanting either a bottle or to be settled back to sleep. I am finding it impossible to break the cycle without having him cry it out which i have tried and it just was not for me. He got so upset and it was making me upset (I’m a big softy😂). I’ve tried letting him cry 5-10 minutes going in and settling him and lying him back down awake which results in an absolute meltdown and he stands up in the cot and just cries and cries until I lift him and bring him to my bed to settle him again. It’s becoming very tiring. We tried co-sleeping however I was too scared incase something happened during the night as I’m on the heavier side of life😜 and would be terrified of rolling over onto him.

I know this is sooo long to read but just asking for some advice as I’m completely knackered and so is my DP, he works night shift so he isn’t here every night but he helps out as best he can when he is off but it leaves us both tired and grumpy. When does the sleeping get better? Does anyone have a similar situation?

Is he waking every 1.5h through the night? Or is your issue just this time that he wakes up 1.5h after going to bed?

How many bottles through the night?

Does he have a dummy?

How do you get him to sleep at bedtime, naptime and when he wakes in the night?

He wakes every 1.5 hours through the night, sometimes he stretches to 2 hours and very rarely 3 hours before waking. When he wakes he tries to stand up, eyes etc still closed and just moaning.

He could go through 1-2 (8oz) bottles a night.

He has never taken a dummy he just spits it out or wants to play with it.

At nap time he usually goes to sleep okay after you put on some white noise and a gentle bounce in his bouncer. Nap time usually isn’t the issue as he will normally sleep for a solid hour at his 9:30am nap however at his 2pm nap the time can vary from 20 minutes to 2/3 hours.. this usually depends on that days activities, he will sleep better at home however if we are at his grand parents house it’s usually a quick 20 minute nap after ALOT of fussing and crying.

At bedtime after the bath we read a few books for around 15-20 minutes, he usually takes around 6 ounces then goes to sleep, he will wake about an hour later for the last 2 ounces in the bottle and sleep for another hour and this carried on throughout the night but not everytime he wants the bottle he just wants to be held or bounced until he goes back to sleep (probably my fault for starting the bouncing in the first place but it worked and I needed sleep). Once he is asleep I will lie him back down in his cot and he will wake again either for a cuddle or more bottle after around an hour. Sometimes he will wake and cry for about 10 minutes before going back to sleep could it be nightmares? Is it separation anxiety? He has his two bottom teeth since he was 6 months and no more have appeared could it be teething? He has between 20-30 ounces of milk throughout the day. Toast or porridge for breakfast, usually some fruit and rice cakes for lunch and mashed potatoes and spaghetti or some finger foods for his dinner and a rusk for his supper so he is getting plenty of calories etc through out the day.

Beginning to think I’ve spoilt him rotten😂 he is my first baby and I think I’ve just gotten him too used to be held all the time as he wants to be held quite a lot by me during the day too

How many bottles is he having in the day? The routine you posted says 3. If this is the case doesn't sound like much at all and I wonder if he is waking because he genuinely needs the milk at night.

Sorry just read that he has 20-30oz
Must ready more thoroughly.

I think you may need to adjust your expectations about his sleep. It is a developmental thing and you absolutely have not spoilt him. Responding and cuddling is actually good for babies as it promotes strong attachment and brain development. There is a book called 'why love matters' which explains this in detail. It's a good read.

I think daytime calories is an issue. Or at least it has been, and now it's become habitual. He is having around 1/3 of his milk intake at night. How much milk was he having pre-weaning? It's usual to maintain (Or sometimes increase) pre-weaning milk levels up until around 9 months, with food. being in addition to milk, not in place of milk.

I suspect your DS needs the calories in those two bottles. He needs tanking up (with milk) big style duringvtge daytime. Aim to fit 3 extra bottles in during waking hours. Plus of course lots of high calorie solids covering all food groups.

Only once you're sure you have his calorie intake accounted for can you look at night weaning and teaching him different ways to settle to sleep.