7mo False Starts?

[Rowlie]

LO has just turned 7mo. Generally sleeps well at night and self settles to sleep, with one wake up to feed on average (not v. Interested in weaning currently).

For the past week he has been waking up 1-2 hours after being put down. If less than 2 hours I resettle with a cuddle and shush (but put him back in cot awake). If 2 hours I offer a bottle and he will sometimes have the whole thing (despite having a bottle 2 hours prior!). After that initial wake he will generally go on to have his normal night (will either sleep through or wake once for feed).

Seems like a false start although his sleep cycle is 40 mins so a bit longer than that. From what I’ve read false starts can be causes by over or under tiredness, but which?!

His day routine with naps is a bit up in air at moment. Below are two examples:

Wake: 7am
1st nap: 9-10.20am
2nd nap: 1.00-2.30pm
Bedtime: 6.30pm

OR

Wake: 6.30am
1st nap: 8.30-9.50
2nd nap: 1.00-2.20pm
3rd nap: 4.45-5.25pm
Bedtime: 7.30pm

False starts happened both nights. What do I do?

I’m no expert, hopefully someone will come along with some good advice. My little one is 8 months and it took a while for us to get going with weaning. Only in the last week or two I’d say it’s suddenly been a hit. He still much prefers to feed himself rather than me feeding him but I’ve found when I can get him to have weetabix for breakfast (which he loves) I can get him to last the day with just 4 bottles. Before that he would happily have given the food a miss and just taken a bottle instead. Now he’s getting into it and I’m just giving him everything and anything he’s really cutting down on the milk. Luckily for us nights have never been an issue with him, even early on he seemed to guzzle so much milk in the day that he just didn’t need it at night. I’d say keep going with the weaning and hopefully if your little one is waking for a feed they’ll not need to as the food intake goes up. I read Gina Ford when pregnant and she suggests offering water rather than milk if they’re not actually hungry and just waking out of habit. I’m not sure if that would make any difference here?

@Sarah13xx thanks for your reply. I don’t actually think it’s a feeding issue. I am persevering with weaning and trying not to stress too much but the false start thing I think is more likely linked to his nap/night schedule

I would say 2 naps but awake from 2:30 until bedtime seems quite long for 7mo -
Could you start 2nd nap later?

When you say not interested in weaning, is that you aren't interested or baby not interested? Likely hunger keeping baby up - in which case If food isn't happening, make the last bottle before bed bigger

@csectionmumma he isn’t interested. I am persevering with a mixture of spoon fed and baby led. Be doesn’t like spoon but has no teeth yet and coordination isn’t quite good enough for baby led. He’s having a few spoonfuls of porridge in the AM and some sort of puree at tea time with banana, avocado, carrot, broccoli finger food. He haas 7oz at bedtime.

Your nap schedules are good. I'd suggest this is a calorie issue. Try having a week if having an extra bottle or two through the day (by making milk feeds more frequent)

Thanks @FATEdestiny I’m already doing 7oz bottles every 2-3 hours and have to force him to take some of them!