What's going on?....Please help!!

[spangly]

DS is now 21 weeks. He used to be a good sleeper. He'd settle himself for naps during the day, go to bed at 7pm and sleep until 10pm then wake every 2 1/2 to 3 hours at night. This was managable.
In the last month or so all of this has changed. He no longer settles himself to sleep during the day and even if he falls asleep in the car or buggy he'll wake as soon as the motion stops. He's also waking 3-4 times in the evening now and anywhere between every 30mins and every 2 hours at night. I'm exhausted and not sure what's caused the change or what I can do about it. Is it an attachment thing, overstimulation....?
Does anyone have any advice to help my little one sleep better? He looks so tired (as does his mummy )

My little one started waking more for feeds around this age, or actually sooner. We found that he was getting hungrier and wasn't fully satisfied on breast milk. And as he wouldn't take the bottle (the idea was to try and give him formula as a bedtime feed) we started him on solids at 20 weeks - on the advice of HV

does he need more milk?

It does sound a bit excessive to be feeding quite that often. I would either start solids, perhaps a bit of baby rice or try expressing a few feeds so you can actually see how much they're taking. Could it be that he has been teething and maybe being fed everytime he wakes has become a bit of a habit? More of a comfort now to get him back to sleep? Going 2 1/2 to 3 hours at night at 21 weeks isn't very long. Can you increase the day time feeds? Maybe leave longer inbetween daytime feeds e.g 3 1/2 to 4 hours so that he isn't just snacking and has a proper "meal" each time?

Thanks for your posts.
I don't think ds needs more milk as the amount of waking doesn't seem to vary with the amount of feeds he takes in the day. I have started to wean him in the last few days and he's loving baby rice but it's early days.
I do wonder if maybe he is in a snacking habit. He will occasionally take formula from a bottle (I can never get enough from expressing) and only seems to take 3 ounces or so at a time. He does take longer breastfeeds at night but the length of the feed bears no relation to how long he stays asleep. I wonder if maybe he's using me as a comforter? Does anyone think introducing a sleep association object would help?

what is his "normal" 24 hour routine?

Phraedd - unfortunately we don't have much of a routine at the moment. Each day seems to be different. I'm going to attempt to establish a routine this week in the hopes that it will make both feeding and sleeping more predictable. As a rule though ds will wake between 6 and 8am. I try to get him to nap at around 9.30am and again at about 1.30pm but not always successfully and he'll often only sleep fro 20 mins or so. Bedtime routine starts at abouut 6.15pm. Ds does tend to melt down in the evening whicb makes me wonder if overstimulation might be an issue. I don't know though - I've confused myself thinking about the possible causes so much

i think that having him in aroutine will help you both, particularly a good bedtime routine.

Is he put in bed awake for his naps?

Thanks Phraedd. I have started a daytime routine over the last few days (we've always had a good bedtime routine) and it seems to be paying some dividends. I've put ds into a routine of feeding every 3 hours (he was a snacker before but doesn't seem to mind the new arrangement). We've also started doing pu/pd for naps and today he had 2 naps of over an hour with minimal fuss - a first. He's also (so far) slept this evening so we'll see what the night holds. The naps certainly made him cherpier today
I think you're right - we both need a routine. I'm hoping more predictability from me will help get him into better sleep patterns and stop me making a rod for my own back by always using the failsafe feed to sleep.