Hello!
I’m struggling with the amount of information on sleep that is out there and hope that some personal experiences might help more – please do weigh in with any thoughts and tips!
We hit the 4 month sleep regression pretty hard with wake ups every two hours, but this calmed down to the following wake ups: 7pm bedtime, 10pm (soothe), 2am (feed), 5am (soothe), 7.30am wake. Now my son is approaching 6 months and we are following the same pattern, but now he is totally inconsolable unless I feed him at every wake – before I could pat him back to sleep.
I thought it might be a growth spurt as he was eating quite a lot, but it’s been over a week now and I’m worried I’ve reinforced a pattern. Now he seems to eat more at each night feed than during the day where he can be very squirmy. In the day I usually try to feed at 8, 9.30, 12, 2.30, 5 and 7, and he naps 10-12 and 3-4.30 (on a good day). Would he eat more if I fed him less often, is it one of those counter intuitive things?! He has some solid food at midday too.
He also seems to have most of his dirty nappies in the wrong half of the day – he goes at the 2am feed and at 7am he wakes up with a dirty nappy.
He settles himself v well at bedtime, naps and after feedings – this is in his cot in his room (with monitor/sound machine/red light). It’s just the resettling I’m not sure how to encourage. When he cries at night it actually gets worse when he sees me and even worse if I pick him up, only stops if I feed.
I’m exclusively breastfeeding but am a tiny bit worried about my milk as I’m struggling to keep weight on – have lost a stone on my pre birth weight and that’s with eating as much as I can (with little appetite – but I know I need the energy for the milk!). Having said that, he’s been weighing in fine so far.
Please let me know any ideas you have! I’m so worried about him not learning how to settle himself but also terrified of starving him in the night.