5.5month old night feeds and rubbish sleep

[Jenniefire]

Hello,
I’m new to the site and in need of advice or reassurance that my child isn’t the only child who seems to be a stage 5 clinger!
his bedtime is around 6 because he gets so grumpy and very aggy if I try to drag it out and make his bedtime later.
I feed him 7oz bottle and sometimes boob also but he still wakes anything from 20 minutes - an hour and I have to give him more boob to settle back to sleep. Then he intermittently wakes every anything between an hour and a half to 3 hours.
I’ve even tried baby rice then a bottle and he still doesn’t sleep for longer 😵‍💫
(He does get trapped wind to which that also wakes him up from trumping a lot).

He did turn a corner and started going 5 hours then 3,3 but he seems to hit his ‘4 month regression’ and it’s gone to pot since then.
Has anyone got and tips or advice to help him settle for longer?
I love massively appreciate it!
Thanks 😴

Firstly, totally normal. Exhausting, but normal. He's so little. My (now three year old) was exactly the same, and my one year old still is. We did nothing other than wait for my older one to get older - he started sleeping through the night at 14 months and settling to sleep by himself at around 18 months. No sleep training or anything like that, we bed shared until he didn't need us to. We'll do the same with our daughter. We just have mattress on the floor and a baby gate on the door so I can just roll away once she is asleep.

Thank you for the reassurance!
You know when your other mum friends tell you ‘oh well my child sleeps for 8-10 hours’ you can’t help but feel disheartened and as if it was me doing something wrong.
He did co sleep with me in bed but he’s now in a next to me, I also think I should go and get him tested for CMPA as his gassy ness and other symptoms I’ve read on here seems very similar so that might contribute to his disturbed sleep.

Yeah, take that with a pinch of salt. So often someone would say their baby slept through the night...except for a feed at 1am and getting up at 5.30am 😂
Definitely worth getting that checked as if he does have an allergy it will definitely be affecting his sleep. My little one has an egg allergy and she's much more restless when she's had egg.

Mine is 6 months, CMPA diagnosed and sorted. Still wakes at least every 2 hours.

Mine wakes every 1-3 hours during the night at 6 months. It's exhausting. A mixture of wanting to be fed, wind or just waking for the sake of it! If anything, now we've started solids it's getting worse as he seems to get extra wind and constipation!

To think that I have had broken sleep for over 6 months and I'm still functioning is a miracle!

I’ve booked him into the doctors for tomorrow so I’ll see what they say. Anything to help him sleep better is a win, so I’ll try whatever 😂

oh fun times 🫠 well if it helps him be less windy and more comfortable It’s good but if helps him sleep that is a major bonus!

Honestly some days I feel like I’m just running on fumes!
it’s reassuring to know that I’m not alone in this struggle, which is called motherhood 😂 I love being a mother by Christ sometimes I wish I could afford a nanny 🤣 don’t know if anyone else has this issue also but my little one will not settle for his father at bedtime, he will demonically scream until I have to settle him which is annoying because I don’t feel like I can go out before bedtime.

What are you taking him to the doctors for? Sounds like a completely normal baby. My son will be 5 months soon. He usually has a nap around 11am/12pm then another nap around 5pm/6pm. Then I take him to bed around 9.30pm/10pm and wind down for bedtime. Varies nightly now easy he is to get to sleep. Some nights he wakes once, other nights he wakes every few hours. It’s just babies for you. All completely normal. I’d skip the rice as well, it has no nutritional value and they can’t digest it.

I’m taking him as I think he’s got CMPA, he’s very windy through the night which wakes him up pulling his legs up and passing a lot of wind, he does suffer from being constipated and has always been snuffy and sneezes a lot from birth which can be signs of CMPA as I can go dairy free but his formula isn’t. So I was wondering if it was that and if it is, to take dairy out of his diet to see if this helps me sleep a little bit better if not just to help him be less windy and in discomfort.

Are you breastfeeding at all?

Yes I do both, he has about 2-3 bottles a day (dependant if we are out or he’s at my mothers house) and the rest is breast feeding him.

I’d try more breastmilk, less formula. What formula do you use? Have you tried different ones? The Kendamil Organic Goat formula is dairy free and gentle.

Some days he only has 1 bottle before bed but I think my breast milk is starting to fade.
I use Aptamil at the moment, he has 7oz bottles.
I could try the goats milk and me cut out dairy but if I pump its not enough so he has to have formula when with my mother when I go to work.
I’ll give it a go though and see how he gets on.

The more you supplement with formula, the less you’ll breastfeed, therefore the less milk your breasts will produce. Latch baby whenever you get the opportunity and definitely try a different formula. Save formula feeds for last resort.

I think milk production changes again around 6 months so lots think it's drying up when its not, but agreed the more formula you give the more effect will have on supply.

Also I thought it was normal for solids not to help much with sleep at first. Might do if you clog them up with baby rice or whatever but now most start with fruit or veg and they're not very calorific. Formula is about 70 calories per 100ml. Sweet potato is about the same. Carrot and brocolli about 40 calories. And for babies you water down more into a puree. Chicken however is 160 calories per 100g. So first off, there will be less calories in the solids than a milk meal but will increase as baby progresses onto higher calorie food.