DS is 17+3 weeks. He went through a massive growth spurt about 10 days ago, where he was taking an extra 3-4 feeds in the day, and went from usually sleeping from 10:30 feed through to 7am to waking at 3 and 6am.
Now he is happily back to feeding 3-4 hourly during the day (as he did before spurt), but is continuing to wake at 3am and 5:30am (virtually to the minute) every night. i have tried feeding earlier and later at the 10:30 feed, and he still wakes at the same time.
He is breastfed, but has formula for his first night feed (the 3am one).
For the last two nights, he has had an extra 2 oz at this feed (was having 4oz, now having 6), and it has made absolutely no difference, he is still waking at 5:30am. For the past two days I have also given him extra feeds during the day in the hope of getting some extra calories into him, which has made no difference. When he wakes at 5:40, he feeds for literally 5-10 mins before conking out (he is a supremely slow feeder, usually taking 45 mins for a feed, so I am positive he is not getting anything close to a full feed at this time).
Unfortunately he also conks out into a very light sleep, so I cannot get him back into his cot - the only way I can keep him asleep is to bounce him in his bouncy chair until 7/7:30am (he wakes when i stop bouncing, he doesn't wake up hungry - I can keep bouncing till 8am if I want!). if I stop, he wakes. This means I am getting a grand total of 5.5 hours sleep a night!
If I felt he was actually hungry at this time, and was taking a full feed, I would have absolutely no problem with the waking - I am not interested in 'forcing' him to go through the night. however, i really don't think he is waking hungry.
I am thinking that perhaps he is struggling to resettle when he wakes, and I'm wondering whether I should try harder with settling him in his cot (currently he settles in his cot for his morning nap every day, but the rest of his sleeps are either in the pram or on us, and in the night I hold him till he's asleep and then pop him in the cot).
House is definitely not too cold - we are lucky to live in a nice and cosy house which doesn't drop below 17 degrees at night (thermometer tells us max and min temp).
So, would you begin to be a bit firmer about trying to resettle him at 5:30 without a feed? Or trying to resettle him for a little bit before the 3am feed? And does anyone think settling in the cot might improve things?
Whatever we attempt we won't do until late next week, as we have a free weekend so can nap during the day, so am giving him maximum time to sort himself out.
Any ideas much appreciated.