Hello all
I have a problem which I believe is shared by many, and just wondered if any of you had been through the same thing and found a solution.
My four-month-old had been sleeping through the night - 10 til 8, or so - since he was about 10 weeks old. He wasn't great at napping during the day, and would cluster feed like mad during the evening, but I thought it was a price worth paying.
It got to the stage, though, that he was so overtired by the late afternoon and evening, that I got firmer with his routine, and now have him on a roughly three-hour cycle of eat, activity, sleep. He only ever naps for 40 mins at a time, so has about 2-3 hours sleep during the day.
However, he now hardly sleeps at night. He won't go to sleep before 10 (if I put him down before then, he's wide awake, chatting, and then crying if I leave him too long), then wakes up at 2 and quite often 4 or 5 as well, staying awake for an hour at a time. He wakes up for good at 8.
He is therefore only getting about 10 hours sleep in total in 24 hours.
I am mainly breastfeeding, with a bottle of formula before bed. After a bottle of formula he's as chatty and happy as larry, whereas after bf he still seems unhappy. As i feed every three hours during the day (and did when he was sleeping through), you'd have thought the supposed increase in supply would have happened. He's also bobbing on and off the boob, and getting very distracted with both boob and bottle.
He also had his third big immunisations last Tuesday, which is about when it all started to go wrong.
So, ladies, do I:
1 Extend his naps, as he may be overtired by night time?
2 Reduce his naps, as maybe he's not tired enough?
3 Give him more formula (topping up after a bf) during the day to fill him up?
4 Hope it's 'just a phase'?
5 Punch the next health visitor who says 'growth spurt'?