DS 22wks, stopped sleeping through the night - what can I do?

[spongebrainbigpants]

Hi, first time clueless mum looking for advice!

My gorgeous little boy is 22 weeks old. He started sleeping through the night (9pm til 5.30am) at 5 weeks and extended this (7 - 7) at 11 weeks. Yes, it was bliss and yes we were very happy!

However, at 19 wks this all changed and he is now having between one and two night feeds every night. There is no pattern - sometimes 1am, sometimes 4am, sometimes 5am. We have tried dream feeding and it makes no difference, we have tried distracting him to put him back to sleep but he will not settle until he is fed.

I have read all the advice on weaning and I know that the received wisdom now is that night waking is not a sign of needing to be weaned and won't help him sleep. I want to do BLW and want to wait until 26 weeks to wean. However, if weaning won't make any difference what will?!! What has suddenly caused him to wake and are we setting a pattern by feeding him? What else can we do?

He's a big baby (18lbs 11ozs) but his appetite has decreased during the day and he rarely takes more than 5 or 6 ozs at one feed but will neck 8ozs at night. We have tried feeding him more during the day but he will not take it - contrary to what some people think you can't overfeed an ff baby! He is showing no signs of teething and is not cold.

Sorry for the long post but I'm exhausted and just wondered if anyone can help - I don't mind waiting 4 wks even if weaning will help, but if weaning isn't going to make any difference how long will I have to cope with this for?

Thanks.

He is probably going through a growth spurt

Sleeping patterns in babies are sadly not linear - they go backwards and forwards between sleeping and not sleeping

If he is waking at night and seems hungry and a feed settles him, then I would keep feeding him

In the meantime, try going to bed a little earlier in the evening

Its probably a growth spurt. That said I would limit his night feeds to say 3 oz to take the edge off - if he's really hungry he'll up his feeds during the day. Did this with both dss at a similar age. Have you tried just settling him back without feeding at all? The fact theres no pattern to his waking suggests to me it could be disturbed sleep rather than hunger.

Latest advice is to start weaning at 6 months (24 weeks) so you only have a couple of weeks to wait, besides at first he's unlikely to eat enough to fill him up so full he'll sleep through, especially if you're blw.

morningpaper, we did go to bed earlier last night which helped a little bit!

Pheebe - we have tried to settle him back with no food but to no avail. I thought the advice was 26 weeks rather than 24 but I get endlessly confused tbh!

DS woke at 1.30am and 4.45am this morning - and this time we gave him water rather than milk to see if that would make any difference. He took it and went back to sleep both times and this morning necked his whole bottle so we'll see if it makes any difference to his feeding during the day!

Happy to feed him if he's hungry but I just don't want him to get into the habit of waking twice every night!

If you're BLW though, the idea is that if they're ready, they will show you they're ready by sitting unaided, picking up food, putting in mouth, etc. Weaning is definitely not the answer to not sleeping in the night though - my DS is 10 MO and only just going through to 5-6ish from waking in the night for feeds at all hours. (a minor point but 6 months = 26 weeks)

And my DD is 2 and a half years old, has a hearty appetite, and rarely sleeps through the night....
Meanwhile, DS, 6 months, has been waking AT LEAST 3 times a night since 3 months. He started on solids a week ago (BLW) and still wakes up 3 times a night.
Just put it down to a growth spurt/phase...if your DS was a good sleeper before, he may go back to it!

dd did just this - her sleep went tits up at 18wks

she still wakes twice a night at 15 months [bleary]

nothing we tried (bath routine, early bedtime, later bedtime, co-sleeping, cot in own room, weaning, nursery etc) made much difference to her, though some helped us cope better with it.