baby sleeping through night...

spaghetti_monster

...or not....Yes I know, that old chestnut and I did just look for the parents thread, but somehow couldn't find it..

Bit of background - LO is 5 months old and breastfed. Until a month or 2 ago he would be in bed by 7/8pm, another feed around 11pm (which he barely woke up for) and then sleeping through til 6am ish. If he woke at 5am it would be fairly easy to get him back to sleep by popping his dummy in and he would drop straight off.

Over the last few weeks he's been waking much more at night. I don't feed him in between 11pm and 7ish am, but try and sooth him back to sleep (dummy, stroking).
Now the last week or so he even wakes before the 11pm feed (which he never did before) and is grizzling himself awake by the time 11pm comes. the last few nights he was awake at 3am, 4am, 5am. Sometimes grizzling, sometimes awake and chatting. Sometimes popping the dummy in quickly drops him off, the other night he was just chatting away happily and then dropped off by himself.
He sleeps the whole night in his own cot next to us. It's dark with no night lights. He doesn't feel too hot or cold.

I was wondering...the last weeks he's been going a bit longer between feeds. It used to be every 3 hrs, but now he can easily manage 4 and over the last 2 weeks it's definitely been 5 feeds a day.
I was thinking that maybe he's not getting enough milk because of this (even though he seems satisfied at feeding time) and to go back to 6 feeds a day, maybe squashing them up a bit before 7/8pm bedtime?

If anyone can think of anything else or has a similar experience, please let me know!
Thanks

gonzo127

personally i would suggest a bit of baby rice before bed to see if it is hunger

the problem is that there is no magic solution to things like this, me little one is 3 and still has periods where she doesnt sleep through the night

spaghetti_monster

Thanks Gonzo.
Yes, I know that it's par-for-the-course and some people have it worse (at least he's quite easy to get back to sleep most of the time).
I was just wondering why he would change from being consistently quite a good sleeper to consistently quite a bad one...

gonzo127

really could be any number of things, and as ever i would try different things, first i would try would be the baby rice to try and rule out hunger

next would be a nigth light - i expect little one is becoming more aware of themselves and whats around them, so waking up in total darkness might be a bit disoriantating and since people go through stages of sleep and at multiple times in the night will be close to being awake, therefore lack of light/sound could bring wee one more awake

Plans_all_plans

I second the baby rice. And maybe look into getting some blackout curtains/blind so that once dawn comes he's not waking up naturally at 4am/5am.

aligerdie

Is he teething?

With my 3 eldest they've had disturbed nights while they've been teething, when they've previously slept through. As soon as they cut their first tooth, they slept through again.

My 4th little one is the same age as yours and is chewing on anything in sight at the moment - I'm fully expecting him to start waking regularly now until he cuts his first tooth.
He's also getting fussy with his milk now & feeding more regularly.

Perhaps try keeping some teething gel upstairs for when he wakes?

spaghetti_monster

Thanks for the replies.

I wonder does baby rice count as starting weaning - we were just told by the health visitor definitely to wait until 6 months for weaning as OH has allergies, don't know if that has any effect...

About teething... are there any other signs?? I can't feel/see anything but he is definitely trying to chomp down on things he can get in his mouth....About to go to the shops so I'll look for some teething gel.

aligerdie

spaghetti_monster wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.
t in case
I wonder does baby rice count as starting weaning - we were just told by the health visitor definitely to wait until 6 months for weaning as OH has allergies, don't know if that has any effect...

About teething... are there any other signs?? I can't feel/see anything but he is definitely trying to chomp down on things he can get in his mouth....About to go to the shops so I'll look for some teething gel.

Other signs are lots of dribble, putting everything in their mouth, sometimes red cheeks, iffy nappies, just generally being unsettled.

Definitely keep some gel in just in case, sounds like you may have a tootipeg on the way

Cooled teethers are good too, along with chilled fruit (if you've started weaning)

My little man is eating everything at the mo, I can't see anything either, but it'll just appear!

clearingout

until a few years ago, weaning was recommended at around 4 months. It sounds to me like he needs some solid food although if there are allergies in the family, you might want to weigh up the inconvience of being woken up several times a night for the next month or so with the potential to do harm allergy-wise. A good google would probably help you weigh up those risks logically!

aligerdie

clearingout wrote: »

until a few years ago, weaning was recommended at around 4 months. It sounds to me like he needs some solid food although if there are allergies in the family, you might want to weigh up the inconvience of being woken up several times a night for the next month or so with the potential to do harm allergy-wise. A good google would probably help you weigh up those risks logically!

I agree, DD1 was weaned at 4 months, then weaning recommendations changed & with DD2 and the others I was told to wait until 6 months.

It gives you this period of 1-2 months where you're thinking you should start weaning, but don't want to due to the HV advice!

My DH has an allergy to onions (yep, they're in everything and shopping is a nightmare!), but thankfully none of our little monsters have any problems. If there are allergies in the family, it's always best to be cautious & do your research.

Pisces

Hiya, I second all the weaning comments. Recommendation from my HV for my boy at four and a half months was 'stick to fruit and veg and he'll be fine'.. our son was breastfed and I now realise he was ready for solids well before the 18 weeks when I gave them to him.

Try a small amount of baby rice mixed with milk, or pureed banana, honestly it won't hurt them (I had rusks with all that sugar at three weeks old!). It takes a few weeks of weaning for them to get enough solids to no longer be hungry, but you should see a gradual improvement in sleeping.

Good luck