Sleep Advice Needed (long)

DS (5.5 months) still isn't sleeping through the night. I know this has to do with the fact that he is hungry in the middle of the night. He does not like to eat a lot during the day due to his reflux. He has been eating better lately, but still not the way he should. The ped had told us that we should feed him at night because since he is not eating enough during the day, we shouldn't deny him that feeding.

Lately, what's been happening is that he'll wake up, DH or I will give a paci, and he'll go back to sleep for about an hour or two before waking up again - paci again, same thing. Eventually, I give him a bottle and he goes back to sleep and won't wake up again until morning. There have been a few nights that it's just paci, not bottle, but as I said, he wakes up a lot.
The problem now is since I'm off in summer, DS and I are both sleeping in way too long in morning (once he wakes up in morning, I'll take him into bed with me and we'll snooze) because I am exhausted from being up so many times at night. His schedule is starting way too late now in the daytime and I want to change that. I am speaking to dr again in two weeks when he's six months (we're away.) Until I speak to him, should I just give him the bottle the first time he wakes up so he'll sleep rest of night and we can get earlier start next day? Just not sure what to do.

Again, this might change when I speak to dr. at six month mark but he had said to still give him bottle because of his lack of eating during day.

Re: Sleep Advice Needed (long)

How long after he goes down for the night does he get up for the first time?

It sound like it's a combination of him needed to eat and being a paci addict. I know I've said it before but DS was a paci addict and we had to do CIO to get rid of it. Not saying that's what you should do, but he did the same thing - often waking up once or twice every hours for his paci. In his case we knew he wasn't hungry since he'd been STTN from 8 weeks on.

Message edited 7/8/2010 12:14:58 PM.

Re: Sleep Advice Needed (long)

in your case, I think I would do what you said and give him the bottle for his first wake up.

does he wake around the same times every night?

Re: Sleep Advice Needed (long)

Maybe Sienna's bad habits rubbed off on him at their sleepover

I think give him the bottle instead of the paci and then put him right back down. Can you give him a lovey instead of the paci? Sienna loves the lovey!

Then again, Sienna wakes a bunch at night so I probably wouldn't listen to my advice.

Re: Sleep Advice Needed (long)

have you tried giving him cereal with his last bottle, this helped us a lot until he recently started teething badly.

Re: Sleep Advice Needed (long)

He does like the paci but I don't think he's waking for the paci. It's that we soothe him back to sleep with the paci and then he wakes again because he is hungry. It does change, but I would say that on average, he prob sleeps around six hours before he wakes for feeding and he will sleep for rest of night after the feeding.
He has been getting cereal in his bottle since two months old because of his reflux (every bottle) so that hasn't done anything. He also started solids two weeks ago - as you can see, hasn't helped - lol.


ETA - he's also teething like mad!!

Message edited 7/8/2010 12:28:38 PM.

Re: Sleep Advice Needed (long)

try actually mixing some up and feeding to him by spoon. I don't know why but this helped more then just putting it in the bottle.

Re: Sleep Advice Needed (long)

I never FF but is there anyway you can creep in more oz in a day to make up for the one you are giving him at night? Either add an oz every bottle or just an extra bottle?

Not sure about your feelings on CIO but when we did it at 7.5 months it was like a miracle angel made DS sleep through the night. The first night he cried 45 minutes. The second night about 20 and then third night he went straight to sleep. All 3 nights he STTN not waking once and pretty much has been since. That was a year and a half ago.

ETA- since he doesn't need the bottle every night it sounds to me he is using it to soothe himself. You are bordering the time when you can start CIO which is why I suggested it.

Message edited 7/8/2010 12:35:30 PM.

Re: Sleep Advice Needed (long)

any advice I give I feel like I may be wrong because he has such bad reflux....

has the reflux gotten better and he is just stuck in the routine?? If so, I would try and wean him slowly from the night feeding...

Re: Sleep Advice Needed (long)

Posted by RandiG

try actually mixing some up and feeding to him by spoon. I don't know why but this helped more then just putting it in the bottle.

Re: Sleep Advice Needed (long)

I think the reflux has sort of stayed the same - not gotten better, not gotten worse - he's still on the two meds. I can only sneak in more ounces on the bottles I know he's going to take, which is pretty much his bedtime bottle. During the day, more often than not, he will not drink a full bottle - which is why he's hungry at night. I am definitely not ready to CIO with him - I don't think it's fair because I really do think he's hungry at night. He has not been gaining weight well so until the doc tells me to stop feeding at night, I don't want to. I guess my question really was should I stop bothering to get him back to sleep with paci first since he wakes up so many times vs bottle feed and he'll sleep rest of night...

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Re: Sleep Advice Needed (long)

Re: Sleep Advice Needed (long)