Min,

If you think Jackson is hungry, then you should feed him. The reason why I say this is because when Jacob first started sleeping through the night, he began feeding every 2 hours during the day. It was really demanding, but it's what he needed. Initially I tried everything else first, to see if there was something else bothering him because I didn't instantly want to turn to the bottle first, but it always turned out that he did want a bottle! It's like he was trying to make up for what he was no longer having during the night, so he had to catch up to ensure he still had the same amount each day! I spoke to the CHN about it who said that if that's what he needs, then give it to him and to just give the bottle first rather than try all those other things first as it was causing me so much stress listening to him cry because he was hungry! You can't over-feed babies at this age, because if they're not hungry, they simply won't take it, which was definitely the case with Jacob.

It sounds like he responds well to a nice warm bath, so perhaps if you introduce an evening sleep routine for him where he can associate certain things with a 'big' sleep. Babies don't know how to put themselves to sleep at this age and need to understand a few triggers to help them on their way - this has been the case with Jacob, for sure! I found that as soon as we started a little evening routine, where he would have a nice relaxing bath, then a bottle and into bed, he slept through beautifully (until his recent problems with sleep). What we do for the evening is one of us usually has a bath with him, we get him dressed for bed in his room, give him his bottle next to his cot with the light of his monitor on (so the room is quite dark) and then pop him into bed. Works a treat. For the rest of the day, we have a different sleep routine, but mind you, Jacob is much older than Jackson, which you need to take into account. Ultimately, they recognise and associate certain things with sleep and the key really is being consistent with it so that they learn that way.

Whereabouts does he sleep during the day/night? Is he warm enough or too warm? Is he sleeping somewhere in the light, or is it dark, noisy, quiet etc? All these things can make a difference to how a baby sleeps. Have you thought about trying some nice soothing music for sleep time perhaps? What settling techniques have you tried....wrapping, rocking, patting etc? Often it can be the smallest change to what you do that can make the biggest difference!