7 month old completely changed routine!

Hello everyone,
Your guidance is needed! I have a 7 month old baby boy and he has normally been fine with a 2 up 2 down routine of sleep/play. He had been sleeping through the night since 12 weeks old, and has since then been able to send himself off to sleep during the day with little intervention from me.

NOW - it is all over the place! He shows sleepy signs, I put him to bed, and he either plays for a half hour before falling asleep, or cries. AND he has started waking up at about 2 am for a feed.

He is on solids, and has 3 rather large meals each day. He is breastfed and has definately reduced his intake. I used to give him a bottle of EBM before bed in the evening, and he would take over 240 mls, now he only takes 100 mls at most, so I have stopped expressing and just breast feed him as I hate pumping twice a day only to throw half of it out!

Is a back-flip in routine normal? Should I leave him in his cot if he is playing?

He is teething, getting his top teeth, and has just had immunisations (at almost 7 months, I was a bit slack :() so I presume it is something to do with this, although I hate to develop bad habits and then have to keep doing them to get him to sleep once the pain and irritation have gone.

Well, had my whinge. If anyone has experienced this, please let me know!

Is there no one out there who has experienced this?

Dragonbub

Awwh sweetie... I hear ya! Aiden has 6 teeth cutting through and has a cold so is really really really unhappy... gone are the blissfull sleeps during the day, gone is the happy laughing buba.. gone is mums sanity!! I have no advice sorry :hug: but all I can say is that I know how you feel!! Congrats on the solids we are currently battling that issue!!

6 teeth! OMG. No wonder your sanity is gone! I would have to book myself in to my MILs house for the duration of that, for a bit of support :D I guess we should both take a well-deserved holiday to Tahiti...

I reccon it's an "interesting" age!

They are getting more mobile and curious but also can be clingy and needy of your attention. Teeth are sprouting up too and that can make them unsettled.
I found that Caleb started waking in the night and needed a bit of a cuddle, not so much a feed. He'd have a little taste and then pull of and snuggle in and go back to sleep.

I never worried too much about developing bad habits. I found it easier to go with the flow and things would eventually settle down. Not always back to the way they were but something more manageable.

i don't have any answers, but just wanted to say you are not alone. We had an amazing sleeper, she is 7 and a half months and that all seems like a distant memory.
I blame teeth, thinking of just getting them all pulled out and a set of dentures made!!!! ;)

I agree with Raven...its a very interesting age.

My dd slept like a princess up until 9 months. She was in a great routine, then came teeth, crawling and sleepless nights and clingyness. The routine was up the putt!!!

5 months later....well its been challenging!! Shes slowly getting back into some sort of nightly routine and is starting to be happy in her cot. I found that it was happening to most of the bubs in mothers group. Its just a stage they go through and something to do with that age.

Its hard work, perservere with whatever works with you. I'm sorry I'm not much help, but after 5 months of having dd awake for a 2 hour block most nights, I dont think we have done anything different to change her back to sleeping...last night it was 8pm bed and awake at 7am:)

Good luck

Melissa

Ha dragonbub sounds like a plan!!! I live in Canberra and it freezzzzzingggg! -4 this morning !!! Sunny beaches ahhhhhhh sounds beauwtiful

DB - As you know, DS is still not sleeping through, not much change there apart from the occasional 5.5 hour stretch.

But days - we went through about 3 weeks of what you've described. I was pulling my hair out! He'd been sleeping so well, in a routine for about 2 or 3 months (after finally sorting the one sleep cycle resettling business) and then it all went pear shaped. He cut two teeth last week and now he's back to normal!

The other thing we did was extend his awake time. I noticed that when we were still on 3 sleeps a day, often he didn't even appear to be tired when I was putting him down. Those were the times he play and talk and roll around his cot for about an hour before cracking it and wanting to get up.

I always found with DD that when a routine that had been working wasn't anymore, it was time to have a look at it and make some changes. So now he has two sleeps a day - morning nap is usually 2-2.5 hours, then an afternoon nap which is about 1.5 hours, sometimes only 1. He goes to bed early though, about 6pm.

Is DS still on 3 day sleeps? Maybe it's time to drop one? Seems to have worked really well for us. You might find that if his day sleeps improve, nights will follow. Gotta say though - still pretty jealous of your nights!