Night waking again

[Now we're 3]

Hi

Just looking for some tips or ideas of what I can do to encourage my LO to stop waking during the night. He is 7.5 months old.

To give background we have just come back (almost 2 weeks now) from month long trip to Europe. When there he appeared to adjust to the time difference pretty quickly (only first night when he woke and wouldn't go back to sleep) but did start waking several times during the night (between 2-6 times). As we were staying in other peoples houses I elected to just feed him when he woke rather than trying to resettle. I also felt that as things were pretty busy during the day, people around etc he probably wasn't feeding that much as was using the quiet of night to make up his feeds. When we came back to Oz we had a shocker for a few days regarding night sleeping (1.5 hours each night for about 5 nights). Again was feeding him when he woke but he would want to stay up and play rather than going back to sleep. After about 5 or 6 days of this he then settled back in to going back to sleep but the waking has continued. Prior to going away (he was 6 months at that stage) I was waking him for feed at 10.30pm and he was sleeping through to 7-7.30am really every night. This is what I would like to be able to get back to but I don't know how. Am hoping someone will have a magic solution for me

He is on 3 solid meals a day and I am offering him BF in the morning after he wakes (he will then have brekkie) late morning (this is then followed about hour later by lunch), mid afternoon and then late evening after his tea and bath. He is roughly having a BF every 4 hours and the solids about 1 after BF. I will offer him a little top up BF if I feel he will take it before he goes down for his two naps. He isn't staying on for very long at each feed. I assume as he is taking quite a bit at night. I've tried resuming the dream feed to see if he would sleep through again but no still wakes.

Any ideas on anything I can do? Or is it just a habit that I've created when overseas that I now need to break and if so how can I do so? While I am sure it is all normal I am finding it very tiring as he doesn't sleep that much during the day and I know he can sleep through.

Thanks in advance

[kelebek]

I don't really have any answers as DS has always, and still does, wake a few times a night. It could be a developmental stage, it could be that he needs the feeds, it could be a habit. You could try and just resettle every second time he wakes and gradually wean the night feeding that way.

Goodluck

[MantaRay]

Hun, there seem to be a few things going on for you atm It can take littlies a while to settle back in after a trip, so that might be all that is going on. However, around the 8 - 9 month mark can be a common time for babies to start waking more often in the night anyway. This is a period of rapid brain development in readiness for walking and talking, and night feeding seems to help with this.

How are you coping with the wakings? Mums who are managing ok, usually find it's easiest to feed through this until the sleeping settles down again. However if you are really finding the lack of sleep difficult, you might need to try co-sleeping or cutting down the feeds by cuddling and offering water (he might be too young to accept that though). What do you think is the right option for you?

I am sure you won't be pleased to hear this, but waking again in the night is something that happens at many developmental stages throughout a child's life. My 5 yo has starting waking again many nights since starting school this year. The idea that a baby starts sleeping through the night and keeps doing it is unfortunately a myth