Severe help needed!

lolabeans1

This is going to be long. So DS is a little over 6 months. He was a great sleeper from the get go. He was sleeping 8:30 to 5 or 6 for months. Until we hit 4 months. He got a terrible cold along with the wakeful period and he never went back to sleeping through the night. I'm fine with getting up once to nurse, twice even if I felt he really needed it. But he's up every two hours some nights. I also work at night like 4 nights a week and he's become very stubborn about taking a bottle from my DH. Same bottles we've been using since the beginning. Even I'm trying to get him to take a bottle from me for his last feeding the nights I'm home and its a struggle for him to get down 5 oz. I really don't know what to do. I'm stinking exhausted. I almost feel like giving up nursing ( something we both love ) so that maybe he would sleep better. I just can't go on with no sleep every night. My older DS was such a different baby and I'm at a loss of what do ? Could hex really be hungry every two hours at night still? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

this decaf life

Do you know how much he's eating during the day? Unless he's not nursing as much during the day I doubt he's actually hungry every 2 hours at night. DD forms a nasty habit of waking up if I attempt to feed her every time so I give her the pacifier and only offer to feed her once a night but sometimes twice if I know she was a lazy eater during the day. 

We did sort of Ferber with DD and it worked pretty well but we still have rough nights occasionally. I don't know that switching to formula would even help, some babies just wake a lot. I thought once we started solids DD would be great and start STTN but nope, she's just not a very great sleeper. She's been eating solids for just over a month and it changed nothing.

dulcemariamar1

I wouldnt give up BF if you both enjoy it. I dont think it will make a difference. Is he eating solids? I agree with PP. I can see a baby waking up if they are hungry once a night but if it is every two hours that I think your LO has developed a sleep association. Maybe, you can try soothing him with feeding or sleep training.

bennikki

I would also say that is a sleep association he has developed.  I was in the same boat with DS.  He was a really good sleeper (horrible napper) until 4 months.  He'd wake maybe every 4-6 hours and sttn about 50% of the time.  

Then, the wakefuls started.  I was just feeding him each time he woke up because it would get him back to sleep  in minutes, but then the 1 to 2 times a night turned into 4 to 5, and I knew we needed to make a change.  

I didn't set out to use Ferber (I hate the idea of CIO), but one night, the nursing wasn't putting him back to sleep, and I was getting really frustrated, so I put him in his crib (he was crying at the time) went to the bathroom and got a drink in the kitchen (mostly to get myself a better attitude).  I was gone maybe 4 minutes total, and in that time, he went from crying, to fussing, to talking, to OUT COLD!  It was then that I realized, he really did need to learn to sooth himself, and I needed to take nursing out of the equation.  

Now, if he wakes at night (which does not happen very often anymore), I give him about 2 minutes to see if he's really awake, or just having a vocal dream.  If he's really awake, I go into his room, turn on his frog nightlight that projects stars on the ceiling and plays a heartbeat sound for about 20 minutes.  Sometimes that's enough to get him back to sleep.  Other times, I include patting and shushing him, and if he still can't calm down in 5 minutes, that I nurse him.  I haven't had to nurse in the motn for several days.  I haven't had to turn on his night light for 4 days.