my son is 5 months old and was sleeping 6-8 hrs a night, but lately is getting up every 2 or 3 hrs like when he was 3 mths old. right before bed he eats a jar of food plus 4 ounces of formula, but within 3 hrs, wakes up for his 5 ounce bottle. i dont understand this sudden change. its hard to let him cry it out because we have a two yr old we dont want to wake up and neighbors that would complain. we live in a small apt. are theyre any suggestions on how to get him back to his original routine?
hi,
this can be due to a growth spurt. is he eating alot more than usual? this is probably why is waking up b/c his body is growing and he needs more. i would try and give him a 6 oz bottle before bed and see if that helps or give him cereal with formula or breastmilk whatever you are using right before bed. not cereal in the bottle though. hope this helps.
hello, my best suggestion is to take the five ounzes he is having in the night and divide by the number of daytime bottles and then add the amount to them soooo he is drinking five ounzes and has four bottles during the day so you should add a little over an ounce to each bottle, and then he should be able to go without eating. offering water can work while you are wating for him to realize he is gettign enouh during the day.
I experienced this with my 5 mo old as well I read a book that told me to start his feeding an hour earlier and cut it down by an ounce each night. So if he's waking up at 11 feed him at 10 instead and only 4 ozs. The next night only 3 ozs and so on but keep the feedings at 10 until you've eliminated them. It worked really well and is now sleeping straight through it only took 4 nights. This way he's not waking himself up your waking him up for the feeding. Good Luck.
Will he eat more before he goes to bed? He might be going through a growth spurt. When my son goes through his, he is hungry more often.. so he wants to eat more often.. (every 3 hours through the whole night). My solution has been to shorten his naps, and feed him cereal, baby food, and a bottle before he goes to bed. If he wakes up in the middle of the night, leave him in his crib, and feed him a bottle... 99% of the time, he has a few ounces, and rolls on his side and falls asleep... Some other moms in my family have woken their baby up at 11pm to feed them and play.. and then the baby would sleep the rest of the night through.. you have to try different things... I have had to try about 3 different routines to get one that stuck and is finally working.. every baby is different.
if you can't let him cry it out, try just giving him water instead of the formula. He figure out that he isn't getting what he wants and should stop waking up.
