Bedtime and night time waking

Hi, my son is 16 wks.

I started a couple of months ago spacing out feeds to min 3hrly during the day and it worked well. Night wakings went down to once and sometimes he sleeps through.

He has difficulty getting to sleep in the first place and I wonder if I should be feeding him when he wakes at night.

He is breastfed and the feeding pattern varies but is always 5-7 feeds per 24hrs, typically:
7am
11am
2pm
5pm (sometimes just 1 afternoon feed instead of 2)
8pm - then bed (put down awake)
10:30pm dream feed
+ another if he wakes 2-4am

Naps are erratic, he naps a couple of hours after waking and usually naps if he has been awake for more than 2-3 hours during the day. He always sleeps in the car and pram whatever time that happens to be. He has taken to falling asleep on the breast and it is difficult to wake him, I'd like to separate feeds and naps.

He won't fall sleep before at LEAST 9pm and PUPD results in increasingly agitated crying until screaming point where the only thing that calms him down turning the lights on and stopping trying to get him to bed until later. It takes anything from 30 mins to 2-3 hours to get him to sleep.

Our night time routine is a feed 5-6pm then bath 7pm followed by another feed to tank up, then bed. He is always put down awake.

Questions:
1) What can I do to encourage him to go to sleep earlier?

2) If he wakes at night should I feed him or not?

3) What next to get him to settle, as PUPD isn't working? Cry down, or CC? PUPD works sometimes for daytime naps and I can usually get him down in 20-30 mins but it doesn't feel like we are making progress at night.

If he's not sleepy (although I swear he is tired!) is it worth trying to put him down earlier at all in the evening or should I wait until he is visibly sleepy?

It feels like he is increasingly relying on falling alseep on the breast or in my arms to get to sleep rather than getting better at self settling.

Really appreciate your help!

written 6 months ago by Sleepy9486 - 19 replies - viewed 202 times

labels: routines | PUPD | controlled crying

Category: Routines

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