sleep regression? growth spurt? something else?

[seafox]

I'm hesitant to post this since I read here often and I know many folks have babes that wake every two hours. But its just been a sudden change and w/ some other things that are making me wonder.

So, DS is 6.5 months or so, and before this was waking 2x a night, not counting the time I feed him when I go to bed. So he'd go down at 730pm, wake at 10pm or 1030- signaling me to go to bed, and feed him (we cosleep) then he'd wake at 2am or 3am so, and then 4/430am, and then 6am for the day. So often one 4.5 hour stretch and 2 two hour ones. Totally doable.

also for months now he would have a middle of the night wakeup that I couldn't get him back to sleep w/ nursing about once a week. Also doable - the mr. usually would handle that.

The past few weeks this morphed into a pretty consistent 1am and 4am wakeup - so 3, 3, and then 2. Also doable though it took some adjusting on my part, I was still waking up at 2/3am even though he wasn't! But then I adjusted.


last week he actually skipped the 1am once and slept 6 hours straight. So nice! I thought this was progress that I wasn't even looking for.


but then since then, so the last 5 days straight, he's now waking every 2 hours like clockwork. 10pm, 12am, 2am, 330/4am, and that one nursing doesn't work and he's *awake* and needs bouncing back to sleep. For five days in a row, this is just odd behavior for him.

plus, the nursing is odd. Sometimes he chows and is fine, but one out of two of these nighttime nursings he's on/off/on/off and its really starting to traumatize my nipples. He's got two bottom teeth and doesn't tend to open wide when latching - that combined w/ nighttime darkness and his closed eyes many on/off times hurts. So much for drifting back off to sleep while nursing!


I work full time, so this is just been pretty difficult. I am also sick, and am not getting better since I am just not getting large blocks of sleep. I might go to bed tonite when he does since that seems like the longest stretch (3 hours) that he can go lately. I had bronchitis, and was on antibiotics until last tuesday or so - this seemed to affect his tummy and mine - and his still isn't the same it seems - he used to never have evening poos, but now he does, and they seem liquidy to me. He seems much more gassy in general as well. Could it just take his tummy longer to recover from antibiotics?


before anyone asks, he's sensitive to dairy (or was when little) and I still don't eat it, I'm gluten-free for myself anyway (I'm a celiac) he doesn't *seem* to be working on anything developmentally since he's already done so much (he's already crawling, pulling up, and cruising) and I think only walking would be next, and he's too young for that!


so just wondering what's going on. we haven't started solids yet - he hasn't shown a whole lot of interest, but I wonder if he needs them just for the calories - he is SO active all day perhaps he is needing to eat all night? He's been pulling up for a few weeks and crawling for a month but maybe it took a while for him to eat the extra?

[penstamon]

I wish I could give you some magic but we have so many sleep problems here too. The one thing that jumped out in your post was that you were on antibiotics and think he is having tummy problems. We have started DS on infant probiotics and even solids (he's a month younger than your LO) and those things seem to be positively affecting sleep- either that or not negatively affecting it, kwim? If your DS's gut flora took a hit from those antibiotics then it could certainly still be causing bad poos and bad sleep. Maybe just the probiotics first and depending on whether you think he is ready for solids, start those later? Just a thought.

[Ava's Mama]

I agree regarding the probiotics. Both me and my DD take them. My DD is sensitive to dairy as well and I just went to whole foods and bought probiotics capsules that are dairy-free and I put some water in a sippy cup and mix the probiotics with that. My DD is 11 months and I started introducing solids at 6.5 months...she is just now into it and eating three meals a day (1 tablespoon at a time). But from others I talked to and my experience solids does not necessarily affect length of sleep. Has anything big changed recently (aside from antibiotics?) such as sending him to daycare, a change in daycare etc? My DD slept 5-9 hour stretches from 4-12 weeks and then I went back to work and sent her to daycare and we have been working on getting her to sleep well at night since then. We have finally gotten her to have a 5 hour stretch the first round, but still working on getting her to wake less the remainder of the night and to easily go back to sleep.

[seafox]

do probiotics go through breastmilk? I was taking some for me (although not that much) while on antibiotics, so I have some still - I could just continue taking them? Or does one need infant ones? I didn't even know there were infant ones!

My other realization is that this all started right after his 6-month appt - so 2 shots. That night he slept the 6 hours in a row (also unusual) but then since then, crappy sleep.

He is also eating a ton, and I think his front teeth are about to come through. So maybe its not just one thing, but all 4! growth spurt, shots, teeth, tummy issues. Teeth usually cause one or two bad nights, a growth spurt also one or two bad nights, so maybe they just came right in a row or something. I'm used to dealing with a few nights of 1-2 hour wakeups but just not this many in a row!


but I know we've been pretty lucky with sleep so I shouldn't count my chickens and all thanks for the advice! Ill look for infant probiotics - he is still oddly pooing at night, and still very liquidy. You can see the outline of the water line in the diaper, and night before last I saw it since it was during naked time, and it almost looked like pee the way it flowed. So that is definitely strange.

[seafox]

so up again last night pretty often - 11:20pm (after feeding him at 10:30 when I went to bed) 2am, and then did the latch-delatch thing which ends up waking him up, he was up until 3am - trying bouncing nursing again, etc., finally fell asleep nursing at 3:15 or so, then up at 6:30am, so that wasn't so bad, he fell asleep nursing again, and then up at 730, nursed again. so LOTS of nursing, and he goes through a letdown or two each time, so I am guessing he's hungry?

I just want to figure out the latch-delatch thing - since it wakes him up, and it kind of hurts after a while. Why does he pull off and want to go right back on? Is it a flow issue? or a stomach thing maybe? or a teething thing? Its really odd. I tried this morning to hold his head a bit which kept him on better, another time I squeezed my boob a bit to give him more flow and that also seemed to work. I just would like him to nurse and STAY on, since then he gets back to sleep better and my nipples like that better as well!

any ideas on latch-delatch - like a dozen times in a row when nursing? but always looking for boob again, its not like he's done at all?

[penstamon]

Originally Posted by seafox

any ideas on latch-delatch - like a dozen times in a row when nursing? but always looking for boob again, its not like he's done at all?

This may be a stretch but DS did that when he got thrush and something similar when he had a bit of silent reflux. But in either case you should notice other symptoms too. Is it possible you have an OAL at night?

[seafox]

Originally Posted by penstamon

This may be a stretch but DS did that when he got thrush and something similar when he had a bit of silent reflux. But in either case you should notice other symptoms too. Is it possible you have an OAL at night?

what is an OAL? DS did have that tendency back when he was 2 months as well, like you said, since he did have silent reflux. But when I cut out dairy that stopped. And it was definitely a much fussier on/off, he was in pain, after all. This is a very calm on/off, perhaps a bit hurried but no crying or frenetic behavior at all. Its just off, and then he almost looks like he'll roll over and go to sleep, and then rehunt for boob in a 'im super hungry' way.

thrush though I guess could be a consideration, since I was on antibiotics. Ill do a search on that and see if he has any other symptoms. I'm guessing it would have to be mild since I'd guess I'd have some symptoms too? I don't know much about thrush I guess! Ill look it up.