zombied

At 10 months, you thought that night wakings are for newborns or finicky babies. But for the past few nights, minibeanie had been waking up at 4am and seemed to take forever to return to sleep. He would have a huge appetite for milk, as much as 50% of his daily intake, and be wide awake standing by the crib railings and calling out to his comatose parents. And when he didn't get any attention, his babblings quickly became a shrieking crescendo. Finally, one of us would break. Last night, it was DH who stumbled out of bed at least 4 times to feed him twice and to pick him up. I was feeling the beginning of a cold with a sore throat and felt bone tired.

On Saturday night, we let him 'cry it out' which was a sleep training method. We decided that it was too cruel and heart-wrenching so we changed track and last night, we tried the PU/PD* method which would work in principle if the baby wasn't hungry! And judging by the amount of milk minibeanie drank, I'd say he was ravenous. Which begged the next question, how/why did his feeding schedule become so warped that he started consuming most of his milk at 5am? It could be that we were subconsciously giving him less milk during the day because we were now on powder formula. Previously, we had the convenience of 'pret-a-boire' formula milk - just open the packet and pour. I'd try stuffing him silly with milk today and see how it goes. Then again, one couldn't keep a baby that hungry during the day - could it be a growth spurt?

Night wakings appear to be a common 'affliction' among 10-month-olds. I read of similar experiences and 1 explanation of it could be separation anxiety brought on by their increasing independence.

*Pick up/Pick down

minibeanie is 10 months & 3 weeks old