Sleeping at 5 1/2 mos old. What should I do? (long)

[NiallNai]

My son is now 5 1/2 mos. old. When he turned 4 mos old we decided to stop swaddling him since he would regularly free himself from the swaddle any way. His bed time is around 7pm.

For a while, it was fine without the swaddling. He would get sleepy during his last bottle and go right to sleep. He'd wake up for his overnight bottle between 2 and 4am and go back to sleep. The only thing that started happening is that he started to wake up around 6 to 6:30am. But he would entertain himself with his own noises until about 7, which is when I get up for work and my wife gets up with me (I handle the overnight stuff because I'm a very light sleeper and even if my wife took care of the overnight stuff, I wouldn't be able to sleep with people moving about the house).

Recently, within the last 2 weeks, my son has begun to "wake up" momentarily during the night and I think it is because the pacifier has fallen out of his mouth and he sort of senses it. Without the swaddling, we have been giving him his pacifier at bedtime. His "waking up" is easily solved by putting the pacifier back in his mouth. But this has become a fairly regular occurrence. It will happen at midnight, then at one, then at two. He really isn't awake. His eyes are closed and he is just sort of rolling around his crib and making noises. I know when he is hungry because the noises are different and his eyes are open.

For the past 3 or 4 days since that has started to happen, I'll usually give him one or two chances to go back to sleep peacefully and if it is still before his usual overnight dining time, I'll swaddle him. Well this has had the effect of his continuing to sleep through his usual feeding time.

For example, this past night, he "woke up" several times and at 1am, I swaddled him. He then proceeded to sleep until 5:30am.

I'm not sure about continuing to swaddle him because I did notice that his motor development has seem to have sky rocketed since we stopped doing it. It may just be coincidence since he was really due for a jump in motor development anyway.

Here are my options as I see it:

1) When he gets grunty because his pacifier fell out, I should just let him work through his gruntiness on his own (which basically means putting my earplugs in at bedtime; I wear earplugs because our cats begin campaigning for their food after his overnight feeding and to drown out his morning coos so I can get a little extra shut eye).

2) Continue swaddling as needed.

3) Swaddle him at bedtime again and see if this carries him through the night, effectively ending the overnight feeding.

What do you think of my options? What are your opinions? What options am I missing?

[fallon]

I feel your pain...my boy does the same kind of thing and it is usually linked to teething. He becomes very restless at night. About giving him back is paci...the best way to do is just get up and give it to him. At that age if I didn't get Logan's for him the grunts became cries and that was more work in the long run. just know that in a couple months he'll be able to get it himself

[Kaytee]

If he enjoys being swaddled still, I don't se how it could hurt. The paci-- I have nothing, Nichole refused them from the beginning.
Also I think Fallon might be right in saying he might be sleeping. We also have a crappy sleeper during htose times. Of course Nichole doesn't always sleep through the night yet and she is almost 2.

[wildrose]

My daughter is 14 months and does not sleep through the night. When she is teething she will wake every hour.

As for the swaddling, if he likes it, keep doing it. They make Swaddle Me blankets that have a pouch for the feed and velcro together so they can't kick out. That may help.

[jenilouise]

If swaddling helps him sleep the go ahead and keep it up. If he gets hungry he'll wake up swaddled or not. And he probably is teething. I know mine is too because she doesn't sleep as well and she is whiny.