Sleep troubles

When the Piggy was small, I thought we had it made in the sleep department. From the time he was about a month old until about three or four months old, he usually only woke up once a night for a quick feeding and then went right back down. I figured we would just eliminate that night feeding at some point and presto! -- our baby would sleep through the night.

Boy, was I wrong. If anything, the Piggy's sleep habits have been getting progressively worse over the past few months. I have tried a number of things. I've tried putting him to bed earlier, since everyone says babies are pre-programmed to go to sleep at around 7:00 p.m. This actually seems to exacerbate the nighttime waking problem. It is not unusual that I will put him down at 7:00 and he will wake up every two or three hours over a twelve-hour period, sometimes refusing to easily go back to sleep. If I let him stay up until 9:00 or 10:00, things usually go a bit better, but I could still easily be up two or three times a night with him.

We've tried a variety of sleeping arrangements for several nights each, none of which seemed to help. In our room, in his own nursery, with a night light, or without, his inability to sleep well seems to persist.

What is going on here? A few possibilities I've considered are food allergies, room temperature, and hunger. Our pediatrician believes it's quite probable the baby has food allergies and has difficulty sleeping because of stomach discomfort. Maybe. We are going to see an allergist to further evaluate this and the face stuff. What seems strange to me about this is that I typically give the baby solid foods in the morning. He usually takes a pretty decent nap during the day, and you'd think the solids would be digested by bedtime. Maybe not, though.

It does occasionally get kind of cold in our bedroom, even if we keep our swamp cooler on vent. The baby inevitably kicks any blanket off, and I'm not sure if I should just start putting him in winter PJs, or what. A sleeper seems to be more comfortable for him than just a onesie, but it seems like a lot for the summer. I need to start being more consistent about dressing him warmly and see if that could be the key.

Could he be hungry? Maybe. This is extraordinarily difficult to gauge, because on any given day the Piggy spends a few hours in the morning with me, maybe an hour or so with his grandma, then another few hours with Jared, then another hour with grandma, then the rest of the evening with me. Figuring out how much and when he is eating during that time is a challenge. I guess the easy solution would be to have him on a feeding schedule (novel idea, I know) but I've tried to be on-demand rather than regimented. I think the next-best thing would be to keep a feeding log that we all use so that I can quickly see if his intake is too low when I get home from work and make sure he gets plenty to eat before bedtime.

Last night he woke up crying at 2:00 a.m. and nothing I tried worked to soothe him. I finally made a 6-ounce bottle which he sucked right down and then conked out. So I think there is potentially a hunger factor coming into play here.

The poor Piggy. He would probably be as happy as I would to get a decent night's sleep.