Help please problems at 10 weeks in

[Biba]

Hi

I wondered if any of you could offer some advice? My LO has fed really well until the last week or so. He now will feed for 6 or 7 min then start really fidgiting and pulling off the breast. I used to wind him at this point but even this doesn't seem to be helping he gets so frustrated as he can't feed but looks like he wants to. I am sure this is having an effect on his night waking too. Until last week end he was sleeping from 8 till 5 and now he has gone back to waking at 3. I have tried putting him off with his dummy till 4 ish if I can but don't know if it is just better to feed him when he wakes?

He is on a 3 hour EASY his evening feed is at 6 then bath and A time and then a bottle of expressed milk at about 7. He was on 5 oz so i upped it to 6 but that hasn't made a difference and last night he took 8oz but that still didn't seem to keep him full enough to stay asleep.

Can anyone offer any advice at all.

[daisymelan]

Hmm, babies do get very good at bfing and really shorten their time down.  But your lo seems a little young, but you never know.  Can you hear him swallowing?  Does it slow right down near the end?  If it does, I would say he's getting everything he needs.

If you are really worried, you can always have him weighed before and after you nurse, then you know exactly how much he is taking.

I have no idea about the night wakings.  Wish I could be more helpful.

Have you tried a df?  Maybe it might be a good time to try and implement one and maybe your lo will go longer.  Just a thought.

[Carter'sMama]

Maybe he is getting his 12 week growth spurt early??  My DS would always start waking in the night whenever he was having a growth spurt, so I would feed him (which in turn would tell my body to make more milk) and then after 2-3 days he would go back to sleeping through the night because he was getting enough again.  When it first happened (around 11 weeks) I kinda freaked out thinking my baby was destined to have night wakings forever so instead of actually breast feeding I used pumped milk in a bottle ...  I had this crazy notion that he would get used to bf'ing in the night after only one feed and be addicted to it ... which I must say never happened!!  Better yet you could send DH in at 3am to give the bottle so you can stay in bed!!!   

Introducing a dream feed is a good idea as well and might give him the added calories he needs to get through the night.

HTH

[Biba]

Thanks guys

I have been toying with the idea of a dream feed but didn't want to start one if it isn't necessary as I don't want to have to try and drop one later on, I will see what happens over the next few days if it carries on then I know it isn't just a growth spurt.

daisymelan I can hear him swalloing near the begining of a feed but at the end its very difficult to tell what is breathing and what is swallowing! And he doesn't slow down at the 6 or 7 min mark but if I can get to feed him again it does slow or even stop and quite often he will almost fall asleep.

[daisymelan]

Hmmm, maybe try feeding for 5 minutes, and then winding before he breaks off.  Maybe he's just too gassy once he breaks off and then gets too frustrated.  But this is just a guess.  And if your lo is anything like mine, he won't like you taking him off....  but it may improve his moods. 

[Samuel's mum]

I would also agree that things could be partly explained by a growth spurt but not completely.

Are you confident about him 'looking like he still wants to feed' when he comes off? Trust your instincts. If when he goes back on after 6-7 minutes he is then feeding more slowly (e.g getting more hindmilk?) perhaps you should be encouraging him to go back on. Try the early winding idea at 5 minutes too.

Can I also say that going from 8 to 5 at your LOs age is AMAZING!
Many babies do really need a feed during that time so don't feel like its a step back if he does.
Night wakings come and go for lots of different reasons. Things are not always 'sorted' when you think they are. You can look forward to teething, developmental advances, and more growth spurts in the mix. Night wakings do sometimes happen more when something developmental is imminent. Could he be rolling? I like to quote this study:

Scher A. A longitudinal study of night waking in the first year.
Child Care Health Dev 1991 Sep-Oct;17(5):295-302.

Abstract: A longitudinal study of the development of sleep patterns addressed the issue of continuity and change in night waking in the course of the first year. Mothers of 118 infants, who took part in a follow-up study of normal babies, completed a sleep questionnaire at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Regular night waking was a common characteristic throughout the first year:

Baby's age % babies waking at night
3 months 46%
6 months 39%
9 months 58%
12 months 55%

That's a lot of mums thinking their LO has 'gone backwards'!

[Biba]

Thanks for all the help guys, I think I will just have to accept the fact that that 1 week when hw slept from 8 till 5 we were very lucky! And that waking at 3 is the norm 

This is all so new to me DD slept through from 2 weeks old 

Don't think there is anything devolpmental coming but will watch him now and see what happens.