6 week old - consistently waking at 3 AM

[Belladonsah]

My LO is six weeks old and for the past several weeks he's been waking at approx. 3:00 AM for a feeding, and then at approx 6-6:30 AM.  The strange thing is that he will wake at 3 no matter what time he goes to bed (he usually goes down at 9, but sometimes not until 11, if we are out for the evening or something) or whether or not he has a dreamfeed. It's always 3.  I was hoping that later dreamfeeds would extend his sleeping time, but so far they haven't  - although admittedly I haven't been doing them consistently yet.  Any ideas?

My routine is generally 3 hours EASY, with activity times usually being about 1 -2 hours (including the feeding) and cluster feedings every two hours starting around 4.  His day usually "begins" between 8 and 9 AM.  His naptimes mess up the EASY schedule on occasion, because sometimes he wakes up early so we have another activity time before his feeding.  We're working on extending his naps.

[Duckie]

Part of me is thinking "he's only 6 weeks old", so if he goes to bed at 9, gets up at 3, then 6, then gets up at 8 or 9 for the day...you're doing great!

I never did a dream feed with my oldest (6.5) and he was doing about the same as your little one at that age.  I tried dream feeding my youngest (22 mos) but it never really worked for us.  If anything, I was disrupting his sleep patterns.

[Belladonsah]

Part of me is thinking "he's only 6 weeks old", so if he goes to bed at 9, gets up at 3, then 6, then gets up at 8 or 9 for the day...you're doing great!

Oh, I agree! I'm not complaining about the length of time he sleeps - I'm quite happy with it, given his age.  The issue I am wondering about is the fact that he's waking up at 3 no matter what time he's fed last.  Could be 8, 9, 10, 11.  I just don't want him (later on) to start developing a habit of waking at 3, even when he doesn't need the extra calories. 

[hlatreille]

That's a tough one.  I have a 9 week old and he too will typically wake anywhere from 2:30-3:00am, I can usually hold him off for a feeding until around 3:30-4am.

I too dream feed him around 10:30pm pretty consistantly but he goes to bed around 7:00-7:30pm.

When I give him a bottle at 3:30am or so and he gobbles his bottle down.  So your LO could also just be hungry.  If he wakes up at 3am regardless of what time you last fed him it really is 4-6 hours since his last feed according to what times you gave....I wouldn't worry at this point, once he gets older and he is waking at 3am still and you go to feed him and he will only take an oz or 2, you know it is habitual.

You are doing great!

[Duckie]

Part of me is thinking "he's only 6 weeks old", so if he goes to bed at 9, gets up at 3, then 6, then gets up at 8 or 9 for the day...you're doing great!

Oh, I agree! I'm not complaining about the length of time he sleeps - I'm quite happy with it, given his age.

And you should be!  That's fantastic! 

He's still so tiny that he needs that feed.  As he gets bigger, his night sleep will extend longer and longer.  *Personally* I'd probably put him down at 8 and if he sleeps through until 3 without a dream feed, I would leave it.  But that's just me.  Like I said, my youngest was more disrupted by the dreamfeed than anything else.

[Belladonsah]

Soon after I posted this question, he started to extend his sleeps!  We had a couple nights in which his last feed was 9 PM and he slept til 4 AM, then 5 AM, then 5:30. Then last night, when his last feed wasn't until 10:30 or so (we were out and he was at his grandparents' house) he ended up sleeping until 6:45!  Yay! He hasn't woken at three again for almost a week now....not that I mind if he needs that feed again, but it's reassuring to know that he seems to really be waking from hunger and not from habit     It's also great that I get these long stretches of sleep!!

[Duckie]

YAY!  My now 6.5 yr old did exactly the same thing...was waking around the same time, then it gradually extended itself over a week or two.

Hooray for sleep!

Now never speak of this again, lest he start waking at 3 again.