15 wk old wakes up at 1 3 5am! WHY! Help!

[Elijah811]

Hello I have a 15 wk old DS who continues to wake up at 1 3 and 5am...and has been doing so for the last month. At first I thought he was hungry because he is not the greatest eater through out the day. I pumped so I could yield how much I have when I am full and it was about 3 1/2 to 4 ounces. Is that not too little for his age? I also give formula because I am low sometimes when its feeding time...and he will only eat 3 ounces. So I thought he was trying to get more calories in at night and I would feed him but noticed he was asleep within a  couple of minutes so I stopped (at least are trying to sometimes its the last resort) feed him at night. So when he would wake I started to stick his thumb in his mouth (he's a thumbsucker refuses paci) and pat his bottom and he'd go back to sleep...OR I would pick him up hold him for a minute then put him back down stick his thumb in his mouth and he'd then go back to sleep. I have been trying to feed him more through out the day but he refuses. His weight is normal though. HOW CAN I GET HIM TO STOP WAKING UP AT THESE TIMES!??
For the last week he has been sick so when he does wake up he seems to want to be comforted by the boob...and seems hungry because he cries till I give it to him. His nose being stuffy doesnt help. Other than being sick could this week be a growth spurt?
I try to stick to a schedule but it sometimes doesnt work that way. He sometimes naps for 30 mins. Sometimes activity is 1hr or 2 hrs.  Dont know why. this is a perfect day except the night wakings
 
7am WAKE..only EATS a little 5-10min or 3-4oz

9am-10  NAP

10-10:30 EATS 10-15min or 3-4oz

12 to 12:30-1 NAP

1 -1:30 EATS 10-15min or 3-4oz

3 to 3:30-4 NAPS

4-4:30 EATS 10-15min or 3-4oz

6pm insists on 20 min nap

6:30- bath wind down activity

7 EATS

7:30-8pm Sleep till 1am

10:30-11pm sometimes DF...doesnt matter if i do it or not still wakes at..

1 3 and 5 am!!
 
Any suggestions?? Thanks

[Colin Macs Mom]

bumping up the list for you

[Elijah811]

Thank you for responding. Yes he is having short naps. Today he had a 45 min morning nap...and I could tell he was still tired so put back to sleep but woke up 10 min later. Then in the afternoon only slept 1 hour was up for an hour then wanted to go nap again. Its driving me crazy! Yesterday  the naps were also irregular. Hes a big snacker and I think thats why he wakes up before time..hunger. I breastfeed and do bottle but he definetly prefers the breastmilk...he wont drink more than 3oz. The problem is that i have a low milk supply so at every feeding I am not full (probably 3 oz) so hes not full and 2 hours later he wants to feed again. Ive tried topping him off after the breast with formula...doesnt work. Ive tried only a formula feeding but will like i said no more than 3 oz. I know that I probably messed it up for myself when i decided to feed both ways since supply and demand but i cannot feed ebf because i felt it was too demanding....NOW I dont know what to do. I think i have really confused him by doing this. Also I dont have a set time on what feeding will be breast and which will be formula..which Im sure doesnt help. I just havnt figured out what method would be best at what times. ( At 11pm df I do breast feed and at 7 am always)

What should i do? How do i stretch his naps?

[Elijah811]

I am also trying to bump him to 4 hour easy to see if he will eat better...not sure if its a good idea. Also have put small amount of cereal in bottle with formula for 7pm feeding and he drinks it all...that he will drink 5 oz....but not formula alone. Is it a good idea to keep doing this? I dont want to have to put cereal every formula feeding!

[gyorgyi]

Hi!

I am also having similar problems like you, my DD like to snack and has short naps and started to wake up twice during the night. She didn't do it since she was about 6 weeks.
I think you should sort out your feeding. I know it is really demanding but your LO is 15 weeks so you could manage to shift him a 4 hour EASY (or at least 3) so it wouldn't be so demanding to breastfeed.
Believe me, he can actually have a lot more even when you can't pump anymore! So just because you can't pump or only pump a certain amount you have to calculate that he is eating more than that. If he comes of the breast happy and satisfied then you can't say that you have low supply and should stop the formula.
Well, that is my opinion.

I know now why the snacking started with us. (And I am working on the solution). Our problem was, that she woke up too early and we both had the habit to feed her after waking up. But because she only slept 45 min she wasn't actually hungry. She only fed for 10 minutes max. Of course it wasn't enough so after half an hour, one hour later she wanted to eat again. But that was already to close to the next sleep, so I had to squeeze a bit A time between E and S (really low-key few minutes). But I realized in this age this few minutes doesn't make a difference. She woke up burping or pooing after 30-45 min later. So the circle begins. If I had more A time than she get OT and that was the reason of the short nap.
I tried to stretch naps just sticking to my guns and sh/patting til I die. Sometimes she goes back to sleep even after crying for 10 min and sometimes she doesn't go back. I think if she was OT and that is why the nap was short then she can sleep back with a bit of help. If she wakes up because the previous A time was too short and she is UT, there is know way she will sleep back, so I just pick her up and change her and try to stretch the time to have the 3 hours between feeds.
Sometimes I go for a short walk to take her mind of eating.
Unfortunatelly if she is like me, eating is all she thinks :-)

I couldn't figure it out the night wakings but I know that she can sleep 8-9 hours with only one DF so I have to find the solution to go back to that.
I think it's hard to say that I am not feeding her in the middle of the night, because then she starts crying and there is nothing worst than a crying baby at 2 o'clock in the morning. But you only know after feeding that she was hungry or not. If she only feeds for a few minutes than she wasn't and I should have tried to settle her without feed. Yeah, but who knew? What if she is really hungry and I let her cry for half an hour before I finally give up and feed her? I actually never tried to settle her back...I am to afraid that she is really hungry..but she is usually not. So once I have to pull myself together and try to settle her back even if she cries. :-(

Sorry, if I was too long I hope I could give you a few ideas or at least reassure you that you are not alone with this problems.

Good luck!

[Shiv52]

Also have put small amount of cereal in bottle with formula for 7pm feeding and he drinks it all...

I really advise against doing this.  Cereal in bottles can be a real choking risk.  And actually there is no evidence that that will even help a baby sleep better but evidence that it can disrupt sleep more.  He really is too young for cereal and it could be causing discomfort and exacerbating NWs.

Looking at your routine and posts I think the NWs are a combination of hunger/snacking and OT from the short naps. 

This is a time when a lot of mums start to doubt their supply as this is when the breasts stop storing milk and you produce on demand.  Like you a lot of mums start to top up with formula but every oz of formula you give is an oz your breasts don't knwo to produce.  there is a HUGE growth spurt at 16 weeks so it is important to feed, feed, feed when it hits and not supplement very much at all or it can really affect BFing going on. 

Those amount look totally fine to me for a BF baby.  And it is not unusual at 15 weeks to still need 2 NFs.  Pumping only tell you how much you can pump not how much the baby is getting.  babies are much more efficient at getting milk from a breast than a pump so its likely your baby is getting more than you are pumping. 

Did the NWs start when you introduced the formula? 

If he comes of the breast happy and satisfied then you can't say that you have low supply and should stop the formula.

I agree with this.  I would stick to 3.5 EAS and not 4 at this age. 

To work on the NWs I would pick one to work on.  So maybe the 3am one?  So feed at 1am and make sure he take a good feed if you can and then resettle the 3am wake up however you can.  Have you tried wake to sleep?  If he feeds at 1am he should be able to last for 3-4 hours without a feed.  And it may help shift the hunger to the day time.

But I think you arae doing great.  I think adjusting your expectations a bit may help.  2 NFs is ok for this age.  so 1am and 5am is fine s work at eliminating the 3am feed.  and then once you get through the GS work on the 1am feed and at least then you'll get a stretch from 10-5 which is normal for 4 months.

HTH 

[Elijah811]

Thank u so much to both of you for responding. I was thinking of trying to drop 2 NFs...the 1 and 5. I dream feed at 10 30 11 pm so he should be able to hold off till 3am....then hold off again till 7am when we wake up. I have been able to do this before with him...and just settle the other 2 NW.... which is why its so frustrating that he continues to wake up those 2x for some reason. I would assume he wouldve dropped the waking up at 1 and 5 already. BUT now after your responses I see that it must be because hes OT due to not napping. These few days during nap time have been worse...It seems like he falls asleep for an hour then wakes up still tired but unable to settle himself...which is odd because it didnt used to be like that. Ive had to step in after a few minutes since he starts to cry and is awake. I try to put him back to sleep...sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt. I could see hes still tired. This has affected his night time even more now...waking up more than 3x these last few days..and even waking up a few times between bedtime 7:30 and the 11pm df....THAT NEVER HAPPENED..he used to go straight through sometime not even waking up till 1 am. So its getting worse. I know he could sleep 5 straight hours he always did! I feel so bad for my lo he wants to sleep but cant.

Today I only breastfed every 3 hrs and he did good..no snacking. I think that I have been promoting snacking thinking that he did not get enough the last feed so he woke up early from nap because hes hungry..so I feed..and then only feeds a little (snacked)..so i totally mess up the next feed and nap time and the rest of the day!! Same with the NW...in the beginning I would feed every time thinking he was hungry and he would snack and I probably got him used to waking up. But like I said when I realized it I stopped feeding those 2x and hoped hed get over it by now. SOOO the only other reason must be OT...Im just not sure how to get him to take his full naps. Maybe the cereal is disrupting his tummy. I will stop. I just started today only breast feeding every 3 hrs..I will continue and see what happens in a couple of days.

What do I do if he wakes up early from his naps? Put him back to sleep? If so what if he doesnt want to?
Thanks