10 weeks NW hunger o need to suckle?

[nanita]

Hi,

My baby is still waking during the night  (almost always at 2:30 am  and then she can wake up at 4, 5 or 6), but the book says touchy babies generally sleep through the night by 10 weeks! (too literal??

I have two issues with this:

She doesnīt accept pacifiers, and believe me, Iīve been persistent with this matter and regardless of my effort she just hates soothers. So it is very difficult to know if she is really hungry or just needs to suckle.

She stays there for at least 10 minutes and doesnīt fall asleep so it can be hunger, but it is hard to believe when she is eating pretty well during the day, receiving a DF at 11 pm since day 5 (stopped tanking her at 8 pm when she was 8 weeks, unless going through a growth spurt), and she weights 12 pounds.

Donīt want to start guessing and trying shh/pat for example one day, and then feeding her the other day... I just want to choose something, be sure about it and be constant, but I am not quite certain of what are her needs when she wakes in the middle of the night.

Any advice or experiences?

Thanks so much in advanced.

[LovelyLilyandJack]

At this age I would feed,  tbh I know it feels like she should be going longer at night, and some babies are sleeping through the night with a DF at this age, many many more aren't. My daughter needed a NF and at least one other feed at night  (plus an early morning one) til at least 4 months, and my son wouldn't DF, but had 2 night feeds til about 5 months I think. Some babies are just hungrier  I think that at 10 weeks you've got to assume it's genuine hunger as they still have tiny tummies and are still organising their day and night sleep and milk intake. Babies often suddenly drop a nf just when you're desperate for it to go - 2 weeks is a long time in the life of a baby and a lot can change in that time.  You may find that by 12 weeks she's moved her nf to 3ish and is going from then til 7, for example, which would actually be really good for a 12 week old

The other thing to consider is whether the DF is actually making her feed more at night.  It completely worked for my daughter and from 4 o5 months she was reliably sleeping through with a DF, so I loved it, but I noticed with my son that he always woke every 3 hours after the DF. If I moved it later, he shifted his nfs by the same amount too. I wondered if it was actually disturbing his sleep, or stimulating his appetite, and when he slept a much longer stretch once without it, we ditched it.  I think at first he needed a feed between midnight and 2 still,  and then another early morning one, but he wasn't having the DF as well, so was getting a longer stretch at the start of the night. Gradually that long stretch got longer and the 12-2 feed became a 2-4 feed,  which generally saw him through the night.  It still took til about 5 months to reach that point though.

I know it sounds mad, but try to enjoy the night time cuddles while they last.  I don't miss the sleepless nights but I do really miss that quiet time in the night when it was just me and my baby having a cuddle.  It goes too too quickly...

My daughter completely refused a paci as well btw. I was glad of it in the end

[nanita]

Thanks so much for taking the time to give so detailed information.. about DF I was wondering about this too, so I will try for a couple of weeks and see. I am kind of anxious cuz I am going back to work next Thursday and donīt want to be so tired. But I know is part of the package

Thanks again!

[LovelyLilyandJack]

I know, it's tough working when you have a LO too...  I'd experiment with the DF -  I had two very different experiences with it, so it's about finding what works for your LO.