4wks old waking every 3 hours at night

[2boysmummy]

I´ve put my LB on EASY since The day he was born. I didn't think I could get newborn to sleep 4-5 hours stretch at night but I hoped we'll get there by around 4 wks. I cluster breastfeed at half 5 and half 7 and dream feed between 10- 11p.m. Once I didn't do the dreamfeed because I fell asleep and he slept for 4,5 hours but was up every 2 hours after that. He sometimes doesn't take 2nd cluster or just sucks for 10 mins and is done. He wakes up every 3 hours all night and takes about 30 mins to feed. He is quite sleepy during his feeds and also has been vomiting small amounts of milk after his feeds. He is putting weight on steadily. Are babies with reflux able to sleep longer stretches at night if they are not in pain? Also started to have problems with fitfull naps. Sleeps for 20 mins and is up crying. Sleeps well in a pram though. Anyone could advise on the above? Thanks!

[Papaya]

tbh hon, I don't think every three hours is bad at this age - prob not what you want to hear! If that's what he's doing in the day, that might be what he'll do at night for a few weeks yet. If he's feeding well, putting on weight and going three hours between feeds, that sounds about right to me.

you mention reflux - is he on medication for this, or do you just suspect it might be a problem? Do you think he's in discomfort when he wakes?

When my LO was young, we didn't do a dreamfeed, and she did do a 5 hour stretch first thing at night from only a few weeks old. When I tried a dreamfeed, she never did that long at all so I just left it. It meant that if I was really tired I could literally go to bed when she did at 7 or 7.30 and at least get a good stretch of sleep until midnight, even if I was up a few times after that. The dreamfeed doesn't work for all LOs, especially when they are this young so that's something to consider.

As for naps: do you have a winddown routine? Is your LO swaddled, and do you play white noise? These can help to get through that tricky 20min transition stage.

Huge hugs, you're doing so well!

[2boysmummy]

Hi Papaya, thanks for your reply. I actually don't mind getting up every 3 hours, just thought I am doing something wrong when my LO is wanting to feed as often as during the day. Reading your reply I also realised that when I tried to skip dreamfeed he actually slept for 4,5 hours but unfortunately for me it was at the begining of a night and I had ironing to do :-)
As for my LOs reflux, I only suspect that's what it is if he's making wheezing noises when he sucks and vomits small amounts of milk and spits out after his feeds. It doesn't happen every time but quite often he wakes up early from his nap and I can see he has discomfort. I have raised his matrace and I think that helped at least little bit. We have winddown rutine before all his naps but I think that when he has heartburn or trapped wind he get fidgety and bothered and gets so flustered that he can't go back to sleep. I started to give him baby probiotic so hopefully these things won't continue to bother him otherwise I will end up drinking water only to stop him being windy ;-)
Huge thanks for your support! xx

[Papaya]

You're welcome! I don't know much about reflux but if you're concerned you could post here: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?board=13.0

[~Carly~]

Hi!  Our LOs are about the same age  

Is it every 3 hours between feeds, beginning to beginning, or is he sleeping for 3 hours?  We are getting 3-3.5 hours of sleep, so I am usually up around 1/2 and 4/5.  Sounds normal by my standards!  I don't know a lot about reflux either, but DS2 squeaks a bit and spits up, too. 

Not much help, but just know that it is normal

[2boysmummy]

Hi there, it's 3 hours from beginning of feed to the next so we get about 2,5 hour of sleep in between. No bad I realise but hoping we'll gradually get to 4-5 hours stretch as my LO is gaining weight quite fast so I am thinking he probably could do it soon. My pediatrician told me that I am probably overfeeding my LO and he is vomiting the excess milk and doesn't think it's reflux. I feel like it trial and error in everything I do with my LO as one day everything works beautifully and he is out of sorts the next. But he is my 2nd child and before I started the 1st one on EASY I was lost and going insane. EASY really helps with reading baby's cues and acting apropriately.

[Papaya]

My pediatrician told me that I am probably overfeeding my LO and he is vomiting the excess milk and doesn't think it's reflux.

Hmmm, like I said I don't have any experience with reflux myself, but from what I've read on here it seems that some pediatricians don't recognise it either! Not saying that's the case here, but you might want to have a read of this link to see if anything else sounds familiar:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=654.0

Are you breastfeeding or bottle? I would think it's pretty unlikely that you're overfeeding if bfing...

[2boysmummy]

Thanks for the link. I am bfing.