Feeding every 2hrs at night

[emily_Mae]

Hi my DD is 15 weeks old and about a week ago started waking for feeds every 2hrs. She was feeding(EBF) every 3 hrs with the occasional 4hr stretches, her feeding habits during the day haven't changed, although one day I tried feeding every 2hrs to see if that would stop the night feeds but it made no difference. I can't underatand the sudden change and wondering if she will ever go longer again???  I questioned my supply but I don't think it's that as her wait gain is very good.

[jessmum46]

Hi Emily, sorry to hear things aren't going well for you at the moment.

Could you post your daytime routine for us to take a look at? 

The most common culprits for frequent night wakings are discomfort, prop issues or overtiredness.  Does she have anything like reflux/gas discomfort or have you introduced any solids?  Does she go down independently at bedtime?

[emily_Mae]

Hi,

It's something like this:

E 7am
A 7.15 - 8.15am
S 8.30 - 10.00am

E 10.00 - 10.15
A 10.15 - 11.30
S 11.30 - 12.15
A 12.15 - 12.45
E 12.45 - 13.00
A 13.00 - 14.30
S 14.30 - 15.30

E 15.30 - 16.30
A 16.30 - 17.45
S 17.45 - 18.30

E 18.30 - 18.45
BT routine 19.00 - 19.30
S 19.30
DF - 10.30

Then feed 12.30 / 2.30 / 4.30 / 6.30

She has suffered gas but I'm not sure this is the reason as her gas has got a lot better since 3 months of age. I co-sleep at the moment and she is rocked to sleep at 7.30 but after this I just pick her up feed and put back down. I thought it may be a comfort thing but she does feed for a good 10 mins Everytime. I have given her colic calm for winds on some nights but this doesn't seem to make much difference to her waking.  This routine is a good day, she does wake often wakes earlier from naps with gas.
I haven't introduced solids and don't plan on until 6 months. She is 16 weeks now.

Her A time is sometimes shortened due to the fact she rubs her eyes and ears a lot, and can get very cranky during playtime.

[jessmum46]

I'd suggest a couple of things:

Routine wise she could probably do with a little A time push at times.  If you find she is consistently doing a 45 min nap that can be a sign of UT, though at this age it can also be an inability to transition between sleep cycles (very common).  Are you rocking to sleep for naps also?  If she isn't going down independently that can also be a reason for short naps.  Many babies are coming up to a 2h A time by 4 months.

I do suspect she is starting to develop some props at night.  If she is being rocked to sleep at the beginning of the night, when she comes into light sleep and briefly wakes (as we all do), she doesn't know how to get herself back to sleep without your assistance.  From a nutritional perspective she doesn't need feeding every 2h at night - it's most likely she is wanting to feed for comfort.  The fact she is on the breast for ten minutes doesn't signify a 'proper' feed as babies can do both nutritive and non-nutritive sucking (ie sucking for food and sucking for comfort).  Yes she probably needs one or two night feeds at this age, but not every 2h.

It's entirely up to you what you do next - if you enjoy co sleeping and rocking her, I'm certainly not going to tell you to stop those things but the likelihood is that she will continue to have frequent night wakings until she learns to sleep independently.  It's really up to you whether you want to work on teaching her independent sleep?  Are you familiar with the Baby Whisperer books and shh pat?

[emily_Mae]

Thanks for the advice, yes I do think she is waking during transitional sleep and not being able to put herself back to sleep as during the day she will wake from a nap and I can tell from her body language she is still tired, and I have rocked her back to sleep. I did try sssh pat but it would take almost 30mins and she still wouldn't be asleep and sometimes end up crying and becoming overtired! I'll try extend A time, if they are doing 2 hour A time does this mean I should be moving towards 4hr routine. I think I will move on to try the pick up/put down method at 4 months, I know it will be hard but I realise she needs to become independant!!
I think I can tell when she comfort feeds as I call these little annoying butterfly sucks but at night she is sucking full with her swallowing rhythmically, I also find I'm changing her nappy 3 times and they are FULL wet nappies with an explosive poo between 6-7am.
Would you advise using a dummy instead at one of the feeds, she won't take a dummy during the day so this may not help.

[jessmum46]

Yes at four months you would be moving towards a four hourly routine.  Some breastfed babies take a while to get to 4h between feeds even though they can handle the longer A times so what some mums do is feed at the start of A time and then again part way through A time as a short top up (EAEAS pattern).

I would stick with shh pat actually.  PUPD was only meant to be used as a last resort after trying shh pat consistently for at least two weeks without improvement.  Yes it will take a long time to start with and OT is inevitable while sleep training, but shh pat is ultimately gentler for you both.  Even if you do get to the stage of using PUPD, at this early age it still mostly involves shh pat in the crib, and only PU to comfort if the crying is really escalating.  There's not as much distinction as people generally think

Overnight I wouldn't bother with the dummy personally, though its up to you.  I would try this: if she wakes and it has been more than 4h since a feed, feed her immediately and resettle.  If it has been less than 4h, use shh pat to settle her all the way to sleep, even if that takes you past the 4h mark and even if it takes a long time.  The goal is that she goes back to sleep without a feed, even if only for ten minutes, so she doesn't learn if she protests long enough you will cave in and feed.  You can feed the next time she wakes as long as it has been 4h.

You may find this difficult while co-sleeping though.......if it were me I'd tackle the whole lot at once (sleeping in crib and night feeds).  How would you feel about that?  Do you have help at night?  E.g. If its been less than 4h could your partner get up and settle her?

[emily_Mae]

Okay great, I'll try the both together. We had put her in the cot and it was a few night in the cot when she then started feeding 2hrly so I went back to co-sleeping as I don't wake too much this way and feel more rested in the morning,  thinking she was going through a phase and in a few days she will be back to 3-4hrly but it's been 2 weeks now! Ssh/pat at night shouldn't be too much of a problem as she doesn't fully wake and doesn't even open her eyes, I usually wake because she is wriggling and grunting, change nappy and if she still wriggles will offer her the feed then she is back to sleep straight away.

Sssh/pat during the day is a bit tricky as for example today I kept her A time to 1hr 40 mins and she would be asleep just before 2hrs, this was going well until 6pm where I was going to put her down for 1hr cat nap before bath time. She settled and fell asleep in my arms, I went to put her in the cot, and she started wriggling so I tried sssh/pat but she was wide awake again and I continued this for 20mins she started getting irritable and so I picked her up and thought I'd get her drowsy again and put her back down but now she wasn't for sleeping, fighting it and turned inconsolible, after she settled we were 45 mins into her nap and she wasn't settling so I bathed her, fed and she is now asleep. 
 
My husband can help at night on the weekends but not during the week, hopefully the night time will be easy to iron out back to the way it was. I'll then tackle the days with ssh/pat.
I'll let you know how it goes and what problems I encounter,
Thanks for the advice 😄

[jessmum46]

Brilliant keep me posted

[emily_Mae]

Hi Rebecca,

First night went well, she was unsettled from 7.30-9.30pm which I think was gas as she kept trumping, but eventually fell asleep, probably because she had been awake since 4pm only with a 20 min nap inbetween due to her waking when I put her down at 6pm for a catnap. I think she was so tired as she fell asleep on my bed on her own.
So I put her in the cot and she woke at 23.00 for a feed, I fed her as it had been 3 hrs since she last ate. Then again at 2.30, then she woke at 4.30pm and I tried ssh/pat as it had only been 2hrs. I was really tired to do sssh so I turned the hair dryer on, a bit noisy at 4.30am but it did the job, and she slept until 6.30 am hopefully after a week of this she will stop waking altogether.

[jessmum46]

That's brilliant!  Remember you've only been doing this a day or two so that is fabulous progress