waking every hour - dont have a clue what to do - can anyone help?

[rozza]

hi - my DS is 16 weeks old and i've been following BW since he was born and love it.  He's never slept through the night but things are getting worse rather than better....

He wakes sometimes hourly and i've tried leaving him to settle himself, sometimes does and sometimes doesnt.  I've been reading BW solves all your problems... and it looks like the issue is hunger.  If I feed him at night, say at 2 ish, he'll sleep through to 6:30 (bliss); but if i dont we get the constant wakings.  He is BF fine and has a bottle of formula from his Dad at the dream feed.  Feeds, 3 1/2 hourly in the day and his naps are good.  SOmetimes, 45 mins, sometimes 1 1/2 hrs.  BW says get more calories in him in the day but if i feed less than 3 1/2 hourly he's not interested and when he feeds he sometimes but not always drains both breasts so i cant physically make him eat any more.

HELP HELP HELP  Do i give in and do the 2 o'clock feed and wait to see if he'll eventually drop it or do i perservere with the hourly wake ups?

Noahs Mum
xxx

[maxysmum]

Hi Noahs Mum please can you post your routine so we can have a look and see if anything can be tingered with to help with the wakings.

[rozza]

sure

E 7.00
A 7.30
S 8.30 (1.5 - 2 hrs hrs always)

E 11.00
A 11.30
S 12.45 (45 mins - 1.5 hrs)

E 2.30
A 3.00
S 4.15 ish (45 mins - 1.5 hrs, usually 1.5 hrs)

E 6.00
A 6.30 (bath around 7 / 7.30
S Bedtime 7.30 / 8.00 Sometimes with a feed if he is hungry

Dream feed 11.00

All his feeds in the day tend to be fairly quick, 15 mins to 30 mins depending if he drinks 1 boob or 2.  He's fairly adament he wont have 2nd boob if he's not hungry!  Dream feed is around 160 ml of formula.

[15milner]

If  you think hunger - then feed at 2am and both of you go back to sleep - he is only little still.

[Layla]

I would also feed. If he's waking every hour on the nights you haven't fed then sounds like he's really hungry.

[rozza]

Hi - i did that last night and we got a good nights kip, definately the best course of action.  Perhaps one day he'll start to go a bit longer through the night 

Thanks for the advice. 

[15milner]

I wasn't able to give a longer reply yesterday.

Andrew is now 21weeks, until about 18 weeks he was doing 10.30, 3.30 /4, wake 7am ish.

Then for the past 3 weeks i've been feeding, before 10.30 as he woke (once evening it was 9pm!), then almost 3-3.5hourly.  i was not best impressed to be back up again twice a night.  But, Andrew has never been one that's responded well to pat/shussh and with a 3year old in the house I decided that it was far easier to grin and bear it and feed him.

Well, I have persevered.  And for the past 3 nights he's been back to having a df 10/10.30 and last night woke 4.40 and up for the day 6.50. 

According to my breastfeeding councellor, who I spoke to  at the beginnign of the week as I was questioning my supply etc said to -
try and slip in a couple of extra little feeds because commonly at this age, the prolactin hormone levels go back to more normal levels, which mean that baby needs to feed more frequently again to get supply up (until now the milk was 'always there' and we are now on a more supply/demand)  Well that's how I've understood it.  Combine that with becoming more active / mobile / awake for longer its no wonder about needing more food.

Since last week I have started to manage to pump just a couple of oz of breastmilk that i give right after I bf at the df.  don't know if this is helping too - but can't hurt.  I can't pump more than 2oz and that's in 3 sessions.

I can see light at the end of the tunnel.


HTH
Alex

[rozza]

Hi Ladeez, I just wanted to say thanks for all the advice.  I did carry on feeding him in the night and for a week or so he perservered with the wakeups and then all of a sudden they stopped.  It pretty much co-incided with us managing to stick to a 4 hourly EASY in the day time and as such we're both much happier!!  Thanks for your support!

Zx

[Bryony]

Great stuff!