9 week old NW

[Padicindy]

My LO is almost 9 weeks old (in 2 days' time) and his NWs have not changed very much since a few weeks ago. He wakes every 3 hours or less in the night after his bedtime of 7.30pm-8pm. We give him a dreamfeed at 11pm (or he may wake thereabout and we'll give him a feed) and then he'll wake at 1.30am-2am, and 4am, and finally, at 7am. I was under the impression from the books I read that babies will start to sleep longer hours at night, but he has not made any progress thus far. Am I doing anything wrong or is there something I can do to help him sleep longer?

His EASY looks like this:

7am - BF and return back to sleep almost immediately)
8am - Wake
9am - BF
9.30am - Nap
12pm - Wake and BF
1.30pm - Nap
4pm - Wake and BF
5.30pm - Catnap (usually in a sling if I am out or in a baby hammock. sometimes he skips this nap)
6pm - Wake, BF
6.30pm - Bath
7.30pm - Bottle of expressed milk and Bedtime (usually falls asleep by 8pm. We are trying to put him in cot sleepy but awake these days so that he learns to soothe himself to sleep. Today is Day 4 of our attempts)
11pm - dream feed
1.30am/2am - Wake and BF (returns back to sleep quickly after BF. Takes a fair bit)
4am/4.30am - Wake and BF (does not take much from the breast. falls asleep almost after some BF.)
7am - Wake and BF

What do you think is wrong? Or is it normal for an approx. 9 weeker to still do 3 feeds between 7.30pm to 7.30am?

[mmom]

It is definitely normal for a BF baby to have more NFs at this age.  That being said, you have a lot of day sleep and a long A to bed after a cat nap.  Most babies this age are taking 3 naps of 1.5 hours + a cat nap. http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85130.0  It could be that maybe your LO is sleeping too much during the day.  That 4 am waking could be a result of being OT from a 2 hour A after a 30 minute nap.  What do you think?  Do the wakings all seem hunger related?

[Padicindy]

Hm..Ok I will try to get him to nap a bit longer in the evening to see if that will stop the 4am waking. Although my worry is the wakings are habitual. I have been playing with his nap times for a few weeks (he used to fight naps and not nap at all!) and regardless of the permutations, he would seem to do a 2am and 4am wakings! At least this morning there was no 7am waking and he woke straight at 8am instead. He seems to feed well at 2am but the 4am one..i doubt!

[mmom]

I know - it is frustrating when they wake so often.  If you are playing with A times, give it a few days before changing again.  So if you change A times today, give it 3 days to see if it works. 

If you are still afraid the 4 am waking is habitual, you can try W2S.http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=121269.0

[Padicindy]

Thanks I'll try! Since I am still trying to work on LO's falling asleep independently at bedtime, I think I will halt any other changes in the EW for the moment. Already as it is I see the 2am EW shift to 2.30am, and now 3.30am (and once 4am!). I hope it gets better! The 4am/5am EW which he doesn't take much still exists though. I'll give it a week or two more and if it continues I'll try W2S.