help again 9 week old awake lots at night

[michelleerin]

Hi,

I have posted a few times over the last few weeks for various reasons and had great advice! Here i go again!My nine week old is in a good routine in the day feeds 7,10,1,4,7 and then maybe 10 or 11 sometimes df other times he wakes( about 2 oz at df). During the day about 4/5 oz at each feed.
Sleeps are ok during the day, he does wake after a half hour in the day, but getting better to resettle as was prob ot, anyway its at night he is so not settling.
He will feed at 10 or 11, then maybe wake at 1 crying try resettle, then at 2 ish genrally i will give him a bottle 3 oz maybe and he falls asleep, maybe wake at 3.30 for another 1 or 2. Then maybe every hour or two untill i feed him again at 5 ish, then may sleep untill 6/7am. Do i feed him all the time he wakes up, or should i stretch him out? He will not sleep for a good stretch 3/4 hours at night, not sure what to do at this stage. when he wakes i give him soother, try shush pat, he is swaddled, i dont turn on the lights etc. I have a 20month old and she was a great sleeper at this stage 5/6 hours, i know i should not compare.

Please help any advice would help!
MIchelleerin

[Erin M]

Hi hun-
First off, 2 night feeds at this age would be completely normal.  Some babies need to eat just as often at night as they do during the day at this age (my ds was one of those, every 3 hours for what seemed like forever) while sometimes you get lucky and have those that can do longer stretches (my dd1 was one of those,  just had a df and 1 nf at that point). 

2 ish genrally i will give him a bottle 3 oz maybe and he falls asleep, maybe wake at 3.30 for another 1 or 2.

Does he fall asleep while eating at this point?  Or does he just stop eating and go back to sleep?

A lot of your wakings sound a lot like discomfort.  Are you getting good burps up from him after the feeds?  He should be able to go as long at night as he can during the day, so I'd try something like shush/pat when he wakes and it hasn't been 3 hours.  Does he fall asleep at night independently?

[michelleerin]

Hi,

He falls asleep while feeding at night or refuse, and want to sleep. Wind we genrally dont get any up at night as he falls aseep, try changing him a few times to wake him, but then he gets upset and is hard to resettle.

He has a soother and we use shush pat, if needed on his side in the cot works best for him.
Last night for example, feed at 7pm 4 oz asleep at 7.30. DF at 10.30 2oz asleep could not get him to take any more, awake at 12 did not feed, 1.30 gave him some water, 3am feed 1oz. 4.30 water, 5.30 am 2 oz. Then woke at 7am had 4 oz?I feel he is not really hungry at night but can settle, water seems to hep some times, but also he needs to burb after this which sometimes does not come. Feel he not getting enough quality sleep a awake every hour or two. Really unsure what is wrong, and then the df does not work so well any suggestions, or will i stop df and let hime wake himself and feed could be midnight does this upset them?

Thanks Michelle

[Erin M]

Hi Michelle-
I'm not sure about the water, I know for BF babies you're not supposed to give water until 6 months so I might look into that as a cause of discomfort. 

I know it might be hard to get him to burp after feeds without upsetting him, but it really might be worth a shot to help get some longer stretches out of him at night.  Even if you maybe gave him most of a bottle, got a burp up, and then gave him the rest to settle him?  Your wakings really show some sort of discomfort at play.  Also, keep in mind that hunger is a definite cause of wakings at this age, so there's nothing wrong with feeding him, I'd just make sure you manage to get a good feed in (as much as he's taking during the day or more) so you can rule hunger out as the cause of a future waking.  I know with my LOs, I'd have to unswaddle, change diapers, bounce around, etc just to make sure they were able to take decent feeds to ensure some longer stretches of sleep. 

There's also nothing wrong with stopping the df -- some babies do sleep much better without it.