Night Wakings in 4 Week Old

[NikkiD3]

Hello - I have a 4 week old little guy who is having some troubles with night waking.  I know he's only 4 weeks old - so this may be normal, however I suspect he's got himself into the habit of waking up at certain times and is possibly hungry but won't fill himself up.  Here are the details:

4 weeks old yesterday
Daily routine - we try to do Tracy's EASY routine and are fairly consistent every day (feed between 7-8 am and every 3 hours after that - although he's a bit of a snacker)
Nap routine - very similar to the EASY routine for a 4 week old, 1.5-2 hours in the morning, 1 hour in the afternoon and one hour(ish) in the early evening
Bedtime routine - we've been giving him a bath about 6:30pm, try and keep him awake a bit, then feed him and put him to bed between 7:00 and 7:30
Feeding - he's breastfed with the occasional bottle of formula or breast milk.  He's very fast though, I'm not sure if that means he's an efficient eater or if he's a snacker.  I try to feed him only on one breast per feeding so he gets the hindmilk, but he seems to be done on one side after 5-8 minutes so then I give him the other side where he'll eat for 3-7 more minutes if I'm lucky.  We try to do every 3 hours during the day - although it seems to be a lot more than that since he gets hungry earlier.
This is the big issue - he wakes at night 3 times, usually around the same time - 12:30am (ish), 3:30-4:00am (ish) and again at 6:00am.  Each time he seems hungry but only feeds for 5-8 minutes, then he still appears hungry (opening his mouth and trying to latch on but not seeming to be able to or really want to - we have no problems with latching during the day).  So I'm assuming he's not getting enough of a feed.  He's often hard to get back to sleep after that - crying pretty hard sometimes.  We're up anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours.  I have tried the shush-pat method, but honestly I haven't tried that hard because right now I'm so exhausted I just put him in his swing or rock him to sleep (I also have a two year old, so can't always nap during the day).  The swing will lull him to sleep so I can go back to bed.
He has put himself to sleep a few times in his crib, although it's not consistent.  We usually swaddle and do the shush pat sitting in the chair before putting him into his crib, but I haven't done it while he's in his crib. 
We've also been trying to tank him up in the evening - feeding at 5 and 7 and then trying the dream feed with a bottle between 10 and 11 - but he will only drink an ounce at the dream feed if we're lucky.  Have tried this for about 5-6 nights in a row.  I'm getting very frustrated with breastfeeding and am considering quitting in the hopes that he'll eat more with a bottle.
There are no issues with my milk supply, I can usually pump 3-4 ounces of each breast.

I hope this is all the info someone needs to help us - although maybe this is just normal for my little guy.  My daughter didn't sleep well until 4 months old and has been a champ ever since.

Thank you so much!!!

[Erin M]

I try to feed him only on one breast per feeding so he gets the hindmilk, but he seems to be done on one side after 5-8 minutes so then I give him the other side where he'll eat for 3-7 more minutes if I'm lucky.  We try to do every 3 hours during the day - although it seems to be a lot more than that since he gets hungry earlier.

This is all perfectly ok for a 4 week old.  I'd feed from one side, burp him, put him back on the first side and see if he'll take more.  Then, you can try him on the second side.  That way you'll get the hind milk from the first side for sure plus a little bit from the second.  As long as he's not fussing about it and his poos look ok, you should be fine with that.  It would also be perfectly normal for him to be feeding more often than every 3 hours at 4 weeks. 

Does he wake at 12:30 regardless of whether or not he took anything at the dream feed?  Babies of that age will usually do just one decent stretch a night, and if he's going BT until 12:30 (more or less), that's pretty much it and it would be normal for him to be waking every 3 hours after that to eat.  The fact that he's not settling though is something to think about.  Do you burp him well?  I found that with my babies, I'd forget to do a good burp after the feed and they'd be uncomfortable.  Sometimes I'd force myself to spend 10 minutes (I'd actually time it because I was SO tired) rocking and rubbing their backs to get burps up (and in the process pretty much put them completely back to sleep) -- so a little investment of time made it better in the long run at night for us.

He has put himself to sleep a few times in his crib, although it's not consistent.  We usually swaddle and do the shush pat sitting in the chair before putting him into his crib, but I haven't done it while he's in his crib. 

This is also pretty normal for his age -- my goal for my babies at that age was to do one nap in the crib and some sort of BT routine, and then just do the best I could for the rest of it.