10 wo waking up every 1.5 - 2 hours at night???

[~Amz~]

The title says it all. I'm exhausted and need at least a good 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. My 10 weeks old DS is up 1.5 - 2 hours every night for the past couple of days to feed. I don't know if he's going through an early growth spurts or what. After his 6 weeks GS he would sleep for at least 4 hours before waking up for his first feed. He's EBF. Once or twice he woke up after a good 6 hours for his first feed.

I've dreamfed but he's still up after 2 hours. It's becoming a bit much for me and I'm shattered. I really don't have EASY down just yet, but I do try to have him down for his nap after 1 hour and 20 mins of awake time. His 1st nap is always 30 mins long. He takes a good 3 hours nap at around lunch time from anywhere between 12 or 1pm - 3 or 4pm. Then he had another 30 mins nap before bedtime which is by 7pm.

He's still breastfeeding every 2 - 2.5 hrs. I've been trying to extend that from yesterday. I've also started offering both breast every feed from yesterday.

Please help me in trying to figure out what the problem might be and how I could get him to sleep for longer stretches at a time.

TIA.

[Erin M]

Hi there!
Can you post your current routine like this:
E
A
S
so we can get a good idea of what's going on?

Thanks!

[~Amz~]

His day yesterday.

Woke up 7.

E - 7
A - 7 - 8.
S - 8 - 8.30

E - 9.30
A - 8.30 - 10
S - 10 - 10.45

E -
A - 10.45 - 12
S - 12 - 12.20

E - 12.20
A
S - 12.45 - 3.45.

E - 3.45
A - 3.45 - 5.20
S - 5.20 - 5.30 (his paci fell out I went in to replug it and tried to put him back to sleep but he weren't having it).

E - 5.50
A - 5.20 - 6.35
S - 6.35. (Down for the night).

Night wakings.
Dreamfed  - 8.30 and 10.

Woke up.
12am,(he didn't go back to sleep until 1am), 3am, 5am, 6am, 7am.

Started his day at 8.

[Ev0411]

No help here but I just want to say I might be going through an early growth spurt at 10 and a half weeks. Check out my post titled 'easy start time' or something like that. I'm going through a similar thing though my LO is eating more often during the day. Her naps have gotten short and she wakes up ravenous and I just cannot resettle or hold her off in any way. I've started taking Fenugreek, I keep eating oatmeal and drinking water. Will consider pumping for stimulation tomorrow. Maybe that will help get past this faster?

[~Amz~]

I thought that it might be an early growth spurts as well because when he had his 6 weeks one he was waking up often and the naps were short. I'm going to start taking fenugreek tonight God willing and I hope that helps. I know it took a week for everything to settle down after his 6 weeks GS.

Keep me posted with how everything goes with you and I'm going to check your post to see if there's any advice that might help me.

[Erin M]

Ok, if he's only taking a 30 minute nap for that first nap, he could actually need a shorter A time before that first nap.  30 minute naps are often overtired naps.

I would also tend to agree with this:

might be going through an early growth spurt at 10 and a half weeks.

-- you can read all you want about the "typical" growth spurts by the fact is it doesn't actually mean that our babies go by that -- my ds especially tended to have them at all sorts of times that weren't the traditional growth spurt times.  Double sided feeding is a great idea -- and if he's trying to take full feeds at 2/2.5 hour intervals during the day it might actually help get some more into him and stimulate your supply.  Are you feeding him at all the night wakings?  Is there any chance of discomfort going on?  Are you getting good burps out after his feeds at night? 

As you have other LOs, I don't need to tell you that night feeds are totally normal in bf babies -- and, in all honesty, my ds was nursing every 3 hours around the clock until he was a few months old -- but I will say that every 2 hours makes me think either growth spurt or discomfort. 

[~Amz~]

Thanks Erin for your reply. So for his first nap how long should his A time be?

I am feeding him during all through the night wakings   . A few times I've tried settling him and getting him back to sleep with his dummy just to stretch the night waking and its only worked twice. I must admit though that I don't burp him all the time as I'm soo tired most of the time and he is a very windy baby. It never really crossed my mind that it might be discomfort. What I'm going to try and do is I'm gonna wait this GS out, then whenever he has a NWs I'm going to try and offer the dummy first if that doesn't work I'm gonna try to burp him and change his diaper and if all fails then I'll feed him.

I'll keep you posted with how we're doing.

Thanks again.

[Erin M]

You might even try as low as 45 minutes, sometimes when they're that little that first A time is fairly short. 

Definitely try getting some good burps up after the feeds -- I found that the extra 5 or so minutes I spent doing that got me a lot more sleep!  hopefully he'll settle down in a few days, that's a lot of feeding!