13 week old waking/feeding like a newborn

[Caitlyns Mum]

Agggh! My 13 week old DS is waking every 3 hours at night. Up until he was sleeping up to 5 hours at a time, with a dream feed and another about 2ish. Sometimes he wold want another feed towards morning, but I would at least get one stretch of 4 - 5 hours. He is EBF. But in the past week, he is waking pretty much on the dot of 3 hours throughout the night. It seems like he's decided to turn day into night. I know this is an issue for newborns when they have their days and nights mixed up, but at 13 weeks? It seems that the NW are the same regardless of how the day has gone. Like others at this age, our naps have gone a little wonky, but generally our EASY looks like this:

Wake up 7am and E
A
S 8.15
Y

E 10am
A
S 11.15am
Y

E 1pm
A
S 2.15pm
Y

E 4pm
A
S 5.15 catnap
Y

E 6.15ish
A bath
E 7.15ish
BT 7.30ish

DF 10pm

He was born 4 weeks early and i know other 3 month olds are doing more A time. He seems to get fussy 1 hour after waking and so that's why I'm putting him down for his naps 1.25 hrs after waking.

He has a dummy and when he wakes, I try to give him that, but it soon gets spat and he's screaming again. Therefore I assume he's hungry and feed him. He's always been a fast feeder and so it's little hard to tell if he's taking a full feed, but it appears that he is. I can handle two feeds during the night, but not every 3 hours! Any thoughts would be appreciated - thanks!

[katie80]

Hi Jess, it sounds to me like he's going through a GS.  There's often one around 3mo and what you're describing pretty much sums it up.  I'd give it a few days and see if things even back out.

If not, I do think it's worth it to start pushing the A times a bit.  If he's quite tired, you may need to do as gently as 5min every couple days, but he is definitely getting quite a bit of day sleep and not a whole lot of A time for 3mo, so it's possible that's a contributing factor.

(((Hugs))), it's hard when you feel like you're going backwards a bit, but it is normal during growth spurts and other developmental milestones.

[Caitlyns Mum]

H Katie! Thanks for your help  So after a good night last night, the world looks like a much rosier place The past two nights have been better with last night being 10.15 DF, 2.30 NF and then wake at 7! No resettling in between either. He's previous GSs only lasted a day or two and so that's why the week of horrible nights threw me. Hopefully it's behind us now - until the next milestone or GS 

I have also started to stretch his A time a little and it seems to have helped his naps. He's never been one to lie in his cot and scream, but he would spit his dummy & grizzle (a number of times, every 10mins or so) before finally falling off to sleep. So naps have frequently been a decent length, but repeatedly extended by me and I don't think he's been getting quality sleep during that time. But that past couple of days he's done one really good nap of 2.5 hrs for his second or third nap and settled without having to be replugged. I'll keep and eye on it and see how we go. My little boy isn't a newborn anymore 

One other question - I'm pretty sure he's an angel or textbook baby and so according to Tracy these types should be SSTN at his age or pretty soon. If he's not, do I need to look at tweaking his routine in the hope of getting there? He really is an easy kid in most other respects and sure parenting the second time round isn't as scary as #1, but good night sleeps soon would be great!

[katie80]

Sounds like you're back on track!

One other question - I'm pretty sure he's an angel or textbook baby and so according to Tracy these types should be SSTN at his age or pretty soon. If he's not, do I need to look at tweaking his routine in the hope of getting there? He really is an easy kid in most other respects and sure parenting the second time round isn't as scary as #1, but good night sleeps soon would be great!

Hmm, I don't remember that part. . My DS is textbook, but didn't sleep through until closer to 7mo (and still had a DF until 9ish mo). And then he teethed like crazy from 7-10mo, so we ended up with an early morning feed that had to be dropped around 16mo. . I'd say for an EBF textbook baby, it would be more likely that he will be able to STTN with a DF around 5-6ish mo and then lose the DF around 7/8/9mo.  It's really hard to predict because they're all so different.  If you've got a good routine and he's an independent sleeper, I would still expect he's waking out of hunger until about those times and really not try to push him too far before then unless you have good reason to suspect he doesn't need to be fed.  Sorry, maybe not what you wanted to hear, but I think that's pretty average.

[*Ali*]

Tracy says not to start phasing out the dream feed in BF LOs until 8mo. There is some advice on the special sleep interview aout this and encouraging amalgamating the NFs. Re: A Special Sleep Interview with Tracy Hogg

[Caitlyns Mum]

Sorry ladies, to clarify, I wasn't talking about phasing out the DF, but more so about when its reasonable to expect that DS could be skipping the 2-3am feed & make it from 10pm DF to wake up at 6-7am. Tracy talks about by 6 weeks old, you can expect that textbook and angel babies are doing 5-6 hour stretches at night. Is SSTN considered to be 6hrs+? DS will occasionally give me 5-6 hour stretches, but this seems to be the exception rather than the norm. Really, I can handle the one NF, plus DF, but was just wondering if I could be doing anything more to encourage the 10 - 7am stretch. But yes katie80, given the he's EBF, I know that the likelihood of longer stretches is less than FF. :-)

[*Ali*]

Breast feeding research has moved on significantly since the books and we like to think that is one area where Tracy would have updated her advice to reflect that. Breast milk is digested within 2hrs and frequent feeds are better at establishing supply.

You can offer the dummy or try to resettle without a feed but if you can't resettle easily or you get another waking within an hour or two then it is probably hunger and you just need to feed.

[katie80]

I agree with Ali. I do think that medically speaking and Tracy too regarded STTN at this age is around 5-6hr. I think you're doing everything right to encourage a good night right now. You're working on an age-appropriate EASY, you're teaching independent sleep, etc, etc. It may also be that since he was born early, he may need the extra feed for a little longer than most because his tummy doesn't take as much as other babies his age. Keep up the good work and you'll get there!

[Caitlyns Mum]

Thanks for the encouragement ladies! Compared to many other mums, I have been really blessed with easy kids and our little 'blips' are nothing compared to the challenges at others face! Sleep deprivation sometimes tells you otherwise though :-) I'll keep you posted with our progress :-)

[katie80]