Exhausted mum as my 3mo wakes every 2 hours.

[pandamegda]

Hello everyone!

I have a 3mo old who wakes every 2 hours to feed at night. During the day he can go for 3-3.5h but at night it is a nightmare. I also have a toddler who demands a lot from me. so I am really tired and wishing for a good night sleep.
Is he too young to wean at night? I heard that if you give them water instead of BF they will stop waking.
He also has a dummy which is driving me nuts. He cries every time it falls out...
Please any help is highly appreciated!
Thank you,

Nanda

[Skadiver13]

Hi, yes I would say a 3 month old is too young to wean at night. Water has no caloric nutrients what so ever so if his wakings are due to hunger he's just going to keep waking up until you feed him.. Many children still get night feeds up until a year as BM/formula are their main source of nutrients and at 3months are their only source. Could you give us an EAS of your day so maybe we can look at your routine and see if it could use a little tweaking to help with the night wakings. Include your feedings and amounts as well and that might help.   As for the dummy if he's too young to replug which he is and he is waking every time it falls out or needs it to go to sleep then it would be a prop.  You have a few chioces. You can wean the pacifier and introduce a lovey or try and teach him how to replug (unless he is still swaddled). Or you can just wean it and try and see if he can self settle anyway? Is he an Independant sleeper?

Props

Here is the prop boards. Take a look.

[pandamegda]

Thank you for your response.
Our days go roughly like this:

7 am E
He usually goes back to sleep for another 30 min or so.
7:30 A
9 am S (Its tricky because by the time he goes down, its nearly feed time...)
10 am E
10:15 A
11:30 S
1:00 pm E
1:15 A
3 pm S
3:45/4pm E
4:15 A
6pm S (really short nap)
6:30 pm E
6:45 A
8/8:30 S
He usually goes until 11:30/12 am
12 am E (night waking starts)
2 am
3:45/4 am
6 am
7 am
Then we all get up exhausted...

He does go down independently. He is still swaddled. I thought of weaning the dummy but he seems to really love it and it does soothe
him.
He is such an easy going child but the feeding and waking is driving me crazy! My mum says that boys want to eat more than girls. Maybe I need to supplement with formula?

Thank you again!

[amayzie]

hi Hon- How are things going now?

[Skadiver13]

Sorry I thought I had replied to you pandamegda my fault.

As for his dummy, I'll be honest I weaned the dummy from my lo at 4months I refused to be a re-plugger and while it did sooth him perfectly at BT he would wake up in the middle of the night and I had to go in and replug or he wouldn't go back to sleep. He was still swaddled at that point so I dithced it and he learned to self-sooth by slamming his legs on the cot LOL. you should have heard the banging but it worked well for him and that's all that mattered and I didn't have to deal with a paci anymore.  I thank god I did that becuase now I don't have to deal with taking it away from an 18 month old.   

My mum says that boys want to eat more than girls.

bless your mom, but this isn't really scientific info and while it could possibly be true I wouldn't really base any decisions you make on that. If he's gaining weight like he should be than he could be getting enough from you. It is not uncommon for lo's his age to feed a DF AND two more times at night.  I was a bottle feeder with hypoallergenic formula as my LO was allergic so if you want to pop on to the BF board and ask for some advice please do to make you feel more comfortable about just BF.

I think the key is to allow enough time to pass between feedings at night so you know he's actually hungry.  Think of your EAS as a 3hr EAS do you konw what I mean by that? When do you feed him at his night wakings? I didn't see on your EAS.

From your EAS it looks like he's on 4 naps? I would try and start consolidating down to 3 naps. Also your A is eyes open to eyes shut so that inclues eating etc. So it would look something like.

From the site:
Awake time: 1h45m - 2 hours
This is decent sample of what a routine between 3 hours and 4 hours might look like.
Naps: 2x1.75, 1x1.5
Total daytime sleep:  5 hours
Total nighttime sleep: 11.5

E 7:30 a.m.
A
S 9:15-11:00

E 11:00
A
S 12:45-2:30

E 2:30
A
S 4:30

E 6:00
A Bath
E 7:30
S 8:00

This is just a sample and do what you feels best. Do you do a DF? From your EAS it looks as if he wakes at 11 due to hunger and you feed him. If he takes a full good feed than he can go 3hrs at least with out eating again, so treat any wakings prior to that 3hr mark and a night waking and resettle accordingly. So if he wakes at 12 feed, then 3 feed, than 6 and so forth. After a while he'll stop those feedings and be able to stretch them out.