3 m.o. wakes up every 3 hours

[polla]

Hi

My son used to sleep for 6 - 4 hours at night (starting from 7-8pm) until I decided to change his pattern a bit . He was 2.5 m.o at that point.
I tried to dreamfeed him at 11-12pm hoping that he'll sleep till 6 am.
I was dreamfeeding only 3 times. Then he started to wake up at 11-12 and then every 3 hours. Two weeks later he still continues to wake up every 3 hours

Did I create a new pattern? Or he's just having a growth spurt?
 
P.S. I'm breastfeeding, at night he usually falls asleep on his own. At day he eats every 3 hours and sleeps after 1.5 hours of wakefulness.
Thanks

[Sarah - Enfys' Mum]

It could be a growth spurt, a routine problem, genuine hunger, lots of things. It does seem to be quite common at this age. Is he breast fed or bottle? What's his routine like during the day?  Does he fall asleep on his own? 

[Mom-of-boys]

I think waking up once or twice to feed at night at this age is still pretty common.  As far as the dream feed goes, I think I remember reading somewhere in the BW books to dream feed around 10-11pm but not later than 11 pm, can't remember why?  On a side note, I found a great baby sleep timeline on the alphaparent.com website that outlines information about what's common sleeping patterns for babies at certain ages which has been really helpful for me.

[Skadiver13]

Hi hun, just my two cents but sometimes DF does not work. For us it did not. He started waking for it, and then would wake every 3 hrs after. So we stopped the DF and he went to just to NF's then down to one than weaned totally by 10months. For some lo's the DF disrupts their natural sleep rhythm and they have trouble the rest of the night. You could possibly try not doing it for a a week and see what that does?

[polla]

I found a great baby sleep timeline on the alphaparent.com

Thank you, that's really helpful !

[polla]

You could possibly try not doing it for a a week and see what that does?

Thank you. But now he wakes up himself every 3 hours . I'll try soothing him without feeding.

[CarolineA]

Hi,  I have a 3 month old with a similar bedtime and similar nw pattern.
It took awhile for my DD to get going on the DF (about 6 weeks), she was usually too sleepy.  And I think even once she got going she wasn't taking that much (I breastfeed) because she would be up between 1-2:30 for another feed.  It seemed liked it wasn't worth for me to get up and break what would have been her (and my) only 5-6 hr chunk of sleep.  So for the past 2 nights I have not done the df - first night great: 1:20 Feed then a 4:30 Feed then up for the day at 7:20 - I'll take that!  However, last night was bad ... 3 month growth spurt maybe?
So far she does not wake for the 11am feed though and never really did.  I was always getting a good long stretch at the beginning of the night.
I will keep you posted and let you know how it goes for me.

[polla]

As my LO grows, he switched to 4 hours feedings at night. And regarding the dream feeding, I decided to stop it because it woke him up, and I don't want to interfere with his sleep cycles.

[CarolineA]

Quick update.  I think I had 2 days of the 3 month growth spurt and now she seems to be back to her old pattern of 1ish and 4ish feeds. I tried the DF one night again and she still woke at 1 so I am not going to try again either.  Glad things are getting better for you and you are getting 4 hours now!