14 week old used to sleep 5 hour stretch, now maxes out at 3!

[Mrs Grumbley]

Hi there, and thank you in advance for your help!

My 14 week old son used to go back to bed after the dreamfeed (which starts at 10 and finishes around 10.30), then wake up around 5 hours later (around 3.30am) for a feed, then sleep again until 7am wake-up time. He went through a massive growth spurt at 13 weeks - feeding frenzies like you wouldn't believe for 48 hours. Now, for the past week, he's been waking 3 hourly at night and taking a decent feed (though not as much as he was taking at his one wake-up previously). Then he barely eats anything at 7am, so doesn't have a decent feed again until 10.30 am (he's on a 3.5 hour EASY).

Is he reverse cycling or is this an after-effect of the growth spurt? I feel like we're going backwards!

Would I be better off trying to transition to 4 hour EASY (he's a big, strong lad at 7kgs) or trying to PU/PD/shush-pat at night to get him to wait a bit longer for his feed and hopefully merge it into one again?

Here is the list of Q & As.

How old is your child?  14 weeks
What’s his/her daily routine?
7am wake (although often he's been up chatting to himself since around 6.30) - barely feeds, so I don't really count this as an E!
8.30 S
10.30 E & A
12pm S
2pm E & A
3.30pm S
4.30pm E & A
5.30pm A walk in the pram, sometimes he'll have a nap
6pm bath & jammies
6.30pm E
7pm S
10pm DF

What’s nap routine? See above - wind down 10 mins or so, dark room, into grobag (just weaning swaddle at the moment, but the NW started before this) hold until drowsy, then down into his cot and he goes the rest of the way to sleep by himself (been working on this since he was 3 weeks old and he's pretty good).
How long are naps? See above - 2 x 2 hour, 1 x 45-1hr and occasionally 30 mins or so in the pram
What's bedtime routine? Time? Bath, nappy, grobag, song, feed, fairy lights. Bedtime routine is solid and effective - he usually goes down no trouble at 7 pm.
Do you bottle or breastfed?? EBF
How much? or how long? Around 12 minutes total for the dayfeeds and then he does 20-30 minutes at 6.30 and 10pm - his one NW feed used to be around 30 mins, now he's doing 2 x 15 minutes, 3 hours apart.
If breastfed.. one side or both?? (at each feed) Both - he'll usually drain one pretty fast, then it's a bit of a battle to get him to take enough on the other side, as he gets distracted when he's not ravenous anymore.
How many wakes per night? Three now, including DF. Two not including.
What’s your LO like when waking at night? How long is he/she up? Crying but settles immediately on breast - I haven't tried soothing him back to sleep yet, as this started during his GS and he takes a fair amount to eat, so it doesn't seem habitual.
When you go to him/her is she fussing or crying? Or is it a mantra cry? Crying - definitely crying. During the day though he mantra cries and often needs help to get through the 45 minute intruder.
What have you tried to settle?? See above. We're doing PU/PD - Shh/pat to extend naps, with good success.
What do you do for A time and how long is it? Playmat, jolly jumper, walking around a bit, playing with rattles, toys, quiet time just looking around, songs, stories, tummy time. A time is around 1.5 hours usually, although I'm trying to push him to 1hr 40 when he can stand it.
Are there developmental issues such as teething or milestones? He's sort of trying to roll over, without great success..
Have you introduced cereal? Why, how much, and how many times a day? (for LO’s under 6 months) Nope.
Do they have a prop? If so what is it? Nope.
Do they have a lovie? Nope (we haven't needed it, and don't want to make a rod for our own back in case we lose it!)

[katie80]

Hi there, I don't think he's reverse cycling, I think it may be the after-effects of the GS along with the need for a routine tweak. I think you're doing the right thing in stretching him to 1h40min when you can and I'd keep at it, even possibly to 1h45min. Waking 30min earlier in the morning and just chatting can be a sign of not enough A time, as can extra NWs. I'd start with that and then work on resettling if he wakes at night before 3.5-4hr. He should be able to make it at least 3.5hr, as he can do that during the day, but I'm guessing he can go 4. Since he already knows how to resettle with shh/pat and PUPD from extending naps, it won't be a shock to him if you try to resettle in the MOTN. At this age, however, if it's been 15-20min and he hasn't resettled, I'd probably just feed him and keep working on extending the EASY.

One thing to note with an EBF baby is that he may not make it a full 4hr in between feeds until he's started solids. You may need to stay on a 3.5hr EASY, but with longer A times, or add in some top up feeds if you transition to a 4hr EASY. Just something to be aware of!

[Mrs Grumbley]

Thank you so much for the advice. It confirmed my suspicions and so we have moved on to a 4 hour EASY. He's got no trouble going 4 hours between feeds, and we're just gradually adjusting his awake time - we're pretty consistently at 1hr 40 the past few days, edging our way towards 2 hours.

We've just had Christmas at his grandparents' place and a very disrupted night, but there were other crying children in the house and he was sleeping in a portacot in a room with us (the portacot is fine, as we've given him practice in it at home, but he's used to sleeping in his own room, without snoring parents!). 

So last night I tried the resettling when he woke up 3 hours after the dreamfeed, and it took 20 minutes of hard crying with me shush-patting before he subsided, then 5 minutes of gentle wailing before I was able to put him back down. After that he slept for another 1 hr 20, though, so that takes him through to nearly the 5 hours without a feed he was doing before. Then he slept like a dream from 3am-7am after his feed. And fed really well this morning. So fantastic!

Hopefully it doesn't take too long to get him out of the 3-hour habit, but if it doesn't start to get easier after 3 or 4 days, I might try wake to sleep before the 3 hour mark. What do you think?

[katie80]

Sounds like a great start!

W2S may be worth a try, although it seems like a lot to wake yourself up in order to try it when there's a chance he might still wake up later. But, maybe he'll sleep through too and you never know until you try. I'll hope that he does it on his own after a couple nights of resettling!

[Mrs Grumbley]

The only bump, and this may not be the place for it (should I start a new thread somewhere?) is that he hasn't pooped since we switched to 4-hour EASY (after being very regular) and he seems constipated - straining and crying, with no result! Is this possibly because of the routine change?

[katie80]

Hmm, I don't know. It's uncommon for EBF babies to get constipated, but they can change their pooping habits. My DS2 went from pooping every day and often at night to going only once every couple days right around 4mo. This changed again once he started solids.

It may be worth asking on the BF board. Have you tried any top-up feeds, or does he seem to make it to 4hr with no issues? None of mine have done a true 4hr EASY feed-wise until we started solids.

[Mrs Grumbley]

He does the four hours from 7 to 10 no problem. He gets cranky in the last 15 minutes before the 2pm, but I can usually distract him out of it. I feed him at 5pm and 6.30 (cluster feeding) and then at 10pm DF - I will keep cluster feeding until he doesn't seem to need it anymore, I think. Then he only has one feed at night now - around 3.30am.

He's a big lad - over 7kgs and 65cm long at 14/15 weeks, and he feeds pretty efficiently when I make sure there are no distractions!

He did poop this morning, but continues to seem like he's straining away, today. But at least I know he's not actually constipated - just changing habits, as you say, no doubt!