Help! Used to sleep for hours at night, now only 3-4 hours :(

[ladymugg]

Hi there

I have posted a couple of times over the past month or so about this, and accepted the awesome advice given at the time (patience, it will get better etc, which I appreciated of course and accept) but the night waking for feeding seems to be getting worse.

My 12wo DS has gone from doing 6.30pm - 3.30 am stretch (and then 4.00 am - 6.30 am) to: 6.30pm - 10.30pm (now a DF as he was waking around 10.30/11 anyway); then 2/2.30am and then 5.00 am, before waking finally at 7.30 am.   So from 1 night wake up to 3!! 

How can a baby be able to do like an 8 hour stretch when he is 5-6 weeks old, to not being able to go 3-4 hours?

He is on a fairly predictable 3 hour EASY.  (I'll post below).  Secondary issue - the last 3-4 days has has started resisting naps even though very tired in the afternoons.  So he has been awake from around 11 am - 3 pm (approx, not exactly those times every day) without a nap.  Going a bit insane as this LO has been on EASY almost since birth and has always responded well to it. 

He is a hungry boy, large for his age, and takes decent sized bottles at every feed, he is hungry during the day at that 3 hour mark. 

His EASY is:

7.30 am WU
8.00 am E (after 5 am bottle)
8.30 am S (1.5-2 hours usually, sometimes a catnap)
11 am E
12.15/12.30 pm S  - This has tended to be a longer sleep of around 2 hours, unless he has skipped it like he has done a little bit occasionally!
2 pm E
3.15 pm S - sometimes a catnap of 45 min, sometimes 1.5 hours
5/5.30 pm E
6.30 pm bedtime with top up of bottle.

Then currently the night wakings are:
10.30 pm DF (which is sometimes a waking... we started the DF at 10/10.30 because he started waking for a feed anyway, it was good to take control of that one a little bit so we weren't getting out of bed for a feed... this way he's fed on our way to bed)
2.30 am Feed
5.30 am Feed


ARGH!!




 

[Skadiver13]

My first question without actually looking at your EASY yet is, does he take a full feeding at each waking and go right back to sleep?

[ladymugg]

Pretty much.  I make up 180ml bottles and he usually has all but 30mls

[Skadiver13]

If he's eating them all and going right back to sleep then I would say growth spurt. If he was not hungry, or not going right back to sleep I would say it could be your routine. But he's only 12 weeks, it's still normal to be up that much, give it a week or so and the growth spurt may go away and he'll go back to sleeping again. My DS did the same thing, like a 930, 1230, and 330 up for the day at 630 right around that age.

[ladymugg]

My initial thought was growth spurt too but this tarted around 4 weeks ago... and seems to be getting slightly worse as time goes on.  I am not saying youre wrong but it seems like the longest growth spurt of all time

I feel prepared to tweak things so its hard to hear "give it time" as thats what I've been doing. 

If it doesn't change by a certain age would you be concerned?  I mean at what age, say 4 months?

[Skadiver13]

Aaaah i didn't realize.  Well there is a growth spurt around 8 weeks but now it seems maybw habit? But again, if he's eating fully and going right back to sleep its hard to tell. The only thing I can think of is maybe under tired if that  nap is only 45 minutes in the afternoon that usually indicates being UT.

[ladymugg]

He is definitely tired in the afternoon... my EASY is a bit of a brain splat but often he has been up for 1.5 hours or sometimes longer if he is resisting naps (which he has been a little bit).

I will just keep on keeping on I think.  I was thinking it might be a habit but the genuine hunger seems to dispel that a little bit.  In a few weeks time I'll be able to give my PU/PD skills a work out and will see what happens then

I can't wait for the magic 4 months to happen  

The only think I can think of trying is maybe to try to move to 3.5 hour EASY so he is having bigger bottles and longer spaces between them during the day to see if that has a positive impact through the night, but on the other hand he still is getting tired at that newborn 1 hr 15 minute mark (ish) and my thought was a 3.5 hour easy was more suited to a 1.5-2 hour A time.

[Skadiver13]

Sometimes they get tiree out of habit or boredom. Sometimes los can do more A in the AM or more in the pm. But again it might be trial an error. Does he go ti sleep independently?

[ladymugg]

He does.  Always put down awake, swaddled, blinds shut, white noise.  No pacifier.   

[Skadiver13]

Then why would you need pupd? Just curious about that comment? Ether way, it aounds like hes just hungrt honestly.

[ladymugg]

Well, if at around 4 months I would be feeling it might be more habitual feeding (it was for my older girl), I would use PU/PD to try to settle back to sleep rather than feed.

But you're probably right, he's hungry now.  He is drinking a lot.  But then maybe that's just how he is. 

[Skadiver13]

Eh, it'll  all change again anyway soon right.

[ladymugg]

Yep hahaha

Thanks a lot for your time and musings and support

[Skadiver13]

Any time
. Good luck.. pop back if things don't get beter.

[ladymugg]

OK so since this interaction, I found the following in Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems (around page 197).

It DOES sound like habit waking according to Tracey's list of questions and also what she covers off in this chapter.

So.... anyone identify with this and can help?  Baby is 3 months old, definitely doesn't take a pacifier like the book suggests.  And doesn't respond to ssshhh pat.  I'm slowly reducing the amount of milk offered in the night to try to get him to drink more during the day (he drinks generously during the day... not sure how I can up this much... I've offered more but it mostly doesn't get consumed).

Tips on getting the balance right with day feeding vs night feeding?  I know this might now belong in the bottle feeding section but it DOES relate to night waking.