4 week old waking 1.5-2hrly at nights!!

[malibu_nikkus]

Hi
This little guy doesn't nap the best in the day. If I'm lucky I'll get one long nap and a few short.  He then cluster feeds from about 4.30pm feeding about every 1.5hrs until about 9pm which is fine.  But then after 9pm for the last 4 nights we've gone from 4hrly wake up at night to 2.5 -1.5hrly.  I feed him whenever he wakes at night, he seems to have a big drink, sometime emptying one side, sometimes both.  I don't think he snacks by having a quick sip and going back to sleep.  What's going on? We can't cluster feed ALL night, I'm exhausted.

[malibu_nikkus]

I should also mention sometimes during the day I use a pacifier to help him settle to sleep as he is a very sucky baby and sucks at self settling ( although he is quite overtired and I think that's from not having any long blocks of sleep in the night as he wakes tired in the morning and grizzles a lot) . Would this affect the nights? I also work very hard to give full feeds in the day about every 2.5hrs give or take? It is hard to keep him awake for full feeds though. He's so tired (and so am I!).

[malibu_nikkus]

Babies weight etc is perfect so I guess we assume my supply is fine. He does have silent reflux but it's because of food allergies (hereditary).  By staying away from dairy and soy, he seems ok apart from congestion.  I'm going to limit gluten as well and see if that works.  Two of mine are gluten intolerant and one of them gets bad congestion from gluten. Worth a try.  When he wakes at night, he doesn't seem in pain and I'm not hearing him reflux at all. Could it be hunger or overtiredness perhaps? Maybe I'll take him to bed with me tonight in hope of getting a good sleep into him (he sleeps very well in bed with me!).

[Katet]

Babies weight etc is perfect so I guess we assume my supply is fine. He does have silent reflux but it's because of food allergies (hereditary).  By staying away from dairy and soy, he seems ok apart from congestion.  I'm going to limit gluten as well and see if that works.  Two of mine are gluten intolerant and one of them gets bad congestion from gluten. Worth a try.  When he wakes at night, he doesn't seem in pain and I'm not hearing him reflux at all. Could it be hunger or overtiredness perhaps? Maybe I'll take him to bed with me tonight in hope of getting a good sleep into him (he sleeps very well in bed with me!).

All babies have  reflux (because of the immaturity of the valve at the top of the stomach)  & he's too young to have "reflux disease, as that's from ulceration, which normally takes longer than 4 weeks. Reflux is often the go to reason for any unsettled babies, but research is showing lots of it is more unsettled & overstimulated babies - which really with 4 siblings probably is unavoidable for you.

I'd say given he did a longer stretch & then went back to feeding more frequently & you are pretty sure his feeds are full, My guess would be he's going through a Growth spurt. You said he has always been alert from birth & my DS2 was like that & went through the big "6 week" growth spurt at 4weeks old, so it could be the case.  If he's a sucky baby I'd try & feed more in the day & offer the dummy more at night so you can avoid him having his longer stretches in the day & try & feed every 2 hours or less in the day & see if that helps the night.