Changes on his night routine

[bgayoso]

Hi,
My baby is now 3 months and from 15 days until now he has changed his routine of feeding and sleeping during the nights.
I was thinking of a growth spurt but as it lasts for so long I think it may be something diferent.
During the day we follow an easy plan of 3 hours, bf at 10, 13, 16, 19 and 21. Until these changes began he used to sleep until 3-4 in the morning, waking up for a bf and sleeping again with no problems (after 10 minutes) until 6-7 in the morning.
Suddenly he began to wake up more frecuently, each 2 hours sometimes, I've tryed to include a df at 23 but it doesn't work as he keeps on waking up 2 hours later after it, and every 2 hours until it's morning day.
Another thing that has changed at the same time is that when it was time to sleep at nigth it took him to much time to get asleep, and he's never done it by himself by now (I've also tryed to tie him with a sheet but 1:he doesn't like it and 2: now he has learnt to get untied so it doesn't work, I've ordered a "magical blanket" to see if this helps) but as soon as he got asleep he didn't woke up until the feed of 3-4 am and now, everyday since this change has happened he wakes up after 30-45 minutes and it takes me another 45 minutes to get him asleep again. (His day naps do not last more than 30-45 minutes unless I get him tied in which case sometimes he sleeps during 1,30 hours)
I don't know if it has any relation with all these changes the fact that they 've just begun just after a weekend with lots of people in our house (when normally we have quite little visits), last saturday 23 of july we baptized him and as my husband's family lives 600 kms away from here they came and spend 3 days with us (7 people), carrying him in the arms, with quite a lot of stimulation and new faces during the all day. The weekend the family stayed at home he slept fine, from 9 until 5 am but sudenly, on monday after they left our house all these changes began, I don't know if they have any relation.
Any ideas of why it is happening this to my lo??

[Simpra]

Maybe as your baby is reaching 4 months you may need to switch him onto a 4 hour cycle - i have just done it with my boy and it seems to be working. he  also changed his sleep patterns around about that age. we have also been using 'wake to sleep'
good luck

[bgayoso]

Yes, I agree with you and my paediatrician says he should be sleeping the all night since 12 until 6 or 7 more or least but he is quite greedy and I can only extend one feed or miss it out if he is slept or if we are having a walk during the day, in other case he begins to cry a lot asking for his feeding.
What really worries me is the fact that until now he was having only 7 and even 6 feeds a day sometimes, and now he is having 8 although he's gaining weight well so this increase on the number of feedings doesn't seem to be caused for hunger.
The "wake to sleep" you talk about, does it mean to keep him awake to make him sleep later?? If yes I have to say he has never slept much during the day since he was one month, he uses to have 3 or 4 naps a day but they last only 30-45 minutes so he doesn't sleep too much during the day. In fact he uses to have his last nap between 5:30 and 6:30 more or less and from then until he goes to sleep (at 21:30) he is always awake.
Although I might say these last 15 days he used to have a small nap at 20:00 (only 30 minutes) which make him more difficult to fall asleep later on and I've tryed to avoid  him to have his nap a couple of days and then he felt asleep at my breast during the feed and he slept until his next feed without waking up 45 m. later.
Fortunatelly I have to say this night has been much better, he had dinner at 21.30 and then woke up at 2, 5,30 and 9 so it seems he has began to readjust his timetable during the night.
Hope it keeps on doing it

[rachelle]

hi there,
can you share what your typical daily schedule looks like?  What time does he eat and for how long? What times does he sleep?

It really does sound like hunger to me.  For 3 months old, 5 daytime feedings probably isn't enough.  You need to get another feed in during the day.

Also, I highly suggest that you do not go to a 4 hour schedule yet since you are breastfeeding.  Also, since he only naps for 45 minutes right now, a 4 hour schedule would not work very well.

[bgayoso]

Our typical day goes as follows:

10:00: wake up and feed (he needs about 10 minutes and only one breast each feed), activity until 11:30-12:00 (change of diaper, playing with him, talking, ...) and sleep for 30-45 minutes (impossible to get him slept more time unless he's tied, in which case sometimes he sleps for one hour and a half)
same routine every 3 hours: at 13:00, 16:00 and 19:00.
At this time I reduce time to 2 h. trying to keep him awake, we have a bath at 20:30, a relaxing massage afterwards, dinner at 9 and go to sleep at 21:30 until 1:30-2:00 am (previously he used to sleep until 3 or 4 but yesterday and before yesterday he increased a bit time between this feed and the previous one and was sleeping until 2 am., he eats in 10 minutes, one breast only and goes back to sleep in 10 minutes until 5:30-6 (these last 2 days), and sleeps again until 9-10.
I don't give him a df because after trying it for a couple of days it had no effect on him as he continued to wake up at the same time he was waking up without it
I have to say these last 2 days have been much better, extending time between feeds during the night and I hope it would be the way back to his previous schedule.
As you can see he sleeps during the night about 12 hours and during the day he does 3 short naps of 30-45 minutes with 7 feeds a day (these 2 last days he has gone without the 8th he was asking for the previous 15 days)