Waking for no reason at night

[amyinlondon]

Hiya,
I've got a 10 week old who in most respects is a complete angel baby.  He sleeps well during the day and after his 7pm feed he gets a bath, is swaddled and then goes straight down to bed with no fuss. He sleeps till his dreamfeed at 11.30 and is no trouble again, just goes straight back down.
Problem is quite often he wakes for no reason at around 4am. He starts off making yabbering noises which escalates to half-hearted crying until I go in and put his dummy in, at which point he quietens down. He's wide awake, but I don't talk to him or stimulate him in anyway, just put the dummy in and leave.  This works for about half and hour and then we have to repeat the cycle. 
Usually at about 6am I get so fed up with traipsing backwards and forwards I bring him into our bed at which point he goes straight to sleep for an hour until he wakes for a feed at 7am.

I know its not that he's hungry in the night as sometimes he sleeps quite happily all the way till 6 or 7am, its just every other night he wakes up.

He doesn't have a structured sleep routine during the day, mainly because sometimes he seems more sleepy than others and I just go with whatever he wants. I'm now suspecting that his daytime naps are affecting his nighttime sleep but I don't know how to get out of the cycle. I've tried putting him down for naps but if he's not tired he just screams and the shhh/pat technique just makes him more furious! I've also tried waking him up so he doesn't sleep too much, which is a bit more successful, but any other advice will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Amy and Jacob (10 weeks tomorrow)

[Jaime]

hi Amy,

couple of thoughts for you... definitely i'd work on getting a more structured routine during the day.  that will help his night sleep.

also, though, if you are sure he isn't hungry (and i'd agree that is sounds like he's not), i'd say it sounds a bit like habitual waking.  you may want to consider wake-to-sleep.  furthermore, i would never go into his room if he wasn't actually crying.  that way, you don't accidentally condition him to expect you every time he wakes, you give him the opportunity to practice self-soothing, and you may avoid a severe paci habit.

HTH 

[15milner]

The waking could be hunger.  At least 1 night waking at 10 weeks is perfectly normal.  I was up twice a night as DS was on a 2.5 - 3 hourly routine. 

You will also be coming up for a 12week growth spurt soon, and that throws feeding out the window too.

Definately check out the EASY boards for some ideas of how a day could be 'structured'. 

Alex