14 Week Old Night Wakings

[joben]

HI,
I have a 14 week old boy who is "spirited" who has always been a challenge when it comes to sleeping.  With his reflux under control with medication, weaning him of his dummy which became a sleep association for him and working really hard with his feeding, routine and extending his 45 min day time naps he is a much happier and easier baby during the day.  We are still on a 3 hrly routine mostly, however, he is starting to extend some feedings to 3.25 or 3.5hrs apart recently.  He is EBF and is very efficient at it too.  My question is regarding his night time wakings.  He has never slept through the night - ever.  The longest stretches we have ever gotten are about 6hrs - from his pretty consistent 7/7:30pm bedtime.  I was feeding him twice a night until recently when I wondered whether he really needed it - he is over 16lbs and putting on heaps of weight every fortnight and was not taking a full feed at each feeding during the night.  I began weaning one feed off.  Now, over the last week or so he has started a whole range of night wakings, which I know must be habitual due to the regularity of the time ie: 11pm, 1am, 4:30am.  I don't do a dreamfeed as the few times I tried it it did not seem to make any difference and it was hard to get him to feed well as he just kept drifting off into sleep. I must admit that I did not try it for more than 2 nights in a row - should I persist??  We are resettling him for most of the night wakings and I am feeding once, generally the 1am feed.  I am not sure if I should be feeding at the 11pm waking, making this a dreamfeed and resettling for all the others until his usual wake up time of 6am or should I continue feeding the 1am feed and resettle all the others.  We have been resettling for a week now and he continues to wake up at the same times.  I have read about "wake to sleep" but am not sure where to start ie: which wake time to pick to feed him at and which ones to start the "wake to sleep" with as there are at least 3 per night to choose from.  Can someone give me some sort of plan to work with??
Thanks
Balun's Mum (14 Weeks tomorrow)

[joben]

Oh, just thought I should add;
Balun has about 5 feeds per day at 6:30am, 9:30am, 12:30pm, 3:30pm and 6:30pm.  I try to get him about 5 hrs of day time sleep between each feed ie: 1.25 -1.5hrs x 3 and 1 x catnap of 1/2 to 45 mins later in the day.  He is EBF.  He is up for about 1-1.5 hrs between waking and going back down for his next nap.  We never rock, nurse or feed him to sleep.  We always put him into his cot awake after our nap/bed time routine and he generally is out within 10 mins.  Hope this extra info helps.
Balun's mum.

[Kimberly®]

Hi there, I've read over your posts and I have a couple suggestions for you.
Although I would like to know how long does he feed at each feeding, and do you single side feed or double side?

For your Dreamfeed yes persist with it, it really does help, and it will stop at least the 11pm waking if not the 1am, dreamfeed at about 10:30, the point is for him to sleep through it, don't wake him up, if your breastfeeding and you can pump milk to a bottle that would be easier for the dreamfeed (also you can let dad do it and he'll get bonding time too.) This way he'll still hve breastmilk, and because its a dreamfeed the bottle will not effect his breast feeding.
At this point he will most likely need at least one night feeding, 6 hours is a really a great strech for 14 weeks your doing a great job. When he wakes at night try resettling and if he doesn't resettle then feed him. You'll want to stop the 1am feed then work on the 4:30 feeding. If you reinstate the dreamfeed that should eliminate the 11pm waking and it will likly do the same with the 1am feeding, or at least move it back. Don't give up on the dreamfeed it could take a few weeks to kick in.
HTH

[joben]

Thanks for your reply.  He feeds for about 15-20mins and takes both sides.  I make sure that he is completely finished the first side before offering the second side.  I have found since he is getting longer naps he feeds much better.  Also, when he goes a little longer between his feeds ie; 3.25 or 3.5 hrs he will feed more heartily as well.  So, you are suggesting not to feed him at the 11pm waking but at 10:30pm instead?  I just find that he is so sleepy he does not feed really well and then tends to wake up later anyway.

[Kimberly®]

When you do a dreamfeed don't wake him up. The point is to feed him while he sleeps. You may need to do a bottle for this, I don't bf so I'm not sure on how it works You can always ask on the breastfeeding forum. It is possible and they can help you with that. When you first start the dream feed he will still wake up, it wont work overnight unfortunitly but given time he'll start to sleep longer and longer.
It may be time to start moving him to the 3.5-4 hour EASY, sounds like her may be ready for it.
I'd also suggest you talk about doing single sided feeds on the breastfeeding forum. He may benifit from you changing When you bf the formilk is mostly water and its the hindmilk that has all the sustinence to it and he may not be getting enough hind milk to hold him longer piriods, ask about that there and see what information they can give you.
I think both these things will help your LO sleep longer and better