Restless night sleep - what am I doing wrong?

[OliviaM]

Hi there,
My LO is 3mo and we're on 3hr EASY. I feed at approx 7pm and then DF at 10:30-11pm. He then sleeps peacefully till approx 2-3am. After that, he starts stirring on and off. He gets quite restless (in his sleep) at regular intervals during the night. He would try to unswaddle, turn his little head from side to side (with his eyes closed), bring hands to his mouth (sign of hunger??) and just gets very restless. In the middle of it all, he groans and roars like a little bear!! He does all that in his sleep.

I usually attend straight away, reswaddle him in his cot, give him a dummy, sh-pat a bit and he is fast asleep again. Then as soon as I put my head on the pillow, groaning and roaring starts again and there I am back near his cot trying to resettle him!

I tried to leave him just to see whether or not he would self-settle but he would always wake up at the end. That's why I try to attend asap and catch him while he is still asleep. Last night, I had to get in and out of bed every 20 minutes just to resettle him.

What am I doing wrong? Should I leave him to wake up naturally and then watch for hunger signs? Should I try to increase his feeds during the day? (he is a refluxy baby, so he throws up a lot but still puts on weight which makes me think he is getting enough)

I haven't had a chance to try wake to sleep technique as LO would always get restless before my planned wake up time, so he would always beat me to it.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Our ideal day on EASY is as follows: E: 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm. A: 7:15am, 10:15am, 1:15pm, 4:15pm, bath at approx 6:30pm. S: 8:30am, 11:30am, 2:30pm, catnap at approx 5:30pm. His naps got shorter lately for some reason (45min-1hr instead of his normal 1.5 hrs).

Many thanks
Olivia

[kc456]

If you resettle him and he wakes up 20 min later -- could he be genuinely hungry? I wonder if this may be the 3 month growth spirt. The bahaviour you described sounds exactly like my LO when he was a newborn waking up for his night time feed. If you feed him, does he take a full meal? Does he act hungrier during the day?

I'm definitely not an expert on this... wonder what others have to say.

[texasmom]

hi there!

just a thought...  sometimes lo's wake more with a dream feed.  mine seemed to.  mine would do the same thing - sleep till 2 or 3.  i finally dropped the df and fed him when he woke up.  just recently he has started to skip his night feed altogether. 

but with the hand to mouth thing, and the head flailing... i tend to think he might be hungry.  mine did that when hungry.  can you give him more food during the day?  maybe even cluster feed.  they do go through a growth spurt at 3 months.  during a growth spurt, mine ate and slept like a bear.  i might try feeding him more during the day, and if that doesn't help, then try feeding him when he wakes...  see how much he takes.  if he takes a full feeding, you know he was hungry.  do you have tracy's book.  she tells what to do during a growth spurt.  i loaned mine out, or i'd go check.  but i'm sure you can find it on this website too. 

many times i have gotten the advice to leave mine alone unless he is crying.  i didn't like doing that, though, for the same reasons as you... he would go right back to sleep if i got to him quickly.  but i have been told that a lot (to leave him be), so you might keep it in mind. 

let us know how it goes!  hope it gets better. 

brooke

hope it gets better.

[litomi]

For 3 mo. LO, sleeping till 2-3am is really good At this age, most LOs still needs 1 night feed. Their tummy are still too small to hold all the food they need for the long night.
I think the head flailing is a hunger cue... looking for nipples to suck. You can try to DF him again before he wakes up of hunger. This can stretch his sleep