Help please! 7 week-old random but regularly spaced night wakings

[Flippa]

I'm not sure how to get my 7 week old/12 pound girl to sleep for more than 2.5 hours at night. She is otherwise an angel. During the day she happily eats every three hours and could go longer if I let her (but I don't). She naps fairly well, rarely cries for no reason and is usually in a happy mood and content to interact with me or relatives for 30 mins to 1.5 hours between daytime naps. At night we cluster feed her at least twice, sometimes three times but she consistently wakes every 2 hours and 30 mins to 2 hours and 50 mins between midnight and 6/7am. She does actually seem hungry when waking and I feed her (breast) and send her back to sleep with no problems. I'd just like her to extend times between night feedings. At around 4-5 weeks old she was regularly going at least one five hour stretch at night between feedings and another 3.5-4 hours stretch. The five hours was usually between about 8pm-1am or 9pm-2am and then another feed at 5 or 6am. The last two weeks she's just reverted totally and it's been exhausting getting up every 2.5 hours to feed her. What can I do? She's gaining weight well and this seems too long for a growth spurt. Do you think she's actually hungry when waking? We've tried giving her a dummy to send her back to sleep when she wakes at night but this only really gives me another 10-15 mins until she spits it out and cries again.

Our day usually looks something like:
7am: Out of bed, first feed, nappy change, clean clothes, play and interact
8-8.30am: First daytime nap (start time depends on signs of tiredness)
9.30am: If early start to nap /early wakeup then play
10am: Feed and play
11.30am: Second nap- usually in car seat or stroller as I run errands
1pm: Feed, if we're out of the house then back into stroller for a walk, if home a little more play time
Sometime between 1.30pm and 3pm: Another nap
4pm: Feed, play and short nap
6pm: Cluster feed (usually have to wake her for this) and back to bed
8pm: Cluster feed and back to bed
10pm: Cluster feed that's usually a dream feed

From there our night is usually wake around midnight, feed for 30 mins, wake around 2.45am, feed for 30 mins, wake around 6am, feed and sleep til we get up at 7am. Why does she eat so much at night?!

Thanks for any guidance.
Philippa 

[shanlbc]

Boy I can't wait to hear if you get any answers...My DS is 4mo and does the same thing:  he is on a 4hr EASY during the day and takes good naps, and happy just like yours.  He goes down for the night at 7:30 but wakes about every 3/3.5hrs during the night.

Why can they go longer in the day than the night??

[Layla]

Can you tell me how long the feeds are during the day? Is she easily distracted during the day when you are feeding her?

Does she put herself to sleep or do you help her by rocking her, etc...

If the dummy only buys 5-10mins, then I would think she is hungry.

[Flippa]

I don't rock her to sleep. She goes down in her cot sleepy but awake and gets her self to sleep alone. She used to be a super quick feeder, like she was done in ten minutes, now each feed takes 20-30 mins. It's like she's going backwards! From longer sleeps and short feeds to short sleeps and longer feeds! Some more info... her morning nap is always the best of the day. She goes down quickly and won't stir. Her naps get progressively more difficult to get her into until the the last of the day is usually quite troublesome. I'll confess I go in to replace her dummy two or more times during her late afternoon nap since she spits it out and cries. I've tried a few things, like letting her go 4-4.5 hours during the day between feeds so she gets used to the longer stretch (ok, a bad idea I know and I've stopped) and also waking her every three hours to eat even when she could go longer. When she was five weeks old and sleeping well I was so looking forward to the six week mark so I could start working on dropping a night feed (from two to one) now we are back to at least three a night. Maybe I should try harder with the dummy at night rather than feeding? And one last confession... a couple of times after she's woken to eat for the third time I'll bring her to bed with me to sleep an hour before we get up togther. This morning she ate at 3am and woke again to eat at 6 and rather than feed her I brought her to bed and let her sleep with me til 7 when she ate again. She was quite happy in the bed with me for an hour and slept most of that time, which confirms to me (I think) that she's not hungry when she wakes.

[Samuel's mum]

I'm wondering whether a few things might be going on here:
1. Perhaps she's reverse cycling a little i.e. she has her day/night feeding patterns slightly switched so she takes more calories at night than in the day. That would be the case if she's really not fussed about going 4hrs + in the day at this age. The only way to really fix this is to gradually reduce night calories so that she compensates by taking more in the day. So she adjusts and also your milk supply adjusts. So reducing the amount of feeds by trying to settle her in other ways, trying to space feeds more even by only 10-15 minutes, trying to shorten the length of feeds so overall she takes less calories at night.
Then daytime feeds need to compensate. One of the theories as to why babies move into reverse cycling (many many are born with reversed cycles but grow out of it) is because it's when the feeds are more relaxed, mum is more relaxed, letdown is better so feeds are better. You could try and reproduce this quality in your daytime feeds - so a darkened room, a lying down position, try really hard to be chilled yourself and relax about the length of the feed.

2. Her daytime feeds may be getting longer because she might be micro-napping on the breast which would explain why her naps ight not be so great (or who knows which came first, she may be micro-napping at the breast because of less napping). Does she seem to close her eyes and have long pauses during a feed? A bit of breast compression (see the bf FAQS) might keep her more alert.

You could certainly have a go with the dummy although you may just create a pattern where she wakes for the dummy and still needs your intervention. I would suggest you feed her but work on the feed being shorter and finish it when she's awake (using the gentle removal plan - see nightwakings FAQs) and then move to pat/shush if she really doesn't settle. Pat/shush is a different kind of intervention but it's less powerful than sucking to sleep and an easier association to break. And if the feed is gradually shorter and shorter she'll compensate in the day and be less desperately hungry and waking for a feed.

I don't think at this age the aim is to obviously drop all night feeds but ideally you'd be going back to the 5 hr stretch or certainly 4hr stretches - a good hour longer than daytime stretches.

[Flippa]

Thanks for your help! I'll try those things since she is still waking all the time at night. Last night she cluster fed at 7pm, 9pm and 11pm (DF) and STILL woke at 1.30am to eat more! I held her off til 2am then fed her and she woke again at 3.30am, went back to sleep with a dummy, woke at 4.30am went back to sleep with her dummy, woke at 5.30am and stayed awake sooking and grunting til 6am when i fed her again. Then we got up at 7.30am. After we did some morning actvities she went back for a nap with a little help just after 8am and showed no sign of wanting to eat again til 9.30am! That was only 3.5 hours, so maybe we're getting back on track. Hope so!