12-week old waking up more at night

[Maria2007]

Hello,

I'm posting with a question about sleep. I'm quite tired at the moment, and getting a bit more tired every day. My boy is now 12 weeks & instead of sleeping longer & longer stretches he actually has been sleeping shorter & shorter stretches at night! Which is really surprising to me.

Here's what has been happening, so that perhaps you can get an idea:

--Until recently, he used to sleep from 7-11, then dream feed at 11, then he used to have one good 5-hour stretch until 4 or so. And then he fed again at 4 am & slept until 7 am, when he fed again. I was very happy with this schedule, which let us get enough rest...the only problem was (and still is) his dummy falling out all the time & us having to put it back in.

--At the moment, and for the last 10 days or so, he sleeps at 7 pm again, then eats at 11 pm. Then after that the trouble starts! For some strange reason he wakes at 2 or 2.30, cries for ages & finds it hard to go back to sleep however much I try to trick him with his dummy or by comforting him. Last night when this happened I managed to postpone feeding until 3.30 am, but he was completely unsettled between 2 & 3.30 & we didn't get any sleep. Then he slept until 6.00 am and at that point cried with hunger & I fed him again (far too early). Then again he woke at 7 am, again I fed him. Then he was unsettled but managed to sleep for a bit, & I fed him again at 9.30.

Some clues to what might be happening, although I have no idea what's contributing more to his unsettled sleep:

--first, he eats far too little during the day. Not sure if any of you have a similar problem, but since my baby started smiling & gurgling etc, he just is not interested in day-time eating. I'm still exclusively breastfeeding him, but I'm getting more & more frustrated, since he eats very few minutes at day feeds, & prefers to look at me, smile, laugh, gurgle. I try & try to turn his head to the breast, but can't manage!

--second issue, I'm concerned still about the dummy situation. He's very used to it now, uses it day & night, & cries when it falls out. This happens countless times every night. We initially used the dummy at around 7 weeks in order to give my breasts a break...but now it's become a complete addiction & I'm really worried that it's disrupting his sleep.

--third issue. He sleeps in his cot only between 7-11. Then after that we still take him in our bed, just because we've got used to this & it's convenient & cosy. To be honest though, I'm ready to move him full time to his cot (which is next to us) because I know the more we wait, the harder it'll be, both for us & for him. So I've said this to DP & I hope one of these days (maybe even tonight) he too will feel ready to move our baby permanently to his cot, so that in a few months we can also move him to his own room. So far DP prefers having the baby in our bed with us, and to be honest it's something that's very easy to get used to! But as I said I'm ready to move on & put him in his cot full time, as I'm also concerned that his sleeping in our bed contributes to his night waking.

Any tips or ideas? I'm a bit frustrated because I felt at this point sleeping would be less of a problem, but instead, it's becoming more of a problem...
Maria

[alittlebitshy]

poor you
My ds is 13 weeks and we had a regression last week (hehad been sleeping through more than not, but started waking once a night). I know it's not the same but it suggests that it is something common at that stage. I think there is often a growth spurt at about 12 weeks (my ds certainly just had one - he put on 11oz last week) which must impact thier sleep in some way.

Can i ask why you tried to use the dummy/ trick him at the 2.30 wake up? surely feeding him would have been what he wanted, and might have soothed him faster?

I'm not in any way criticising you - just asking

Also, it must be so frustrating for you that he feeds so minimally in the day. Luckily my ds is still an utter boob monster and will feed fine, but I can sense the time coming when i won't be able to have the tv on when i'm feeding as when he's finished feeding he turns to stare at it and i remember with dd that it was a sad day when I had to forgo my daytime soaps .

Good luck with the move to the cot. We've never co-slept but recently swapped ds from the moses basket to a crib that we borrowed from a friend (his cot bed is too big to get inot our room). Initially he slept less (though it may have been conincidence) but the last 2 nights he seems to have relished the space and sprawled out!!

I'm not being much help - but i wanted you to know you'd been heard iyswim.

[pudding25]

Dummies are great until about 12 wks when they can start disturbing sleep. We had the same problem with dd waking up more wanting it. At 16 wks, we plucked up the courage to ditch it. It took 3 days for her to forget about it (and she started sucking her fingers). Four days later, she started slepping through from 7-7 (with a dreamfeed at 11pm). She is 5.5 mths today and has slept through every night since bar about 3/4 nights (not in a row) when she was under the weather.
Unless you are both happy to co-sleep, I would move him into the cot sooner rather than later.

[ches]

Growth spurt! 12 weeks is much too young to be night weaning. Breast milk is digested in 90 min, longer if there's lots of hind milk (e.g. at night) but a 12 week old should still feed about every 3 hours.

[Maria2007]

It's now 4 nights that our boy is waking up almost all the time at night, & seems ravenous! During the day he's uninterested in eating, so what I've done so far is given him expressed milk on top of whatever breastfeeding he's been doing (not much during the day). I know it may be growth spurt time, but I'm exhausted, & to be honest I really don't want him getting in a pattern of eating during the night & not during the day! Today I was so tired by the 4th sleepless night in a row, plus the constant effort to express & breastfeed, that I reverted to giving him also a bottle of formula this morning (which I haven't needed to up till now). The thing is, he's been taking bottles much better in the last weeks, just because with bottles he can look around & 'socialise' while eating, while with the breast he's probably bored.

Am exhausted & in need of advice.
Thanks in advance!