How can I change when ds's 'long' sleep is?

[buttonmoon78]

DS is 11wks next Saturday. He is ff and gaining weight well although is troubled by reflux and wind - visiting paeds on Friday to discuss that.

But he is driving me crackers with his night-time feeds! When I was bf I didn't mind as he was in bed with me so if he woke around 1/2/3 it didn't matter at all as he could feed to his own pattern for the rest of the night.

But now he's ff I have to be up, awake and alert . It's a killer (and one of the major reasons I tried so damn hard with bf!)

Currently he's sleeping reasonably well during the evening, going maybe 5/6 hours between bottles. But he then wakes around 1/2 and 4/5 for a bottle, having had a bottle around 10.30. What would be nice is to get him to go from 10.30-6/7 with only one feed in between.

I've tried giving him more feeds during the day to try and make sure that more of his food needs are met during daylight but he'll take that happily and then still feed as above at night!

I'm not wanting to reduce his feeds nor expecting him to sleep through yet, I just want to try and push his long sleep to the night rather than the afternoon/evening.

Any ideas?

[Holly66]

Hi how much is he having at the 1/2 feed? My DS was exactly the sameat this age. He'd sleep fine 7-12 but then would be up twice in the night after this, despite me giving a dream feed at 11, I remember it so well! In the end I went on the baby sleep answers website and it turned out he didn't actually need the 1/2 feed as he was only taking about 3oz. I did 3 nights of PUPD and he stopped waking for that feed. Then I slowly weaned him off the 4/5 feed too and then finally weaned him off the dream feed.

In the end they had him going through 7 till 7 without a dream feed by 16 weeks which I thought was pretty good.

[buttonmoon78]

He takes 4-5oz at all feeds. 'Scuse my ignorance but what is pupd?

[babyandconfused]

My DS is doing this too, so id be interested in what PUPD is

[babyandconfused]

doesnt matter I googled

PUPD - Pick up Put down

[AngelDog]

Sounds very normal to me. The longest sleep is usually at the start of the night as that's when the biological urge to go to sleep (and stay asleep) is at its strongest.

I think time is the most usual thing to improve it, I'm afraid. 3 feeds a night at that age doesn't sound bad to me!

The pick up put down method is from the Baby Whisperer, who says it's unsuitable for babies under 3 months and is unsuitable for a lot of babies between 3 and 4 months (and for a few, is unsuitable until 5 or 6 months).

[Secondtimelucky]

I'm sorry, but my experience with DD1 was also that time was the only thing that changed this. No dream feeds or extra day feeds did anything.

[buttonmoon78]

Oh rats. Seems I have a 'normal' baby then after 3 super-good ones. I knew that being that lucky would come and bite me on the bum at some point

[buttonmoon78]

Actually, I'm going to change that from super-good to super-sleeper babies. Super-good implies dc4 is naughty and he's not. He's lovely.

[lilham]

Yep want to echo the other posters that it's all normal. I remember getting really frustrated why DD's longest sleep starts from 7. She'd sleep till like midnight, and then woke every other hour for sleep. But she just fixed herself over time. You should be glad you had 3 really good ones.

[buttonmoon78]

I know, I know! The thing is my expectations are now ultra high! And of course, having 3 others I'm shattered without even considering the night wakings...

Ho hum. This too will pass. Caffeine is my friend...

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Yeah its come to bite you on the bum alright . You know it will pass. Suppose if its DC4 going to bed at 7pm isn't really an option is it.

So, so glad I had DS, who was an ultra high needs baby, first. That way my expections for DC2 were very, very low .

You know that the amount he's waking is normal and not very much for a 11 week old. As he's too young for the PUPD method have a read of this to see if it helps.

[buttonmoon78]

I can't begin to imagine doing pupd. I mean, if they're awake, then there's a reason right? And I'm perfectly happy to accept that he's waking through hunger as he's still very little, I just wondered if I could change when he might feel that hunger.

And no - going to bed at 7pm is not an option. Not unless I want dd1 to kill dd2 and then spend hours on facebook and exceed our download limit on youtube or iplayer. And ds1 would eat all the crisps in the house. And dd2 would read (if she wasn't killed by dd1) until her eyes dried into crisps from tiredness. Somebody has to be the adult dammit! At least dh is doing a share at the weekends when he's home.

Right then. I shall slink off with my well and truly bitten bum. Oh, and to check out that link - thanks!

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Yeah you're so right button, I could never imagine doing PUPD either, he's awake because he needs you and feeding.

Perhaps when he's older he'll be the one to keep the peace and do the housework while you put your feet up

[TeaMakesItBetter]

Cram as much food in him during the day as you can. They need a certain amount of calories, if they don't get it during the day then they will want feeding at night is what I and my friends found. I used to wake my DS up to feed at least every four hours which seemed to do the trick as he dropped the 3am feed at around 9 weeks. Given half a chance the sleepy blighter would have just kept sleeping - also why BF failed for us :(

But you've got 4, i've got a mere 1 so I'm sure I'm not helping at all!

[Mampig]

. Just to sympathize!! I've been bitten in bum too after 3 supersleepers!' dc 4 is 12 wo and very like yours op!!

[buttonmoon78]

Phew - it's not just me then! I felt really rotten writing the op as I know full well some people will read it and wonder what I'm moaning about