Bf 13 week old sleeping for shorter periods in the night

[HormonesAGogo]

Hi, my dd is 13 weeks old and had got into a pattern of sleeping for around 4 hours at night before waking for a feed, this all went crazy a couple of weeks ago when she woke 6 or more times in the night for food - I put this down to her growth spurt, as she is now massive (on the 99th centile)! The sleeping then got a lot better - for about 4 nights she slept for about 6 hours before waking, which was bliss, but she's now back to waking every 2-3 hours, she doesn't even do a 4 hour sleep any more. I'm worn out all over again and have spent the last 2 days in tears - what am I doing wrong? All I keep hearing about is 3 friends whose bf babies sleep about 10 hours a night - is this normal? How can I get my lovely big girl to sleep for longer again - should I try cluster feeding in the evening? Any advice appreciated, thanks!

[mum2samandalex]

this has happened to me too. he got to a point where he was only waking the once and now its 3/4 times a night and up at 5.30am im knackered, snappy and tearful especially as he wont take a bottle. So dh is getting the brunt of it.

[pleaseletmesleep]

Bump for you

My 11 week old has started the same thing in the last week, we had 2 weeks of bliss where she slept 8 - 2.30 - 6 - 9 but now she goes to bed at 8 and wakes at 11 and then every 2 hours until 6.30 when I usually conceed defeat and get up so I will be watching this thread with interest!

[tb73]

I had this too, just before weaning my dd. She had always slept really well and then suddenly she was up all night wanting milk! Just before she was six months I started weaning her and she started sleeping again (phew). I did have to put up with it for around 6 weeks though.

However, this could just be a growth spurt and your baby may settle down again in a week or so (although I've been told that sometimes they do get into bad habbits). Your dd is still a little young to wean but it sounds like she needs alot of milk!

Are you making sure that you are drinking (alot) and eating enough - as well as getting a good rest each day? I found that by doing this is really helped improve my milk supply. I know it's easier said than done though!

Cluster feeding in the evening does help, I offered the boob as much as poss, day and evening.

This is why mummies take their babies into bed with them, because they are exhausted!

Take heart, it will get better. Maybe you could express some for your partner/friend to give her for one night, just so you can get a whole night's sleep?

Good luck!

[VictorianSqualor]

Try changing her routine, do you have a day/night routine?

As SM said, make daytimes noisy, and active, nighttimes quiet and boring.

Has she maybe started sleeping less in the day? She may need more sleep during the day, seems weird but sometimes if they dont sleep enough in the day they wake up more at night.

Cluster feed in the evening, maybe a large feed, then the bath/breast/bed routine.

How long do you leave her bvefore going to her in the night? She may just have got used to waking and need to retrain herself to sleep, so don't feed her or go to her straight away, just wait til it's a proper 'I'm hungry' cry rather than a murmur.

[HormonesAGogo]

Thanks for the replies so far, she's very good at going down again in the night, all I do when she wakes and cries is feed her and even if her eyes aren't quite closed I put her in the cot and she falls asleep again, it's just how long she stays asleep that's the problem! When she wakes at night nothing settles her except food so that's what she wakes for I'm sure. She has started sleeping less in the day though - some days she has about 5 naps of 20-35 minutes each and won't stay down for longer. At night she sleeps for a total of about 9-10 hours, just in lots of short spurts with feeds in between! Her sleeping is just so random - even a month ago she was sleeping through with only two breaks for food, but now sometimes it's once sometimes it's more than 3 times or more! We do the bath/boob/bed at the same time each evening and she goes to sleep at around the same time each evening, so our evening routine's pretty organised, and I keep days active and nights quiet.
Anyway I'll stop complaining it's just that some days I'm good for nothing and with her not sleeping for long in the day I can't nap in the day to catch up in my sleep either, I'm sure it'll all come good eventually.....I'll just stop listening to people with babies who sleep for 10 hours straight! Oh and I eat like a horse must get through about 8000 calories a day, whoever said breast feeding is free was having a laugh

[VictorianSqualor]

I reckon you should get a potion that makes you invisible.
Go round to your friends houses.
See if their babies really are sleeping that long