SOOOOOOOOOO Tired! Help please!

[blackchloe]

My DD is 11 weeks old and the lack of sleep is getting to me now. She doesnt sleep for more than 4 hours in the day, so I cant understand why her sleep pattern at night is not improving. At the moment she goes to bed at 6pm, is dreamfed at 11pm, wakes for a feed/nappy change at 1.30am ( Why? Surely she should be full from 11pm and she can obviously go for 5 hours earlier on in the evening?) and then feeds again at 4.30 am which is now when she thinks it is time to get up. She is bottle fed and one of the problems is that she wont take more than 120ml in one go. We have tried to increase this to 150ml but she just falls asleep when she gets to between 90ml and 120ml? She has a dummy and we have tried to give her this to her at 1.30 instead of her bottle but she is not fooled by this and genuinely seems to be hungry. Any advice would be welcomed.

PS I am rubbish at letting her cry as husband works shifts and DD1 is easily woken by her crying!

[40notTrendy]

My ds was pretty similar. I'm a bit too long out the game to offer practical advice, but try to accept it's all part of being that little. Sometimes there's no reason or logic to what they do. It will get better .

[planetpotty]

This all sounds quite normal to me and my experience with my two DC just checked (my saviour) sleeping solved book by gurgle and it says up to 3 mths 16-19 hrs spread over day and night. 3-6 mths 10 hrs night 4 hrs day obv these are just guides. I would say your little one is needing the feeds and if they're hungry the inky thing for it is to feed them :)

Things will most probably change very Sion and thus will all be a hazy memory. When got hard for me I tried to do things to make the night feeds easier/quicker by sterilising before bed and using cartons so no prep involved (and having a crying hungry baby waiting for the bottle to cool!!)

Hope you get some rest soon - make sleep the priority over housework - it's not for ever

[planetpotty]

Ha ha just getting used to the iPhone app! Sorry about that rambling post

[mrshotrod]

Hi. With my forst I stopped doing a 'dreamfeed' as we were both in bed asleep anyway, so wasn't of much benefit to our sleep. DS slept through till same 2/3am feed time with or without it. 2nd baby does the same. You could try just waiting till she wakes herself for a feed (or maybe she already is doing??)
they are a nightmare, but do get better . Mine is also 11 weeks and I keep having to tell myself IT WILL GET BETTER!!!
Good luck.

[mrshotrod]

forst = first!

[blackchloe]

Thanks for the advice everyone.Mrshottrod - think I will try skipping the dream feed tonight. Wish me luck! Just as a matter of interest can anyone tell me how many ml an 11 week old should take in one go? On the packet of formula it says that a 2 month old should be taking 5 bottles - 180 ml. As I said previously my baby wont take more than 120 ml in one go? Thanks.

[ellsbellls]

blackchloe I had to post as my DS1 of the same age sounds EXACTLY the same. Goes down at 7pm, stirs at 11pm and is dreamfed, sleeps until around 2pm (or sometimes 3 if i'm lucky) when he wants more food, then is half awake and very fidgety from around 4.30. He also won't take more than 120ml at a time. I'm going to try increasing his daytime feeds by a very small amount and see if that helps a bit with the night time. Let me know if you have any success. It's knackering isn't it?!

[HappyAsASandboy]

My only advice is JUST KEEP GOING! I have to repeat it to myself a lot.

I have 10 month old twins and they're both on a similar pattern - feed and bed at 7.30 ish, then awake for a feed at 12.30 ish, 3am ish then 6am ish. I can sometimes get them back down after the 6am feed, but sometimes not.

I can't tell you you'll get more sleep as they get older as you might not. I can say it gets easier to operate on the reduced amount if sleep . You sort of get used to your brain not working very well and reduce your expectations of it

Good luck. I hope you have better sleepers than I do!

[SayCoolNowSayWhip]

Honestly it's perfectly normal at that age. 11 weeks is very very young. My DD was awake EVERY 2 hours in a 24 hour period at that stage.

This will pass...

Personally I would keep the dreamfeed for now. And just concentrate on getting as much sleep yourself as possible. Good luck

[SueFlay]

bit early to drop the dreamfeed I reckon

[blackchloe]

SueFlay you were absolutely right. Tried to not dreamfeed and she woke up anyway at 11pm, then we had a right game getting her back to sleep. In fact she ended up in bed with me. Im going to dreamfeed until she is at least 18! Never again!

[spout]

I have never been right about anything on MN before ever

Things will get better :)

[spout]

I still can't get namechanges right, however