Advice neede for night time sleep

[Bearcubmumma]

Hi all,
A little advice needed, my lb is 12weeks old, have got into kind of a routine at night, bottle at 6.30 -7pm then he usually sleeps in our arms until approx 8pm when I put him down, he has another bottle at 10pm, he then sleeps fine until 2.30 - 3am maybe tossing and turning which wakes me up but generally ok, after this bottle he doesn't seem to go back into a deep sleep, sleeps for approx 1 hour then wakes tossing and turning again, try to put the dummy back and he stops because he is actually asleep but constantly on the move, he has to be swaddled because his arms are all over his face which fully wakes him up, just need some advice on how we can all get more of a restful nights sleep. I don't mind the bottle at 2 but would like to sleep for at least 3 hours either side.
Thank you.

[FATEdestiny]

Are you already swaddling? Because my first suggestion for restful sleep would be tight swaddle and dummy.

Assuming you are, then my next suggestion would be to feed more. You say he does some tossing and turning which wakes you up, then he's not in a deep sleep there either. Trying lifting him and feeding when he first starts stiring in the night. It might be that rather than two feeds at 10pm and 3am he needs three feeds at 10pm, 1am and 4 am. Or maybe more? This in itself may well get you more sleep because then he should be more restful when he is asleep.

Feeding more frequently through the daytime may help too. 12 weeks old is a significant growth spurt that will require many more calories/milk than previously.

[Bearcubmumma]

Thank you, I will try more frequent feeds at night. He suffers with reflux so has never been able to have more then 5oz at a time.
Will give anything a go, I just want him to be satisfied on his bottles and getting the good amount of sleep he needs.

[chumbler]

I would try moving your routine to later. so that his first big sleep is at 10 rather than 7.30, that will help you get through more of the night

I didn't think you were supposed to swaddle after a month? something to do with physical development. using a sleeping bag helped my dd loads as she now feeds and settles back much better as she's not going into a cold basket

good luck

[FATEdestiny]

Neither the NHS nor the Lullaby Trust offers a 'you should stop swaddling by... ' date. And I have never (ever) hear that it should be a month. I do not believe that is true in the slightest.

The Lullaby Trust found some research to suggest that a baby shouldn't be introduced to swaddling after 3 months of age and that if your baby is to be swaddled then introducing earlier is better than later.

The NCT website suggests that you allow a babys legs to move into the 'frog position' when swaddling. Given that it's arms that need to be tight in a swaddle, not legs, I would agree.

The NHS website brings together some research in response to media article (involving rehashed old data) relating to hip movement and swaddling. This considered NHS article summerised by saying that evidence presented is unclear. NHS guidelines did not (have not) changed.

chumbler, I cannot find anything to support the question: 'I didn't think you were supposed to swaddle after a month?'.

Having said that, experience says that babies naturally reach a point when they don't want to be swaddled anymore and parents will know when the time is right.

While a baby who is rolling shouldn't be swaddled (since you don't want a swaddled baby on their front), it is physically difficult for a baby to swing their swaddled legs enough to roll. As one HV said, if you have a baby who is strong enough to be physically able to roll (on a flat surface) when swaddled then they should be strong enough by that point to lift their head and shout if in difficult. But I have always had my children out of the swaddle (and into a tightly tucked in blanket) by the time they were rolling.