18 week old waking every 1.5 hours at night!

[StephC1987]

Hello,

Just after some advice/ reassurance

He self settles for bed and naps. Sleeps about 4 hours in the day spread over 3 naps. Has a solid bed time routine. He is honestly the most lovely happy contented baby ever.

Except at night he wakes every 1.5 hours. I know about the 4 month sleep regression however I thought if they self settled it wouldn't effect them as much!?

I don't mind him waking up at night. All I want is one 4 hours block of sleep. He is my second baby so I know sleep deprivation is part of the parcel.

He is EBF and when we wakes I have been mostly feeding! Sometimes I get my DP to pick him up and cuddle him & this works too, but takes longer.

He doesn't wake up crying just thrashing about making a frustrated noise kinda thing.

Should I just go with the flow? Wait until he is on solids?

Any advise would be great

[FATEdestiny]

The 4 month sleep regression IMO is more about feeding than sleeping.

Developmental leaps at this age mean that baby needs significantly more calories. If these calories are not given, baby's sleep is affected.

Try feeding significantly more frequently through the daytime. rather than waiting for hunger signs, but baby to the breast,, say, every 2 hours (or whatever works for your routines). I accept that it is very difficult to 'make' a BF baby feed, which is why sleep regressions often hit the BF mother hardest.

By this age my DD was formula fed so I could physically see the increase in her milk intake. In a change that literally changed overnight she suddenly was drinking 25% more milk - a massive increase which came both from drinking more per feed and also one additional full feed per 24 hours (the additional feed was added by making her feeds more frequent throughout the day).

It will take a little time for your milk supply to meet demand, so you may need to feed more frequently through the daytime for a week or two without seeing any improvement initially.

[StephC1987]

Thank you so much more for replying.

It's nice to hear another view. He has actually went up a bit in his weight. He is a big boy anyway (so is my oldest) he was between the 75th and 91st centile now he is on the 91st.

I do offer the boob as much as possible but he's never been a comfort feeder ( bar this night time feeding) he's always been a 5 min feeder. If I try and over him more he takes the boob but then gags.

It's just one of those things if someone said to me, it's just a phase and will last approx 5 weeks I would happily take it. It's just the not knowing and worrying I'm creating bad habits!

Thanks for replying