15 week old non stop feeding and sleeping - still a spurt or bad habits??

[Jellybabie3]

I feel like we are in a rut. DS is currently feeding non stop. Like every half hour or so when awake. But then grizzles to go to sleep. Hes very very moody. Today he has slept for hours (fed to sleep). Hes been like this but getting worse since xmas.

And last night he woke every hour - 8 times to feed. He is feeding in the night as hes pretty much gulping

I want to establish routines - anything i can do??

[ForeverBubblegum]

It's hard but it will pass, or at least get better. If he's actually drinking (as appose to comfort sucking) then he must need it.

Good look to you, I hope you far better tonight. Just try to get as many naps as you can until his sleep improves.

[Redken24]

Hi - I would say this is normal. Quite small yet. Would wait to establish a routine, lots of growth spurts in the first six months. Try and get some naps in if you can (I never could) if he is gulping - is he ff or bf? My lo Coud be grizzle if needing winded more and eventually needed a faster flow for bottles. Good luck tonight

[Jellybabie3]

He is ebf. I dont mind if its a spurt i am just worried hes getting into bad habits

[Jellybabie3]

He's wole every hour again

[toomuchfaster]

At 15 weeks it is normal, not bad habits. I understand it's shit, my DD feed hourly for patches like this. Is he in a Wonder Week? It will pass, she does not feed hourly now at 3yrs old.

[pastabest]

You might be hitting the four month sleep regression.

Is he definitely feeding because he is hungry and not for comfort? It might be worth trying a dummy if you think that is a possibility.

[Jellybabie3]

We are trying to avoid a dummy but have no idea how to get him to self soothe. He goes to bed asleep.

This past night he has almost definately been comfort feeding. I have no problen with that if he needs it but do not want to be doing this forever.

Any ideas how i do this? I am pretty exhausted

[pastabest]

I had my reservations about dummies too but honestly it was a lifesaver for us with a colicky baby.

DD only has it for self soothing for naps and at night. No one who saw her through the day would know she was a dummy user

Whatever you do though this is a phase and you won't be doing it forever no matter what happens. It's so easy to live in the moment with young babies and forget the bigger picture which is that they are growing and changing rapidly.

The minute you think you have it cracked the little sods decide to try something new. Sometimes that goes in your favour (DD suddenly started sleeping through at 8 months for no apparent reason after waking every three hours since she was born) sometimes it doesn't (at nearly 1 she has now decided that between midnight and 2am is a good time to want to get up).

[prettypaws]

There's really no such thing as bad habits, babies know what they need. There are properties in breast milk that help well beyond nutrition so babies bf frequently at other times too, particular my during times of change, overstimulation/stress/upset, when sleepy, during developmental and cognitive growth spurts, for pain relief and when exposed to germs. Your milk (and your own hormones) change when exposed e.g in response to babies saliva you produce more antibodies, you release hormones to aid sleep etc.

Breast milk constantly changes and adjusts to current circumstances so it's a dyadic exchange and this doesn't stop at night. You can interrupt it by keeping baby away from you but for safety at this age it's not advisable, and of course it deviates from the purpose of bf and it's benefits. Are you not able to get comfortable to nurse whilst sleeping or resting in bed? This gets easier as they get bigger and often you can sleep through it.

[Jellybabie3]

I do feed him lying down and then lift him into next yo me cot.

It sounds like i just need to perservere and not feeding him every hour could do more harm than good. I hope it stops soon. I feel like I've been hit by a truck

[Lemondrop99]

Jelly, if it makes you feel any better, I'm in the same position with my 15 week old. He's feeding like crazy, think it's a growth spurt. We've had anything from 3 hourly to hourly waking overnight, and a whole host of crap naps (he's been a cat napper since 8 weeks). Lots of development going on at this stage and a big change in their sleep cycle maturing. For what it's worth, we just ditched the dummy. No magic solution here, it was making matters worse as he kept waking when it fell out and screaming when he kept pulling it out by accident.

[Lemondrop99]

We've just introduced a muslin to replace the dummy as a comforter. He particularly likes one that I've used to mop up a little bit after feeding so it smells of breastmilk (obviously not a dirty one, just a little bit used that day). He seems to have really taken to snuggling it. Maybe try and get your baby attached to something by cuddling it with baby when feeding, it might help a little way towards self soothing?

[Jellybabie3]

@Lemondrop99 thanks i will give it a go!

[prettypaws]

Routine emerged for us around 5 months but of course even this changes all the time as they change so much. My recommendations would be to try to embrace it and nap whenever you can, and get a nice flask for hot drinks! Vitamins can help too when you're feeding constantly.

[Jellybabie3]

Thank you