EBF 3 month old waking every 2 hours at night - any tips?

[Hollyhock345]

My EBF 14 week old has settled into a gentle routine in the day. Naps (usually in crib) in dark room, with sleeping bag. Around 4 x 45 mins each day with 90 mins wake windows. Settles relatively quickly with dummy. Bedtime routine of bath, massage, feed and book and she usually again settles relatively easy between 7 and 7.30pm. We can get a 4 hour stretch to start but she then wakes every 2/2.5 hours and I'm feeding her each time. I'm exhausted.

She feeds every 2/2.5 hours in the day but I have quite a fast let down and often only on one side for 10 mins max more often 5 mins. Same type of feed during the night.

Is this normal for EBF baby or is there anything I can do to help reduce the night wakings?

[IvanTheDragon]

The speed/frequency of feeds seems a lot like me and my dd at that age. I think it’s really normal for an EBF baby.

What I did in order to maximise my sleep at night was spend the evening after dinner in front of the telly with dd snoozing and feeding as much as she wanted. At my bedtime, we roused her, fed her, put her in a new nappy, fed her again and put her down in her cot. That meant the long 4 hr stretch you mention happened while I was asleep, not while I was awake! Then the two hourly waking after that was much more bearable. There are obviously downsides to being stuck under a baby all evening, but I knew that the fewer interruptions to my sleep the happier I was. We continued like that til around 6-7 months when she started not to be able to get off to sleep on me so easily and needed an earlier bedtime of 6.30.

[Hollyhock345]

Thanks @IvanTheDragon! My DD has been waking up around 7/7.30 which works quite well at the moment. Did you see later wake ups if "going to bed" was later?

[IvanTheDragon]

We hadn’t tried an early evening bedtime before that, had just evolved into it from newborn perma-snuggles - but she has never really been one to be up and awake for the day much before seven, and often she can last til 7.45-8.

[Nowisthemonthofmaying]

Sounds normal to me - my baby is the same age, EBF and she comes to bed with me about 9/10ish (although often drops off before that on my lap) and then feeds every 2-3 hours overnight. We are co-sleeping so all I do is plug her into the boob and then drop off again - she doesn't normally fully wake up so we can maximise both of our sleep this way. I know it's not for everyone but I feel much less sleep-deprived than when I was sitting up for a whole feed and then trying to put her back down in the cot etc.

[LolaLollypop]

OP at that age I used to express a bottle for DH to do around midnight so I’d get a bit of a longer sleep 10pm - 3am for example. Some of my friends gave a bottle of formula at that time. Depends how you feel about either but if you are really struggling with the lack of sleep then it’s worth a thought.
DH used to love it too - he’d put on a cheesy action film and sit with DS on the sofa til he woke up. Quite nice bonding so he tells me!

[Sandrine1982]

Normal. For us it was like that for a long long time :(

[hopefulhalf]

It's all been said the long strech will get longer but if it starts at 7 it's a long way to go until you are getting a decent sleep (unless you go to sleep at 7 too!). Try pushing "bed time" later maybe another nap at 6ish before bath, kick, massage then feed ? So bed time is closer to 9 ? Or as others say get DP if you have one to do the first wake.

[Hollyhock345]

Thanks everyone for your advice. Little one is quite a sicky baby and so we have to keep her upright after feeds for a while even at night otherwise she is often sick in bed, so while she drops straight back to sleep with a feed the whole cycle takes a while before we lie her back down, and I feel like I'm basically not getting any proper sleep throughout the night! For that reason I'm not sure co-sleeping would help.

Will play around with bedtime and a split shift sort of thing with my husband. I sometimes worry she isn't getting enough of a feed in the day but if I try offer her the other side she often refuses and feeding more regularly than 2 hours feels like I would be feeding all day what with winding/holding upright after!