15 week old wakes up every 1-2 hours

[OscarOtter]

Hi, this is my first post. My husband and I are currently being driven to despair by disrupted sleep patterns. Our 14 month old has been breast-fed from birth, supplemented by a bottle in the first few weeks during the night. I expressed during the day to get enough for the bottles.

He had been sleeping fairly well up until about 3-4 weeks ago. He would sleep from 9pm to about 3am. After that would do 3.30am (post feed) to about 5am. After that, one of us would have to get up with him. That wasn't great for us, but as long we went to bed early it was manageable.

For the last 3-4 weeks though he's been much less likely to sleep for more than 3 hours in one go. Right now he's sleeping 9pm-11.30pm, 11.45pm to 3am, 3.30am-4.45am, then he's wide awake and grizzles and cries if we one of us doesn't get up with him. The disruption to our sleep is really tough, especially on me since I'm feeding him. When he grizzles (which can be up to half an hour before he cries and I pluck him out of his cot to feed him). Oh yes, I forgot to mention, he sleeps in our room in a large sturdy travel-cot.

We're trying to get to the bottom of this change in behaviour. We have a feeling that this could all be to do with feeding - he rarely feeds for more than 5 minutes before falling asleep or coming off the breast (and he cries if you try to put him back on). Our theory is that because he's not filling up, he keeps waking up.

During this same 3-week period he has begun to cry when I lay him on my lap ready to feed. Quite often, by the time I've got my boob out (5-10 seconds?) he's crying heartily and won't go on the breast at all. We the spend time walking around with him, trying to calm him down enough to 'catch him off guard' and get him on the breast quickly. Once he's latched on for a few sucks he's ok. We feel this is somehow the key to understanding the problem, but we don't know what it means or how to get past it!

He's had a cold which has been present for about 10 days now and he we also wondered if he might be teething early, but these are just guesses really.

This is our first child. Please offer any advice you can!

Marie

Sorry, 14 WEEKS I meant to say, not 14 months!

"Our theory is that because he's not filling up, he keeps waking up."

You're probably right. Just a few short years ago you'd have been advised to start weaning a baby at 16 weeks - and it's partly for that reason. Bigger more vigorous ones get very hungry and milk alone (although calorific) is not substantial enough to fill their tummies long enough for them to stay asleep or go more than a couple of hours between feeds. The cold won't be helping at night, of course.

So I'm going to be a heretic, risk an almighty flaming and suggest you think about early weaning... not waiting another 10 weeks.

Hi,
Just want to say that you are not alone. My DD is nearly 15 weeks and has gone from a very acceptable 10pm-5am habit to a 9pm, 12am, 3am and 5am wake up. I always try to feed her but she isn't really hungry a lot of the time.
I have no advice really - I cosleep which makes it slightly easier but I think it's just something you have to ride through.
I have a 2.8yr old DS who started sleeping through at 17 MONTHS and my own belief is that generally they just learn to sleep in their own sweet time!
Not very helpful I know but it's all I can come up with when I'm shattered!!
Not sure about the feeding issue - hope someone else comes along to help with that one.

I was going to ask about teething - ds1 did that whenever he was cutting a tooth.

Waking this often at this age is normal. It is way too early to wean - 6 months is the advice now, for many reasons.

It could be a growth spurt, in which case your baby wants to get your supply up by feeding regularly, and night feeds are very important for boosting your supply (lots of the hormone prolactin, which regulates supply, is produced at night).

This is an age when their behaviour changes alot, which can result in changed sleep patterns - moving around more, waking themselves up, etc. And other posters are right - the cold won't be helping. You could try tilting the mattress with a cushion underneath to help make breathing easier, or use baby Olbas or Snufflebabe.

Co-sleeping, if you feel comfortable doing it, is one way many parents get through reguar wakings without losing too much sleep.

If you feel he's not filling up, try tickling his feet, stripping clothes off, etc to keep him awake long enough to take a big feed.

Consult a local bf counsellor if you have continued concerns. More knowledgeable MNers may be along shortly too...

And congratulations on getting this far successfully with bf! Everything is a phase - in a few weeks you could be worrying about something esle entirely.

Did hear of a baby who didn't feed very long because of tongue tie - would agree with consulting bf counsellor. Poor you and hope it sorts itself out soon.

Thanks to everyone who has posted so far. It's good to hear that other people have / are experiencing similar things - I seem to be surrounded by people whose babies are sleeping all through the night !

4 month sleep regression - very common. See here, here, here and here.

It will pass.

If he seems unable to settle because of discomfort it could easily be teething- DS started at 11 weeks old . I hated giving him medication of any kind at first but several months later he was having calpol nightly . It felt wrong until he went from writhing with discomfort to conking out!

Try getting more of a feed into him but if that doesn't work, try something to help with the teething. If you don't want to give painkillers, Anbesol is really good as is Chamomilla (a homeopathic rememdy, never took the pain away completely but did calm DS down a lot).

Teething aside, I have to say that his sleep sounds pretty normal for a 14 week old. My standards are exceptionally low as my DS didn't sleep through regularly until 22mo though...I too was surrounded by friends with perfect little sleepers!

We ended up co-sleeping to cope with the constant night wakings. I know it's not for everyone but it meant we all got a lot more sleep. It's quite nice & cuddly too.

I would just add that, even if he is big & hungry, I would delay weaning as long as possible. I weaned DS at 20 weeks because he was huge (16lb, double his birth weight) and he fed like a demon. It's not necessarily to blame but I do feel a bit bad about it now he has a milk allergy and gets a bit of eczema. You have to do what you have to do though...

Your instincts are probably right about this- it'll be something to do with the teething and/or not getting enough of a feed before he drops off. You'll figure out what's going on with him then he'll damn well go and move the goal posts

Just to add - I too felt like I was surrounded by babies who slept through the night when my DD was first born. I now realise the parents who have babies who sleep shout about it; the ones who don't are dozing in the corner unable to strng a sentence together. And then the babies who sleep to start with can often give their parents a rude awakening when they stop sleeping as toddlers. It all evens out in the end.

DD did this at a similar age. At 5 1/2 months now, she is sleeping much better, almost sleeping through. [fingers crossed this doesn't jinx it). Lots of my friends with similar aged babies went through the same thing - it is deadly isn't it.

I co-slept so I seemed to survive it a bit better than some of my friends as I could sometimes sleep with her latched on (side by side feeding) and could rock her/soothe her without getting up.

I have started semi-weaning DD [ducks for cover] because she is MASSIVELY interested in food and can sit up unaided now. So she has bits to suck on at the table with us and a bowl of EBM and baby rice sometimes. Don't know if this helped the sleeping though as I never spotted much corrilation between the days I fed her solids and her sleeping better.

There was zero improvement in DS's sleep when I weaned him. To my eternal shame, it was a motivating factor. I could weep when I have to put eczema cream on him now.

Feeling your pain, we were similar quite recently and it's hell.

Agree with what's said so far but just to throw another suggestion into the mix...reflux?

He may be not wanting to feed as he know's it'll hurt, then when he's actually on it soothes the reflux a bit. Then he won't let himself get too full as it hurts again. I think reflux pain peaks at this age, sometimes they're not that sicky with it. Look it up and see if he has any other symptoms? You can get medication for it, and it'll probably improve with weaning and as he gets bigger.

I know lots of people seem to be on the reflux bandwagon at the moment but I do think it's quite common. With hindsight DD had it and I wish I'd got her on treatment, hate to think of her being uncomfortable for so long.

HTH

"I could weep when I have to put eczema cream on him now. "

Don't weep. The eczema is likely to be totally unrelated to the time you weaned him. Lots of babies were weaned early in the past and hardly any suffered as a result.

Our dd did very similar things. There's a big growth spurt at 16 weeks and they generally start building up for a it a couple of weeks in advance by feeding loads - to get your milk up and to take in calories.

The cold may well have something to do with it too - have you had GP appointment to check there's no ear infection? Feeding hurts when they have an ear problem. Also if he's hungry all the time that would explain his frustration when your boob doesn't appear quickly enough.

I really wouldn't be tempted to wean early for one single very good reason - the advice has changed to 6 months because they babies physically can't digest solids younger than that - so you can give yourself a colossal amount of extra work for no benefit at all.

And bear in mind that 'sleeping through' in babies does NOT mean twelve hours uninterrupted kip - sleeping through for a baby in technical terms means sleeping through what would normally be a feed - so about five or six hours.

A couple of things you have said could point to an ear problem. He has had a cold and cries when lying down on your lap. It could be that he has congestion in his eusacian tubes of his ears which is causing him pain. You could get his ears checked by the GP and/or you could try some calpol/nurofen for babies. This isn't uncommon and will pass. Make sure he is also not going long spells between feeds during the day as he will make up for that at night. Solids are not the answer.

I know chil but we have a family history of eczema/ asthma/ food allergies so I think it probably was in our case.

Thanks again everyone for all your thoughts on this. I took him to the doctor last week and all was fine apart from a bad cold that is. I think the lack of feeding has been the main cause really as he stopped feeding during the day too. I only managed to get him to feed when he'd just woken up and was doozy, which meant that he wasn't feeding very often at all as he hardly slept. Bit of a vicious circle really as he couldn't sleep due to hunger maybe? Anyway the last 2 nights he seems to have improved a lot and I have managed to get him to feed more during the day and the evening so I guess this was playing a big part in it. We also gave him 5ml of calpol before bed instead of 2.5ml so this again could be a reason why he's now feeding and sleeping better? Having looked in a book 'The Wonder Weeks' it mentions some of the signs that may occur before the next big growth spurt and he seems to be showing many of those too, so all in all maybe it's a mixture of things! It's really good to be able to read other people's thoughts on this and it has given me a few things to look into a bit more. Thanks!

That's good news. Most likely a combination of growth spurt and cold impacting on feeding. Baby Vick and Karvol (can't remember age for use) can be good in helping babies breathe easier and keep tubes clear.

4 month growth spurt is a killer, remember it well with DS. On one particularly bad day I fed him no less than 17 separate times in a 24 hour period.

Early weaning is often advised but isn't necessary, nothing is going to fill your baby up any better than milk at this stage.

It could well be some teething as well, DS had 3 teeth coming through at around 13/14 weeks and it really disrupted his feeding until they were through and he got used to them being in his mouth.