3 mo DS suddenly waking every 1.5 to 2 hours. Why? Help!!!

[MixedBerries]

DS is 13 weeks and since 3 weeks has always slept in a 3 or 4 hour chunk, woken for a feed, then followed by another 3 or 4 hours sleep. Since last week he has started waking every 1.5 or 2 hours screaming and screaming. Sometimes he's hungry and sometimes he's not. If it were just a growth spurt I'd expect he'd be hungry each time but he just has little sips of the breast or about 10 mls if he has ebm by bottle. Nor has he reached any developmental mile stone like rolling over or crawling etc. He's not ill. What's going on? What can we do? Is getting up and making great efforts to calm him just going to encourage him? We can't just let him cry either. At the mo we try to fed him, burp him and just hold him in a dark room until he calms down (which can be an hour). Will this stop? He's also started having crying fits every evening between about 4 and 8 where nothing calms him. It's quite challenging to say the least. Help!!!!

Ok. Searched this and seems to be one of those nightmares that is considered to be "normal". So, any tips on surviving?

Er yep, that sounds normal. Sorry. He's just being a 3mo!

Firstly, remember it's only a phase. My DS went through it until about 4.5/5 months, so it was pretty gruelling. Wouldn't nap in the day for more than 10mins either. DH took over pre-midnight duty to give me a bit of a break, plus would do the morning nappy and prepare DS's bottles for me first thing. He already did bath and bedtime so I got a good break from the time he got home until midnight. Oh, and he made me a coffee in a thermal cup before he left for work too (still does, actually). You'll find you just get used to surviving on broken sleep, but go to bed as early as you can bear to get as many hours in as you can.

I hope that helps - I feel for you. DS is now 6mo and sleeps much better now. Just hang on in there!

Sleep regression, I remember it well, DD managed every half an hour one night at 16 weeks old, it is exhausting.

Survived by co-sleeping and taking turns with DH to sleep in spare bed and get some sleep (ear plugs needed for this one).

If he sleeps in the day for any length of time then catch up then too, if the house is messy leave it, do bare minimum for the time being.

If you can get any free family members to take him out for walks in pram/sling for an hour or two whilst you catch up on sleep, just an hours sleep catch up can make the difference between sanity and meltdown.

You will cope better with his crying and he will calm quicker as a result.

You might also find baby language research by Priscilla Dunstan interesting, I found that my DD (now 2.5) did have different cries for different things, but I will be testing out her theories on DD2 when she arrives shortly.

It will pass.

Thank you. Going to bed!

15 weeks now and it's got worse. Didn't think that was possible. Wakes every 30 mins to an hour now. Can't survive on 3 hours sleep a day gained in 10 minute chunks. Don't know what to do.

We had a really bad stretch of about a couple of weeks of dd2 waking every 20 minutes to 1.5 hours (if we were lucky). We moved her to her cot (which is now in our bedroom) on the suspicion her arms kept bashing into the sides when she flinched, and I also started giving her water since she only had very small amounts of milk when I fed her. Within a couple of nights she managed fine with just one feed a night which was then a decent amount and the other times she just needed a cuddle or a burp and went back to sleep. Some nights this past week have been very good with her hardly waking at all, though other nights (like the last) she still cries often. I end up having her in bed with me as well when I get too tired and she tends to sleep better then. We haven't had loads of prolonged screaming though, not sure how to improve that