Why is my baby WIDE awake for 3hrs in the middle of the night ?!

[mousemole]

DS2 is 4 weeks old and a good feeder. Due to Lactose Intolerance he is entirely BF.
Give him a feed at 10pm and he then wakes at 3am for anothe feed. Problem is he is then wide awake for up to 3hrs which is driving me mad. Have a lively toddler and husband works away mon - fri to desperate for any tips to solve this before I keel over from exhaustion.

I don't know to be honest

but 4 weeks is still so young and that 5 hour stretch he does from 10pm to 3am seems really good for that age

It takes up to a year for the day/night rhythm to get established. Not much help to know this when he's awake & ready to party at 3am...

I'm sure it won't last. I think many babies have this unsettled sort of time but IME it's often a lot sooner than a year that babies sort themselves to sleep more reliably.

I so remember this with ds, but it didn't go on for many weeks at all and he settled into a routine of being fed at 11pm then waking at 2 or 3 and going back to sleep again. unfortunately only till about 6am but you can't have everything!

Just keep all lights really dim, whisper, make it as different from the daytime as you can and I think then you're doing all you can really.

Sleep when your baby does in the day to catch up on any lost hours in the night - make sure you have some help from family/DH with the housework so that you don't feel you HAVE to do that in the day when you could be sleeping.

I was wondering if he was getting enough food in the day or maybe too much sleep in day. Would that affect things ? he is having 5 full bottles a day ( of 120ml) which should be enough food.

I think you have to go with him to be honest. If he wanted more feeding in the day he would make this clear I think....and could you actually KEEP him awake more in the day - is that possible? I know my ds slept like a log once he was off and there's no way I could have woken him!

I have no idea but dd tended to do this - until about 9 mo! Sorry! It was hell - I remember being particularly desperate for sleep 6-9 mo. It did stop altogether after that though. JIll