12 wk ds still feeding every 3 hrs at night - is this normal?

[Hillbilly]

Not strictly true but our night times generally go like this:

After bath I feed ds (12wks) around 6.45 and have him in bed by 7.30ish. He usually sleeps until 11pm or midnight when he wakes for a feed. After that he will always wake every 3 hours or sometimes less.

I had tried to implement a "Dreamfeed" at 10.30/11pm but found that I ended up not sleeping myself until after 11 and often having 3 more wake ups after that. As it stands at the moment I go to bed at 10pm and usually get at least 1.5 hrs sleep myself before his first wake up.

He can obviously go at least 5 hrs as he has done before. Also, when he wakes around 2/3am he often has only a small feed before going back to sleep. I figure maybe he does not need this feed and I should try to sooth him back to sleep perhaps with cool boiled water but he hates it and screams. I have another child to think about and do not want her to be woken up so I always give in to feeding my son.

One point to mention, he is totally breastfed except for the midnight feed when he will only take about 80/100 ml (3/4 oz) formula, so the long stretch of sleep is after being breastfed not after formula. During the day he is fed every 3-3.5 hrs.

I can deal with these night times but really would like some advice to help getting him to go a little longer between feeds after midnight.

In the short term, could you go to bed yourself after the kids are in bed for a while and then you'll be getting a good 3/4 hours sleep to catch up on the sleep you're missing. Even by doing that for a couple of days will make a big difference to how you cope in the day and when he wakes in the night.

If he's totally BF, you shouldn't be needing to give him boiled water at 12 weeks. A completely BF baby is getting everything he needs from the breast milk.
With the formula feed, could your partner feed him so you don't have to wake? Then you could have slept from 7:30pm - around 3am.
It might be that as he now gets a little older he might start leaving longer gaps between his feeds but if he feeds then sleeps for 3.5 hours, I wouldn't worry too much - at least you'll get blocks of sleep between feeds. If he's not fussing too much, get your partner to put him back to bed so he doesn't get all cosy on the breast.

Hope this helps a bit?

Thanks

Agree about the water so had only tried it once.

I feel reassured that it is quite normal and he is such a good boy that he goes back to sleep straight away after a feed anyway.

1. sleep when your baby does

1. learn to bf lying down (askdrsears has advice on safely sleeping next to a small baby) so that you don't care how often he feeds at night, you just go back to sleep and leave him to it