Help to get baby to sleep more than 3 hours in a row at night!

[didsnbump]

My 8 week old ds is thriving brillianty and the hv says there is now reason why he shouldnt, but he just wont sleep for more than 3 hours in one go at night. He goes 4 hours between feeds and will even go 5 hours between 6.30pm and 11.30pm, as 3 hours of those are in bed.
But after he goes back off he's normally awake again between 2-2.30pm. I feed him roughly 3-3.30pm depending on how content he is just with a dummy, but then once he has gone off again its only another 2 hours and he's awake, not wanting feed but just a fuss.
I know he is still small, but if he can go 5 hours between feeds, why cant we get him to sleep that?????

he is 8 weeks old, there is no reason he should go more than 3 hours or 4 at a push at night for a feed

his tummy is very small and needs filling often

he has a lot of learning to do ,and growing and does not really understand night and day yet

he is doing very well!

I really dont think you have anything to worry about. 8 weeks is very early and as hard as it is on you, they are only this small for a very short time.

My DD was 12 weeks before she went through and my DS was nearly 5 months.

Each child is different and stick with it, you will start to feel sane soon !!

This is really normal - try telling yourself that the vast majority of babies sleep through by 6 months old so only 4 months more. Fwiw my twins were worse - maybe 2 hrs at 8 weeks, but then by 4 months they slept through.

i have to tell u and i know u wont thank me for it .......ds3 slept 3 hours in every 24 for 3 years honestly!!! even now hes a crap sleeper.....i think for the first few months its normal ..........i had 2 other dss before this who slept to a strict routine boy was it a shock to my system ...

Don't disrupt his pattern. When he goes down, get a bath and go to bed yourself at 8pm and, if possible, get your dp to do the 11.30pm feed. That way you will get 6 plus hours sleep. That's what I did. It's hard, but it won't be for long and you will enjoy your baby much more if you are well rested.

I really dont mind the night feeds, and 3 hours would be great if he did that after his 11.30pm feed, but it just seems while he is up there alone he will sleep soundly for 3 hours solid. Once we are in bed after his 11.30pm feed thats it he will only sleep 2-2.5 hours. Its like he knows we are there so wakes up early for a fuss.
He wakes around 6-6.30am and doesnt want a feed, and will even go back off till 7.30 in the bed with out even trying to get him back to sleep!!!!
Has anyone experienced this?? Not sleeping through until in their own room?

think yourself lucky! I have an 18 week old that won't sleep longer than 1.5 hrs at the moment (usually less) and will only take 20 min naps during the day

Yep, my 14 week old's the same as your bab fingerwoman. Only comfort i can offer didsnbump, is that it will improve one day. -I know that probably doesn't sound much help, but it's the most useful thing i learned from bringing up my DD1: the unassailable knowledge that none of the hard times would last forever and that they would be forgotten as soon as they were over, gave me great comfort and so much more patience.
(Although I can't claim to feel exactly zen-like myself at 3am as DS guzzles and fusses. )

Because he is a BABY!!!!!!!!!!!

I know I will always get slated for this but it worked for us. Gina Ford routine. Helped my dd distinguish between day and night. Slept less in the day. Fed well in the day. We started this at 6wks and by 8 wks she went from 7-7 with a feed while she was still asleep at 2230ish. By 12 wks she slept 7-7 totally and she is now 2.1yo, sleeps in her own bed and never gets up in the night.
I am expecting dc2 in 2 wks and will be doing the same again.
If you bf it will be difficult to do though because you don't have set feeding times. DD was bottle fed from 6 wks.

If his longest sleep (5 hrs) is before the night then that is the night for him.

My DD is 12 wks and I feed her when she asks for it - OR at the 4 hour mark if she doesn't. But this only happens once a day if at all.

She sleeps from 7.30pm til 7.30am a bottle either side.

So her longest sleeps are at night and that co-incides with her longest gap between bottles.

I didn't go for the 10.30 feed, preferring to stop at 7 or 8 when she wanted and see how far through the night she got. It meant a lot of 3ams, 4ams, 5 ams until we got to where we are now. But I figured if she found the routine herself for getting to sleep at 7 or 8 why wake her at 10.30 and make that a habit that will be later hard to break.

horses for courses though of course, every baby and parent being different.

I'm sure that your son will find his own way as he gets a bit bigger and that you'll get more night time sleep for yourself.

At that point, my son was also getting up every 3 hrs to feed...day or night. I was told that that was actually pretty good for their age! Don't try to rush anything with him...he will get to another point soon enough. Just listen to what he wants..whether he feeds every 3 hrs, 5 hrs or whatever. He is your best guide.

My 10 week old is now starting to go 3-4 hours between feeds on the night, but only this week. And the latter half of the night he goes two hours. I'm just going with the flow...

tori32 a year ago I would have said the same as you dd1 was exc breastfed for 5 months and loved her sleep.

BUT dd2, now almost 7 months obviously didn't understand what was expected of her and didn't want to fit into the GF (or indeed anyone else's) routine.

You may have been lucky first time round - I was. I hope that you have this luck again. Imo you can put a little one down at the "correct times" but if they can't/won't sleep you can't force it.

After many hours of mnet discussions, I have chosen to accept that dd2 is a different baby to her sister. Someone said on a different thread to accept it if your little one isn't a good sleeper - better for you to get up tired in the morning rather than tired AND angry.

didsnbump imo you can't (and shouldn't try and force) such a small baby to fit in with your expectations. Accept that you are doing fine - some babies sleep for hours on end, others don't.

cosleeping worked for us! When he woke up I'd cuddle him back to sleep before he was really awake. Obviously if he was actually hungry he wouldn't go back to sleep anyway and I'd feed him, but if he was just waking "just because" then as soon as he stirred I'd rest my hand gently on his tummy and if he kept stirring cuddle him in. Worked great for us.
But I really agree with everyone who says at 8 weeks he (and you) are doing just great.

Well to my suprise last night, my ds feed at 9pm, later than normal as his timings have moved due to being out and about.He then went to bed about 10.30pm. We went up shortly after knowing we would have max 3 hours before he would wake up.

I awoke before my ds did to find it was 3.45am and he hadnt stirred once. Unfortunatly i then lay there awake, but my ds didnt stir until 04.30am.
I popped his dummy in and he went back off again. I did this a couple of times, and finally at 6am he decided it was fed time!

Now im not holding out any hopes for tonight but fingers crossed!

Tori32 what routine was it you followed??

wow that sounds good
I have a 13 month old that wakes every 2 to 3 hours

I did the Gina Ford contented baby. Don't be to hung up on timings if you are a bit late or early though. I just used it as a guide to get some organisation. (I am completely disorganised ).

Well done to your LO!

PS it was recommended to me by a work colleague of DH. We were sceptical but she had 3 kids who all slept through the night from really early, so we tried it and hay presto. Although I am from a family of people who love their sleep so it could be hereditary! DB slept 7-7 on the first day out of hospital (4 days!)

Don't go there!

If people follow a strict routine and the baby sleeps, they think it was because of the routine, but the truth is, they probably have the sort of baby that sleeps anyway (some of them do). if people follow the routine and the baby doesn't sleep, there is a tendency to think that there is something 'wrong" with the baby or with the parents. People very rarely, in my experience, think "Well, this system isn't working, it must be a crap system - into the dustbin with it" They think "Oh dear, we must be doing the routine wrong - we must try harder/be better" and there they are, set up for stress and failure. And the b**y baby is STILL not sleeping! The best advice I can give is to remember that this phase, like all others, passes. Rest when you can, cuddle your baby as much as you can, and before you know it, he'll be a teenager, and you won't be able to get him out of bed!

seeker you are very very right on that one

ds + dd1 - bloody awful sleepers

dd2- good sleeper

if dd2 had been my 1st, not my 3rd, i would have been SO smug...

My baby is 8 months old and still wakes every 3 hours. [and tired person emoticon].

Please dont worry about an 8 week old who does that. 8 wks is so tiny! They don't know anything except that they have a small hungry tummy and where's mummy?

Good luck though and hope you fix it.

Belgrano this is a couple of years old
although I am pmsl at the vast majority sleeping through by 6 months
Why do my DCs not know that??

Every baby is different and with many, a routine such as Gina Ford won't make a blind bit of difference IMO. My DD1 slept 8pm to 6am by 6 weeks but DD2 is now 6 weeks and nowhere near doing the same (still feeding 3 hourly day and night). We haven't done anything differently second time around, they're just different babies.

The only advice I can give is to just go with the flow and rest when you can X

PMSL at 2 year old thread being dug up... I wonder if the OPs 2 yo is sleeping through yet