hard to go back to sleep after night feeds

[vic5]

hi there - I am new to mumsnet and i apologize in advance if this topic has been covered loads already! i have a 18 wks old son who doesn't follow yet a particular routine during the early part of the night (sometimes sleeps from 8 to 2 am but sometimes wakes up in between once/twice) but he always wakes up at 2ish, then 4ish and after that it's hard to put him back to sleep and certainly not in the cot. We tried putting him to bed earlier/later (have read many books suggesting one or the other!) but it doesn't make any difference: at 4-4.30am he wakes up and spend the rest of the morning (til 6ish) on us! I am not complaining about the night feeds: I would be happy to do one every 2 hrs if only he would go back to sleep after each of them...but often it takes 1 hour to put him back to sleep, although I know he is tired: eyes shut but crying...i feel sad for him! Is this common? I should add that we swaddle him still...Thanks!

welcome to mumsnet have you done dream feed when you have gone to bed this used to see my ds through until 5

keep room dark and dont talk to him then as soon as fed put back down if i didnt need to pick ds up i didnt id prop him in cot then sit him forward to wind

not sure if your bottle feeding or breast

but maybe if breast feeding express a feed and get dp to feed if not dream feed and see if sleeps through longer

sorry not to much help hope someone can come along to help seems so long ago for me now not so fresh in my mind

How much is he sleeping during the day as at 18 weeks he probably needs less sleep than he did a month ago.

If it were me I would look at giving up the swaddling as it's going to get tricky to do as he gets older, I would suggest using a grobag.

I would make night time very very boring indeed, very dark and do as little as possible to "get him back to sleep" as it were. The only other option would be to co-sleep?

thanks for your messages! will try dream feed and make the night time very boring. co-sleeping/feeding when lying down didnt work very well - he is a 'fussy' eater when lying down: he constantly moves his legs so that would keep him up thanks!