night feeds - 18 week old baby

[mumeeb]

I would be grateful for any advice on encouraging my lovely DS2 to sleep thro. He has a good bedtime routine and goes to sleep merrily at 8.00pm ish after a really long feed. He then wakes at approx 10pm, 1.00am, 4.00am and 5.30am. He screams horribly until he is fed but only takes a really small feed before falling back to sleep. In the morning he is not that bothered about feeding properly again unitl about 11am. It seems like a habit rather than hunger but he won't calm down with a dummy or cuddling. Should I grit my teeth and get on with it or is there anything I can do?

Actually it was prob a bad time to log on as I'm off to start the night feeds. I'll be back tomorrow so please so let me know what you think. My DS1 slept thro really early so I'm new to sleep deprivation!

As everyone will instantly tell you, 4 months is a typical time for growth spurt/sleep regression to happen, so it's probably that (we are currently enduring it, DS is 17+4 weeks).

Is your DS2 breast or bottle fed?

But just in case, have you thought about:

• how much is he feeding during the day? My DS will happily got 3-4 hourly during the day, but I think offering him more often (offering an extra feed before his long lunchtime nap and during the evening if he's awake), even if he doesn't ask, has helped improve the sleep situation
• Do you feed to sleep? Not that it's a problem if you're happy with the situation, but if you feed to sleep every time during the night, your DS will probably require this to get him to sleep every time he comes into a lighter sleep/wakes in the night
• Do you have a bedtime routine, after which you keep all feeds dim and boring?

Sorry if all that's really obvious - I've been posting on the sleep board recently with virtually the same problem, and that's some of the suggestions I received.

oh yes we've had / are having the same problem, though things started to get a bit better around the 21 mark ish - though with a bit of encouragement but not until I was sure the growth spurt was over (i.e. he was just having small feeds each time)! We pushed his first wakeup (ie your 10pm one) by refusing to feed him by half an hour at least or if he calmed down and went quiet, fed him the next time he yelled (about 11pm). This then seemed to have the knock on effect through the night by him waking every 3 to 3.5 hours rather than every 1.5 to 2.5. He now wakes 2-3 times rather than 3-5 times.

With DD, she did this until 9 months wheb I realised that I was going to have to 'do' something about it and at that age I felt comfortable just removing all night feeds and suffering the consequences for 3 nights and then she slept through and was much better for the full nights sleep herself.

With DS, I'm still waiting to get to that stage before I pull the plug on the lot as it seems to be easier than stretching out feeds! I do let him winge (I ignore winges) but if he's clearly not settling, I do a quick nappy smell check and if he has that really urgent cry, a feed. But then i get cross with myself if he doesn't seem that hungry and wish i'd just given him a cuddle instead. All very difficult!

We had this starting at about 17 weeks. We put up with it til 21 weeks then addressed it about a week ago by doing the pick up/put down technque from the baby whisperer.

DD's sleep has got progressively better since and she slept through last night

Thanks so much for these replies. Had a dreadful night on Sat and never got round to logging on yesterday. It's good just to know I'm not alone. The Mums I've met recently fall into two camps; their babies are the same age as my DS and sleeping like angels or they have older kids, (2yrs+), who still don't sleep thro - a terrifying thought! I think I may have to give my DS the benefit of the doubt for a little longer, (in case this is a growth spurt), and then toughen up if things carry on this way. Thanks again.