9-week-old sleep patterns wildly erratic at night

[bean612]

Hello Mumsnetters, I'm wondering about other people's experiences of night sleeping at this age. My DD slept for 6 hours straight the other night, which is unheard of for her, then the following night woke up after 2.5 hours and then every hour and a half after that. She did go through a period about 3 weeks ago of sleeping for 5 hours before waking, then maybe another 2 or 3 after that (after a feed), but she seems to have gone backwards, and now usually only sleeps about 3-4 hours for her first sleep, then shorter times after that (2 hours, then 1 hour). It doesn't seem to make any difference how much she has slept during the day - the night she slept through for 6 hours she had napped for much of that day. We swaddle her before putting her down every night, and only put her down once she's asleep (I know she needs to learn to get herself to sleep, but she just won't do it at the moment - if she's awake she just starts crying). Is there anything we can/should do to make her sleeps more effective? It's so depressing hearing about babies sleeping through the night at this age...

From 3 weeks mine slept pretty reliably for a chunk of at least 7 hours, sometimes 9. But don't feel depressed.... at 11 weeks she started waking every 4 hours, then every 3, and now at 17 weeks she is awake about every 2 hours, sometimes more!

And she does settle herself to sleep in her cot, too. Bah. I think on the whole for the sake of sanity you just need to go with the flow and not expect much in the way of consistency. Just be grateful for what sleep you do get, and don't feel you need to compare with other 'better' sleepers. If nothing else, there is no guarantee that things will stay the same for them!