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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Help! 11 week old baby & sleep

3 replies

Trillian42 · 24/08/2010 08:57

My EBF 11 week old had a great night time sleep routine - basically she was going to sleep around 11, and staying asleep for 6.5 to 8 hrs. She'd cluster feed before 11, so basically from 7pm onwards she'd be feeding on the hour. She developed this herself at around 3 weeks, getting longer stretches as she went.

For the last few nights though she's been sleeping for less and less time... culminating in last night when she went to sleep at 11, woke at 12, fell asleep at 1, woke at 2.30, fell asleep at 4, woke at 6.45... hasn't slept since. I'm wrecked, husband is wrecked, baby seems fine but she's a bit hyper, as though she's over tired. She fed loads & loads yesterday evening, and again every time she woke last night, so she's fed more already today than she normally would have by 5pm. My boobs look about 2 sizes smaller than they did yesterday!

She seems to resist falling asleep all the time. I've read the Baby Whisperer, but this idea that if you watch for 3 yawns and then put her down in a quiet, dark place and she'll just fall asleep has never worked for her. I either feed her to sleep and transfer her to the Moses basket, or when she's tired we put her over the shoulder and walk her/rock her to sleep, patting her on the back. The shoulder isn't really working anymore - she's very strong and squirms a lot, and turns her head to face forward now.

She naps maybe once or twice during the day - she tends then to sleep for 3 hours in one go instead of several one hour naps.

Should I be worried about the feeding frenzy & not going to sleep?
And has anyone any tips for getting her to sleep generally??

Apologies if there are any typos or if this doesn't make sense... I'm so tired that I'm barely functioning...

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GruffaloMama · 24/08/2010 12:14

Sounds like a monster growth spurt - she could be putting in her order for extra milk... this is absolutely normal. My DS had spurts at aroudn3 weeks, 6 weeks, 12 weeks, 4 months, 8months. It's bloody hard work while it's happening but they normally do go back to better sleeping patterns again. At about 13 weeks my ds actually stopped the evening cluster feeding. (IIRC, instead of pretty much constant feeding from 7pm to 10, he fed at about 5:30, then 7:00 then 8:30 and then started to sleep through until about 4am.)

I strongly recommend that you take advantage of any nap times that she does manage today to rest - it'll make you feel much better. Anything else you need to do can wait until she's through the growth spurt... Ref getting her off to sleep - my DS was fed to sleep (at least at night) until he was about 12mo. That worked fine for us, but if it's not for you someone else will definitely have some good ideas. I always figured that I was too lazy to do anything other than what seemed easiest. He started to self settle for naps around 4-6mo.
HTH

mollycuddles · 24/08/2010 12:37

I'm just out of the 12 week growth spurt. Not fun. Dd2 not sleeping as well as yours before it but was up every 2 hours in night and cluster feeding all day. Yesterday she was suddenly more settled in the day and back into her previous routine again as if it never happened. Rest when you can. Eat well. And remember - this too will pass (my parenting motto)

Trillian42 · 24/08/2010 13:14

Thanks for replies. Actually managed to get her asleep earlier on the bed while feeding, so didn't bother to transfer her to basket & just napped with her instead, so feel a little better now.

She didn't have anything like this with previous growth spurts, so it'll be interesting to see her weight next week!

She's also refusing to feed in the cradle hold, I have to lie down with her. For the first few weeks this was the only way we could feed, but she was fine after that. Is this a regression or do you think it's related?

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