Reassurance needed - worst night at 14 weeks since birth!!!

[Liloosmum]

My DD is now 14 weeks old and is breast fed. Before her 12 week jabs she was sleeping from 9.30ish to 4ish and then again until 8. We've even had a few nights of her sleeping until 6.30-7ish, but they seem a long time ago now. Since her jabs it has been getting progressively earlier, sometimes 2 and 5, sometimes 2 and 6 and the earliest being 1.30 and 5.

Last night she was flat out at 8.30 so I put her to bed. She woke at 11.30, 2, 3.30 and 6.45. I'm guessing everyone is going to say it's a grow spurt! I was thinking of getting my husband to do a dream feed at 11ish, but will that make things worse if it is a growth spurt?

I can't usually get her to have a sleep during the day without feeding her. So she feeds when she wakes up and then about an hour and a half later I feed her again and she goes to sleep. Then she wants feeding again when she wakes up and the same thing happens for the rest of the day with the amount of time she's awake varying. Could that be adding to her waking earlier for feeding during the night?

The 12 weeks jabs unfortunately coincide with a huge growth spurt. She will need the extra feeds but will also be increasing your supply to meet her needs. My DD goes to sleep at 8ish and I take her up when we go up at 10.30ish I offer her a feed then and more often than not she has a feed, so ofering then can't hurt.

My DD is 15 weeks and goes to sleep being fed and needs feeding on waking even if she has only slept for 30mins. Babies this age need to sleep every 1.5 hours to 2 hours any more time and they get over tired and that can affect their night sleep. Sleep durngthe day shouldn't affect her night sleep yet.

Dunno what you can do about it but my DD did this at around 14 weeks too. She'd had a growth spurt which triggered more night wakings and then it took a long time for her to learn to settle herself again.

She sorted it out about 15 weeks and started going longer between feeds but we still haven't got back to the good old days when she could do 10-4. At the mo it is more like 10-2, 2-5.

Is she hungry each time she wakes or nursing because she is unsettled and waking easily? Obviously feeding her each time is fine if you are happy to do it, but I found DD was latching on and staying on the boob for ages barely sucking because it was the comfiest place for her to sleep. Offering a dummy and a cuddle instead was a quicker way of getting to the point where I could put her down again.

Can't hurt to try a dreamfeed but if the basic problem is that she is finding it hard to resettle herself when she wakes then it may not make any difference. The settling will sort itself out I promise.

The frequent wakings did shoot my own sleep cycles to pieces however, and I got hideous insomnia. I found I couldn't drop off again between wakings because I knew I'd be up again in a minute. The CD that comes with Paul McKenna's 'I can make you sleep' seems to have sorted that out. I have it on an MP3 player and listen to it knowing that even if I don't drop off I'll at least relax for 20 minutes. In fact I always do drop off so at least I am now getting all the sleep I can.

That sounds really normal. My LO is 14 weeks too. HE's clearly on a massive growth spurt/ development drive though. He couldn't lift his head much on Tuesday on his front and by Thursday he could roll back to front then rest on his fore-arms with his head up to watch! He can sit and stand with support this week too and as got noticeably longer/ heavier so a lot is clearly going on! He's also sleeping at least 6 hours in the day, plus the 12.5 in the night, just with more regular feeds. Dreamfeeds do nothing for ds, he can self-soothe, he just seems hungry at waking (if he isn't hungry he just babbles back to sleep). He just happily eats even more then still wakes at 1/2am for more!

Oh, just seen a new development target, he's pulling the play gym apart now! Off to rescue him from a pile of toys..

I usually go to bed at the same time as her anyway, so wouldn't gain anything by me doing a dream feed. We haven't tried her with a bottle yet, but I did manage to express some milk earlier this week. I was thinking of getting my husband to give her that, but I'm not sure it would help.

I think she can settle herself at night. Sometimes I hear her stirring and she goes back to sleep again. I think she needs feeding so she can sleep during the day because after 1.5-2 hours she's hungry again!!

Lilo - my 15Wo feeds every 1.5 to 2 hours in the day. The more they feed in the day the less they usually need to feed at night unless they are having a growth spurt when they feed all day and night.