Cluster feeding at nearly 12 weeks

[appleandplum]

I have posted before about my ds not settling in the evening and bf on/off until 11 ish, so presume he is cluster feeding. He settles well and is content in day (he is dc4 so has no choice!) but come the evening he will not settle no matter what i try to do, give him a late nap, bath etc etc. he finally sleeps about 11ish but still only goes 3/4 hours in night. He is nearly 12 weeks so i thought he would getting better by now and i am so tired! I could take feeding all evening if he went 5/6 hours or waking in night if he settled in the evening.
None of my other children have been like this.
Anyone got any ideas?

I think some kids are just like it. They do growth spurt roughly every six weeks for the first six months so you may find he settles down a bit in a week or so. Dd has just dropped her second night feed at 12 months but still wants feeding at 2200, 0130 and 0600. If you are running around in the daytime he may have worked out that feeding like that keeps you close. He may need that much skin to skin to feel secure at that age.

Could it be the only time he gets to feed as long as he needs and the only time he get you to himself (the rest of the day being filled with siblings, school runs, food to cook, washing to do, hoovering to do, etc) and he isn't getting frequent enough contact? Would he go in a sling during the day so he could get extra 'mummy time' and perhaps squeeze a few extra feeds while he is in there?

That said 12 weeks is still small, cluster feeding is normal and 3 or 4 hours between feeds is almost sleeping through (STTN is defined as 5 hours continuous sleep) so it sounds like he is doing okay really!