Night feeds, I don't have a clue what to do or whether just to go with the flow...

[SwivelHips]

DS is 12wks and is mix fed. His norm is feeding every 3 hours over 24 hr period, in the night he does usually have a good feed. I mentioned this to gp and she said it could be comfort eating and we could drop one of these feeds and replace with water.
I hadn't gone round to doing it but these past few nights he's waking up as normal every 2-3 hours but barely takes any food (either formula or breast) i.e. he'll have 8oz approx 7pm and a good breast feed approx 8am, the feeds in between he barely touches and falls asleep within 5 mins. It then takes me about 20 mins to resettle him again. We don't co-sleep.
Is this just a stage I should go with it or should we try and re-settle him without feed? I'm at a loss really (again)...and shattered with the 2 hourly night awakenings :(

Your GP is all kinds of wrong, you shouldn't be giving a 12 wo baby water to replace milk feeds- this is stupid advice! Waking every 2-3 hours is perfectly normal for a 12 wo baby and there's nothing wrong with comforting a baby- how sad that your GP thinks otherwise :(

I don't know much about formula, sorry but this is a really good website about sleep.

This phase is relentless and very tough but it doesn't last. Are you getting plenty of support from family and friends?

Ds did this and i bet that in a few more weeks you don't need to resettle- they just go back to sleep after a quick feed. I finally did what your Gp suggested when he was 6mo and on solids - by this stage he was waking at 3am and it was clearly just a bit of a habit. I'd just go with it for now though.

My 6mo is mix fed, but just has bm at night. He has had stages of sleeping for longish stretches and periods of waking up more frequently. I've always managed sleep wise because i have a side-car cot. It's sort of like co sleeping, so you don't have to get up to settle the baby, but he has his own space. I had a babybay when he was smaller, but they are quite expensive, although lovely and great for little babies. Now ww've got an ikea cot with one of the sides off and it works brilliantly.
When he wakes up, i don't really wake up, i just latch him on and go back to sleep again!

Lirogiro I was all fired up to do that with DD. Imagine then, my disappointment, when I found that horizontal feeding just results in both of us trying to sleep in a puddle of cold sick (hers). Back in my nursing chair now. Gutted.

Thankfully I do have good support in DH and my mum, although DH back to school next week so I'll be picking up the night feeds. He does the midnight one now which lets me get about 4 hours unbroken. ah the days of 8 hrs sleep..seems like a distant memory..but then DS smiles and none of this matters.
I'll have a look at the sleep website tonight, thanks for that.
DS did settle a bit quicker last night (we used to have to do 20 mins for a deep sleep) so perhaps he is changing, the re-settling is worse than the feeding. Especially when I put him in his cot and his eyes pop open, I just know there's not a chance he's staying there, so the cycle starts again.
DS will feed lying down for a time, but will also throw up if I dont wake up properly and wind him.
Can't help thinking I cant string a sentence or a paragraph together nowadays...no idea how bad this spelling is either....

Swivel That's the problem- I feed in bed because I'm knackered, but then I drop off before I wind her and am then woken by a spray of baby vomit. Joy!

Really rough night here last night (DD is 4 wks old). Gah! It will pass. It will pass. It will pass.

Know how you feel, just had a LOOOONG night here with DS, he's had me up since midnight. Went down for a grand total of 1 hr at 4am. Can't bring myself to get DH up to help as it's his first day back to work today after paternity leave.

Sorry nothing to add for OP, just wanted to share the pain.

Another thing I was advised to do was no eye contact or interaction at night time and lots in the morning. Ds was an awful sleeper and a big hungry baby. I'm inclined to say if your dc is hungry feed feed feed during the day, especially the evening.

Another bad night here, although not in your league happy bunny, I was only up every 2 hrs. I passed him to dh at half 4 this morning, I'd had enough.
Oh definitely no eye contact here in the night, doesn't make any difference tho. It will pass....it will pass.....