How do you get your baby to sleep longer at night?

[aamia]

Is the secret filling them up during the day? I don't need all night, but stints of 4 hours between feeds would be amazing! He starts to want to sleep around 9pm, and then is wide awake by 8am. At the moment he's feeding at 9pm, then 12am, 2am, 4am, 6am. Sometimes during the day he'll go longer if I let him, although I usually wake him to feed every two and a half hours or so. If I made a point of feeding every two hours during the day, would I get longer stints at night?

How old is your baby aamia?

Have a look at askdrsears 31 ways to get your baby to sleep too as it has some great tips[hsmile]

How old is he? Filling them up during the day isn't really feasible with small babies. Most feed through the night until at least 9 months.

My DS is 14 weeks and feeds every 2 hours in the day and sometimes more than that but still wakes at about the intervals you mention overnight if I'm lucky!

I've tried an expressed bottle with 150ml before bed after a giant feed pre bath but he still woke at the same time piglet

He usually manages a longer gap from 8-around midnight so I can get a chunk of 3ish hours before the night but tonight as a special treat he decided to wake at 9.30 for a feed too the git

Sorry not much help was I but I feel your pain.

Depends on age. Can't remember your ds's age. try earlier bedtime.

Earlier bedtime made all the difference for me in that I was able to get a good stretch of sleep myself before the 1.5 to two-hourly wakings from midnight onwards. We start bedtime routine at 6:30pm and he's usually asleep by 7pm. I'll usually be asleep by 7:30/8, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for when the fun starts. He's taken to noisily practicing all of his latest dance moves from 4am until after 5am now as well instead of just going back to sleep after the 3:30am feed. It's brilliant. Really. It sounds like there's four ferrets wrestling in his cot, which is so restful for me.

Lol @ ferrets wrestling, Elphaba.

Agree with the others, it is all perfectly normal and he will probably grow out of it without you ever having to do anything, both of mine did.

Don't worry though, there are some things that you can do. Going to bed early is a good suggestion and try to sleep when baby sleeps during the day. How are his naps btw?

Have a read of 31 ways to get your baby to sleep and stay asleep and if you want a book try the No Cry Sleep Solution.

I try to feed ds every,two hours when possible and certainly no longer than 3 during the day. Then I give a bottle of expressed milk between 7 and 8, usually between 4 and 6 oz. Then a top up feed an hour later and into bed.

He is 15 weeks old and sleeps through most nights.