20 week old feeding 2-hourly through the night, anybody been there??

[UserNameAngst]

DS2 is ebf. He hit the 4mo sleep regression (not that there was much to regress from) and shows no signs of changing his 2 hourly day and night feeding pattern. We are co-sleeping so it's manageable but I'm hoping this isn't going to be for a long period. I'm back to work in 3 weeks and he still won't take a bottle, another thing to worry about.

Not really sure why I'm posting, just wanted some empathy if possible please as irl all the babies I meet of the same age are sleeping 12 hours!

Yes that was me. I went back to work when both of mine were a bit older - 14 months and 10 months. Both weren't sleeping through when I went back. It was hard but I got used to it!

Dd who's now 14 months has started sleeping through. The sleep settled down for both around 6-8 months, blipped at 9/10 months, got better and no more two hourly from then on in. Weaning onto solids helped (we started at 6 months) but not until 9 months once they were dropping milk feeds.

When your baby gets to 6 months, you can try beakers for milk. My youngest has never had a bottle!

Thank you so much Iggly. I have tried him with a sippy cup, not keen on that either! If worse comes to worse we will try spooning in the milk.

Interesting about weaning. It's my feeling that weaning will probably help, but in the more medium term. I think he maybe has a smaller belly; he rarely poos and then not much so I feel there's not much "spare" iyswim, hence frequent need to feed. I do feel he's not nearly ready to wean yet; not really sure why as iirc he does tick the boxes but it feels far too soon.

That's fair enough - mine didnt feel ready until around 6 months. Dd was a week off 6 months and ds (PFB) I waited until the very day he turned 6 months

Both of mine did better with straw type beakers where they could suck the milk instead of having to tip the cup up.

When you do go back to work, take it easy on yourself - early early bedtimes and nap on your days off when baby does.

Also I will add - mine both had silent reflux and dd had tongue tie which I think meant they wanted to feed all the time for comfort. Dd was a lot worse - she also still has a lip tie so doesn't latch very well, takes down air, wakes up after 2 hours with wind, wanted feeding for comfort. She also couldn't seem to drain the boob very well. Even now at 14 months old she takes 10-15 mins to feed which is actually quite slow for a baby her age!

Yeah its really tough :(. DD was only waking once/twice a night and going straight back to sleep just before 4 mo regression. Not knowing much about sleep regressions I was thinking awesome, I've cracked this! Nope. Went back to 2 hourly feeds and i felt more knackered than when she was a newborn! Unfortunately we had then had flu/teething so she's only just made it back in her cot this week (now 6 mo) from co-sleeping.

That's not helpful, just wanted to say you're not alone and this too shall pass. We just started weaning so I hope this will help in a little while.

GL going back to work :)

Thanks Lois. I just feel so broken with the lack of sleeping and the bottle refusing at the moment with the spectre of work looming! I expect everything will look better once I'm back [optimism].

Just try and nap in the day as much as you can before you go back and early nights should take own advice and get off MN Can only imagine its hard if you have another DS to look after but a few hours CBeebies won't do any harm (imo!).