Ebf 12 week old feeding every 2 hours... "normal"?

[Ilovecake73]

Hi,

My 12 week DD is still feeding between every two and two and a half hours, but only for between 4-10mins on one side and then she looses interest.

We were getting a good 4 hours or so of sleep from 9-1/3am ish (then back to every 2 hours and harder to settle to sleep) but now she is back to waking at 12.30am/ 3am and 6 ish. Is this normal? Should I feed her every time she wakes or could she be waking from habit? In the tired blur of the night is so hard tell! She has a dummy to help her get to sleep but this isn't working so well anymore. However getting her to sleep at night without it is pretty much impossible at the moment unless I rock her for hours and then she will wake once I pop her into her crib. I'd love to kick the dummy habit too but think any more minutes sleep I can get I'll take and the dummy is a whole nother thread! But it can sometimes help distract her from feeds...

Is there such a thing as trying to elongate the time between feeds (day and or night) or should I continue to feed on demand at 3 months? She is generally a happy baby. I realise every baby is different and if there is no need to worry too much I will just try and hang on in there!

Thank you for any advice in advance!

In my experience I'd say that sounds pretty normal. She could be having a bit of a growth spurt causing her to want to eat more often? I'd say carry on feeding on demand at 12 weeks as its still very young - I'm still doing it at almost 6 months. My DS has established a really good routine on his own and sleeps really well, which I think has been helped by us always feeding on demand and not forcing any routine on him - its helped him be very relaxed and secure.
Sounds like you are doing a grand job to me!

Totally normal. 12 weeks is a typical growth spurt week. Keep on demand feeding and watch those baby pounds go up!

Oh, and make your couch/bed command central for yourself-snacks, water, a good book/show/movie. This time is all about your baby growing and you being comfortable in the process.

Keep up the good work!

Oh thank you for your kind words! I shall continue and try not to stress about forcing her into a routine... I just don't feel she is ready either. Hopefully in the near future she shall find one of her own and we will both get some sleep :)

"Command central"... Love it!

I also have a twelve week old. She is also doing a lot of shorter feeds and in the evenings I just feel like I'm swapping tits all the time. I am though consciously trying to wake her around ten for an hour or so off the breast and playing so that her longer sleep is shifted back.

Hawkmoth - is that working? Am I setting an unrealistic bedtime of 8pm ish for LO of 3 months? So hard when bombarded with books and sites saying must be in a routine and everyone claiming their babies sleep through already!!

It does work for us. We don't really try to put her into bed until eleven, though she does doze while cluster feeding from about eight on me! She does up to nine hours in her cot, though we've had a couple of nights where she slept too deeply too early and wouldn't settle in the cot until two. It averages out at about seven hours, and for me it's better if that starts at eleven rather than nine as we have two for the school run!

I really don't mind sacrificing my autonomy in the evenings, though watching the kitchen moulder and the ironing pile up can be frustrating. It's a personal choice I suppose, and I choose bed!