14 weeks old Excl BF still feeding every 2 hours?!

[SmilingKiwi]

Hello My DS is nealry 14 weeks and still waking in the night every 2 hours. He also will feed this much during day. we have tried a dummy (spits out-tried three different types) and finger sucking (will take) at night to see if he is just after the suckling but he cries through this effort until fed. He weighs 10lbs and 10oz which I know is on the small the side (we are not huge people!) but his weight gain has been steady and constant. I guess what i am asking is he needng more than the breast ie FF at night to satisfy him?. W eare handling the lack of sleep OK (great DH)but by this stage I thought he would be sleeping more.I have loved exclusively BFing and just need to know I am still doing everything right considering his waking. oh, he'll feed for about 20mins each time. Many thanks ladies ;)

Yeah sounds fine, I doubt he needs anything else. HAve you tried cluster feeding? I.e. Feed him more often, e.g. every hour or hour and a half for the two or three feeds before bed... might help him get a belly full before bedtime. Oh and also at 3 months there is that awful growth spurt which inevitably means MORE feeding MORE waking etc... So you might be getting a load of that at the moment.

Other more knowledgeable folk might know more than me though.

Btw my dd2 fed every two hours until about 3 and ahalf months when suddenly she was able to go a lot longer, only between some feeds though.

She started sleeping a lot longer at this age too.

I think this falls into the category of 'every child is different'. My dd also fed this frequently (in fact often more frequently).

It is a myth that ff makes them go longer - it will work for some but not for others. IF you are coping ok and your ds is happy then I'd carry on, and be aware that there is often a big growth spurt from months 4-5, so don't be alarmed if he wants to feed even more often!

Well done for keeping going .

Hang in there, it will get easier!

He possibly needs to feed more often because he is smaller, and so FF wouldn't help. Just make the night feeds more of a faff.

14 wks is so very tiny still! Although it can be hard if you have friends with babies who are sleeping through at the same age. Trust me, all the women with babies waking 2-hourly at 4 months are out there, they're just keeping quiet. Its normal.

thanks for your prompt replies you are right cantsleepwont, he is happy (as long as he doesn't have wind) and such a precious wee boy, I spose its when people 'say oh he should be sleeping by now...' its our first baby and we're doing things that feel right, had a great home birth and hope to do BLW too, I'm just not wanting him to be hungry if there is something I could be doing and I don't know about it IYKWIM. It is hard to notice a growth spurt as he always feed every 1.5 - 2 hours We will give cluster feeding a go anyway. I have tried to dream feed during his longest sleep 8pm-11/12pm but made no difference.

I tried a dreamfeed as well but it was a bit of a failure as I just ended up kind of jamming a nipple into her firmly shut mouth which is not what I would call fun really...

I felt like my baby was the only one not sleeping through at various points but I realised quickly that people often exaggerate the idea of 'sleeping through' and that also the people who want to talk about it are the ones who are very proud of their sleeping babies.... I don't blame them for rejoicing that they get lots of sleep (I probably did it when the time came) but at that point I wanted to drop kick them out the window! And of course there's the fact that it comes back to bite you on the ass when they start waking again because people then go 'I THOUGHT HE/SHE WAS SLEEPING THROUGH'!!!!!

Hey smilingkiwi....it is very tiring, but as others have said, it does fall into the normal category.

I'm lucky in that my DD sleeps all night, but the downside of that is she seems to feed constantly all day.....she has two feeds in quick succession when we get up at 6:30/7:00, then she feeds again after the school run, sleeps for half an hour and then feeds again, for up to an hour, the she seems to feed every couple of hours for at least half an hour.

come and chat to us on the post natal thread...you'll see you're not alone