What can I do?

[inscotland]

DS is 19 weeks on Friday and wakes once (assuming he's not looking for his dummy!) around 3 am for a feed and will take just under 7 oz.

He'll wake at around 5.30 every morning. We've tried everything to get him to settle for another hour in his cot (mobile, leaving him, sssshh, pat etc) but as soon as he sees you he is so happy and full of smiles that you can't leave him. If we bring him into our bed and cuddle him right in he will fall straight asleep again until about 6.30-7 am.

When we get up he'll get his nappy changed and he'll have a kick about on his play mat for 15 minutes or so while I prepare a feed. I am struggling to get him to take this feed though and he will take just 3 may be 4 oz. He's just not interested. Because he eats so little this has a knock on effect with the rest of the day and I am not sure how to tip the balance if I can. His next feed will be 3.5 hours later (I can't get him to go 4 hours) and again he'll have 7 oz in his bottle but will rarely finish it.

The pm feeds are another thing though. He will usually finish his 2 afternoon feeds which are rougly at 2 and 5.30 which is great. He will then take a little top up around 6.30 when he goes to bed and then a full feed again at 10.30 pm.

Because he's eating so little in the morning I feel he's stuffing his face pm and evening. His nappies are so full in the morning, if they have not leaked and I feel because he's not eating during the morning he's waking at 3 am for a feed. He has missed the 10.30 pm feed plenty of times before so I know he can go a longer stretch without a feed.

If he does eat in the morning he may still well wake at 3 am but I am trying to tip the balance and aim for sleeping through with proper day time feeds at regular intervals rather than tops ups.

I hope you got all that! Thanks for reading and for any advice you can give.

He's formula fed BTW.

Sorry, inscotland, am I missing something? Your little boy seems to be sleeping, eating and waking normally for his age - I'm assuming he's healthy and growing? Babies change week by week, and chances are he will have a different routine in a few weeks, esp when he goes onto solids.

Honestly, I can't see much wrong with what's he's doing now, though I can see you might prefer him to feed at 10.30 rather than 3 am, but.....that's maybe just the way he is at the moment

my ds was still awake most of night for feeds at this age and hardly fed in day maybe try doing a dream feed when you go to bed and see if he sleeps longer we were always changing his nappies in the night lol

sounds perfectly normal and ok by the sounds of things routines fall into place the older they get and your routine sounds better than most who are still up every few hours and my ds at that age was always awake from 5 it wasnt until he got older his 3.6 now and he still occassionaly is up at 5 children just have that ablity of being wide awake

we used to just pop toys in his cot and go back to bed for short while until he had enough

growth sputs etc can cause more feeds in night at some point so best to not aim for a routine to sleep through but just cope with things as they come along