Sorry - long explanation below:
My DS initially fed every 3 hrs, though this increased to every 1.5 hrs at around 6 weeks old, which I put down to a 'growth spurt'. Though I've tried to space them out again with playing, distractions etc, he's never really got back to the 3 hr intervals, and seems to want to feed every 2hrs during the day. He'll usually feed from both sides, taking 30-45 mins to do so.
He has also been howling during the evening from around 5.30pm, and this has become quite bad recently, though we've always been able to calm him down eventually, ready to be swaddled at around 8.30pm.
2 nights ago, the evening crying stopped, which was great, and meant we could do a nice, relaxed wind-down to bed time with him. However, this has coincided with him waking up every 2 hrs for a feed at night, which he wasn't doing before. Sometimes he takes a full feed, both sides, and sometimes he falls asleep after a few minutes.
Leaving him to settle on his own doesn't seem to work - once he's wiggled, grunted and flailed around to the point where his eyes are open, he starts gearing up to cry, so I have to pick him up and feed him.
Our nights used to look like this:
5.30pm+ crying / trying to settle / feeding
8-9pm to bed
2am feed
5am feed
6-7am get up
Now they look like this:
8-9pm to bed
11pm feed
1am feed
3am feed
5am feed
6am often awake from then on
He's putting on weight nicely, so isn't going short. Is this frequency of feeding (particularly at night) likely to continue for long? Is it common at this age? Is it likely that there is a link between stopping evening crying and increased wakefulness at night? (I'm sure all that howling must have worn him out). I had been pleased that he was sleeping pretty well at night, but now my boobs are sore and I can barely stay awake during feeds! He's currently swaddled in a crib next to me in our room and I'm thinking of moving him to a cot in the other room soon. Maybe a little distance from me might help?
What do people think?