How many feeds does your 9wk old baby have at night.? I'm so tired I'm struggling to cope.

[laa]

My 9 wk. old DD is feeding at around 6 and then 7.30 in the evening. Then we wake her up for a feed at 10.30/11. She then wakes at about 2.30 and then at about 4.30-5am. Then she wakes at 6.15am. I'm absolutely exhausted with only getting a couple of hours sleep at a time cos I've also got a 4 yo and a 2yo. My other 2 were sleeping through at this point - well, we woke them at 11 and then they slept till 6ish. I tried to introduce a bottle of formula at 11pm so I could go to bed and leave DD with DH. But she will only take a couple of ounces which isn't very much. I'm wondering if the problem lies in not enough daytime feeds or broken day feeds because I'm having to do stuff with the other 2. Can anyone suggest how I can get a better routine going or is this a usual pattern. I really feel like I'm struggling at the moment because I'm so tired.I just feel like crying.

I think that at nine weeks old it's still very very normal for a baby to wake up for feeds at night - unfortunately.
Are you b/feeding?
The one thing that worked for me was to take baby into bed for me and feed lying down. I never did this with dd1 and always felt exhausted, but with dd2 I did and I felt so so so much better even though I had two to look after.
Try it, just for a few nights until you've recovered a bit. Don't worry about co-sleeping at this stage yet, you can move her in a couple of months if you want to and it will be fine!

sounds just like my ds2 at that age, i was really sruggling to cope also.
a mumsnetter gave me the advice of not waking him for the 10-11 feed, so that i had that time from 8pm etc to catch up on sleep. It did seem boring having to go to bed so early every night but really i was glad of the rest.
It worked for me, ds would sleep from 7pm through till about 3am which still wasn't ideal but at least i had a break from feeding.

DS did that too. I would leave some expressed milk out and dh would alternate feeds with me which helped a lot.

Agree with tiredemma, don't wake them if they're happy to sleep. Its hard with older kids because you have to make time for them too so just sleep when you can, even if its an illogical hour!

Another way to get more sleep is to bring her in bed with you. I'm still feeding DS2 (7 months) at night, but I don't really notice or wake up, any more!

9 week old babies do generally need to feed in the night.

I did the same as Tiredemma, didn't bother with a dream feed until around 3 months. I couldn;t actually wake him enough to feed. Just used to get to bed as early as possible and ds would wake sometime after midnight, so if I went to bed at 9 I might get 4 hours uninterrupted.

Then he might not wake again before 6 so I got another 4 -5 hours.

Around 3 months we started a dream feed at 10.30 and it worked for about a month. I persevered with it until he was around 8 months, then gave up, because he was still waking at least once more. It just didn;t seem to suit him.

I always went back to sleep quickly at around 1am and so did he.

HTH

HTH

You're going to hate me for saying this but my first 2 Ds's were sleeping through by 9 weeks too.

Ds3 on the other hand didn't go without the late night and early morning feed until he was nearly a year old.

He was 15 months when he finally made all the way through the night without an early morning(4-5am) feed.

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At nine weeks, I think you can hope for one good stretch of sleep in the night, if you structure the daytime feeds a bit so you're sure she's pretty tanked up by bedtime, stick with the dream feed, and if you control the daytime sleeps (don't let her sleep for more than 3-4 hrs in the daytime).

Is DD really waking, properly waking, and crying as opposed to snorting and rustling for all those night feeds? Have you tried leaving her to see if she's just in transition, coming out of one sleep cycle before going into another?

Laa, sounds exhausting! Ds is now 11 weeks and wakes up around 3 for a feed then around 6. I tried waking him up at 11 for a feed a couple of times to see if he would go through the night but when I did he seemed to wake up more often not less so maybe try not waking her up for a feed. Can't offer any advice with the daytime feeds as I only have one to worry about, but would suggest that you spend a really long time feeding her at the 7.30 feed, maybe even make the 6pm feed earlier so she is hungrier at the 7.30 feed and will feed for longer.

Could it be a sleep not a feeding problem? Is she sleeping too much during the day?

Also, ds doesn't sleep in bed with us or in our room and if I am really exhasted I kick dh out of bed to bring ds to me for a feed and then to put him back to bed again - that helps a little bit as I hardly have to wake up to feed him.

I have found that what NQC does, keeping ds in bed is worse as he feeds almost constantly and sleeps on my breast and keeps me from deep sleep.

That is exactly the same routine that my dt1 is on, dt2 misses the 4.30 one but does the others. I also have a 4yo and a 2yo so I can really sympathise with you. My elder were sleeping thru by 6-8 weeks too. I get really tired and irritable sometimes.
Can't u catch up during the day? Or express so your partner can help out with some of the feeds?

i was going to start the exact same thread about my 9 week old

Ds2 sleeps in bed with us (once we go to bed) and it works really well (especially now he's on his medications for reflux and doesn't scream any more ). I also don't bother waking him at 10/11ish as it doesn't seem to make any difference to his night feeding.

The 'dream feed' worked with ds1 though. It's frustrating when second or later children just don't behave in the same way as your previous ones, isn't it?