Can sleepless nights cause problems

[Teletubby]

My baby is 3 months old and i had hoped by now she would be sleeping a bit better. She seems to want her longest stretch of sleep from about 8pm through until 2am and there's no way i could settle to sleep as early as this. Once she wakes at 2 she then wakes every 3 - 31/2 hours through until morning this means that the longest stretch of sleep i might get before i'm disturbed is 4 hours (go to bed around 10). I feel completely shattered with broken sleep and keep hoping that each night will be different. Are continual sleepless nights bad for you? can anyone offer some advice to get her to go better during the early hours? I've tried putting her down at 10pm but she still wakes at 2!

Have you tried waking her up for a feed before you go to bed yourself? That is what we did with both of ours, and a feed at 10-11ish generally gave us until 3am-ish before the next feed. That meant only one waking between our own bedtime and getting up time. It also helps the baby to learn to go through the night, I think, as the first feed to be dropped would be the 3amish one. If you wake her properly to feed, but make sure not to make the feed interesting (ie no conversation and minimal eye-contact), and end it in a dim, quiet way, she'll probably go back to sleep with no problems.

Teletubby, I had a very similar pattern with my ds - he would sleep his longest block from early evening till the small hours, then every 2-3 hours after that. I did try waking at 10 ish for a feed, and SOMETIMES this would mean only one waking at around 3ish, but generally not. It does work for some babies though, so may be worth another try (keep at it for several days as you need to get her to shift her 'night' in effect).
For me things got much better at about 4.5 months when we suddenly went from 2 night wakings to pretty reliably sleeping through (with a bit of sleep training to encourage the habit...)
You have my sympathies - sleep deprivation is not good for you (it is used as a form of torture after all!!) but it doesn't have to go on for ever and you will survive....

I sympathise too Teletubby - we're exactly the same - in fact last night with the heat it was 11.30 first time then every 2.5 hours! 4 feeds through the night. I think that my body is getting used to just adding up the broken sleep. No solutions though I'm afraid. Until this heat I had been trying to feed from both sides each time and to make sure that she feeds a lot in the early evening which seemed to help but in this weather she's just not interested in the day

Hi Teletubby we also gave dd a 'dream' feed before bed at about 10. DH would give her a bottle of formula to give me a break. So I had no bfeeding from 7 in the evening until 2 or 3 or whenever she woke.

Just to clarify what I mean by dream feed, we didn't actually wake her just took her out of the cot and fed her in our arms with dim lights and then put her straight back in the cot, no talking, nappy changing etc. Like boyandgirl says.

teletubby, how does she go back to sleep after her feed? On her own or durign feeding? If you put her back awake then I think you will just have to wait for her to sort herself out. If she falls asleep on you then perhaps she is using the feeding as a comfort and some gentle controlled crying is in order.

When I had ds I didn't let him cry much at night in case he woke dd and he didn't actually sleep through until 18 months - arrrggh. With dd I was really dedicated and always put her down from her feed at night awake and she cried. I spent ages counting to 100/200/300 etc between picking her up and she slept through from 2 months. (I hadn't even got to the controlled crying bit in the book at that point)

Is she cool enough in this heat? If you think she is too hot I wouldn't try anything drastic until it breaks.

runragged - she in many respects is a model baby as she requires no rocking or feeding to sleep, she simply stops when she's had enough and then will get herself back to sleep. When she was very little i use to wake her at 10 but found she still woke at 2am but i may well give this a go now that she's a little bit older.

It's guite possible that in this heat the babies need extra water and the first waking at night may be a good time to give it. I know we're often told that breastfed babies don't need extra water, just extra feeds, but in Israel, for example, not only is water recommended but during hot weather there are constant tv adn radio adverts to remind parents of the importance of giving extra water. And right now it's hotter in UK than in Israel!