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Original poster

How to get 3mo to sleep for longer at night?

12 replies

mycatlikestwiglets · 31/01/2014 07:38

DD is a lovely, happy baby, but is still only sleeping in 3 hour stretches between feeds at night and the disruption to my sleep is starting to kill me! I realise it could be worse as she does sleep and each feed is pretty quick before she goes back down, but DS was sleeping through by this age so this is a new form of torture for me. Surely she should be starting to drop night feeds by now? She's EBF and a vomity refluxer in case it's relevant.

Anyone have any suggestions/words of wisdom? Please tell me it will start to get better soon!

OP posts:
waterrat · 31/01/2014 08:02

Sorry obvious question but have you tried getting her back to sleep without a feed - aiming for dropping one of the feeds for example - it's easier I find to fix sleep problems when you have a clear aim. So if you decide fr example you are happy to feed twice a night - eg 11 and 3 - then other times you shush pat or whyever works - tiring but if she is just waking from habit that might work in a couple of nights

Sirzy · 31/01/2014 08:04

She is still only tiny as hard as it is when you are sleep deprived that is normal at 3 months.

mustardtomango · 31/01/2014 08:05

Hi cat,
My lo does exactly the same and he's the same age. I brought it up with the health visitor and her only question was does he feed with the same regularity during the day... If yes, she said you should keep following his lead. Growth spurts and the like Smile ds did so we didn't get more info about the other route

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Original poster
mycatlikestwiglets · 31/01/2014 08:13

Thanks everyone and especially mustard - good to know it's not just me in this position! She definitely wants feeding each time sadly so shush pat doesn't generally work (it does on the odd occasion she wakes after less than about 2 hours though). During the day she feeds about every 2.5 hours so she is a little better at night. We had one glorious week when she stretched her night feeds out to between 5 and 7 hours so it's so frustrating that she seems to have regressed!

OP posts:
Ginnytonic82 · 31/01/2014 20:11

mycat my Ds is the same and a refluxer too! I have no advice sadly, but wanted to send a message of sleep deprived solidarity. He also has managed a few nights with longer stretches, we were tantalizingly close to a full nights sleep once...I guess we just have to wait it out, they'll sleep one day - at least I hope so! I asked my HV and she said at least we won't have to go through 4 month sleep regression smile

Ginnytonic82 · 31/01/2014 20:12

Sorry I meant Smile not smile

BarberryRicePud · 31/01/2014 20:27

I understand sleep deprivation, truly, but this is very normal, if not on the good side.

DS woke every 45 minutes for 5 months. Not sure how I survived. Dd is 9m and still wakes once or twice.

At 3m I would have dreamed of a 3 hour block of sleep. I'm not saying that to be all woe is me, just to point out that waking to feed every 3 hours at 3m is absolutely normal.

80% of babies don't sleep through at a year. You were extraordinarily lucky first time around. I felt much better with dd's lack of sleep because I accepted it wasn't something I'd done wrong or could "fix".

Saying that I do hope you get some sleep soon!

clabsyqueen · 31/01/2014 20:30

It will get better but it might not be for months! I think you were lucky first time around. What you describe sounds normal for both of my babies. Sorry!
I survived (and currently survive) by co-sleeping so never had to stand up or fully wake up. I just couldn't get my head around how to make them do anything else. In fact at 6 months DD2 still feeds 3 or 4 times a night.

workingtitle · 31/01/2014 20:42

Just adding my experience, DS is now 17 weeks and up until 14 weeks hadn't gone more than 3 hours and would not sleep alone. He has reflux and had colic. I thought it would never end. He really shifted massively at around 14/15 weeks, just started growing up and being way more physically active and his sleep has improved. He still feeds three-hourly during the day. We haven't (yet!) had any sleep regression and he now goes down with a feed at 7pm, up at 8am-ish with maybe two feeds in the night. Heaven. I truly don't think you can force these things, but you may find you are on the cusp of a change!!

Original poster
mycatlikestwiglets · 01/02/2014 18:59

Ooh thanks everyone for the further posts and solidarity! I'll keep my fingers crossed that things improve over the next month - I think if she just dropped one night feed I'd feel so much better! I do realise I was very lucky with DS - he was an incredibly frustrated baby when he was awake though so that was the pay off for his good sleeping. At least DD is an easy baby during the daytime otherwise I'd be tearing my hair out Smile.

OP posts:
Milkymickey · 02/02/2014 14:22

Just some solidarity, op.
My first dc was trouble all day, but slept like an angel all night. One feed only from ten weeks, through (12 hrs) at 14 weeks.
Dc2 much more settled in the day, bonkers at night.
I share your pain. 14 weeks here and dreaming of being on the cusp of something better...

Original poster
mycatlikestwiglets · 02/02/2014 21:21

Sounds like we've had similar experiences Milky, it's good to know there are others out there going through the same thing! Fingers crossed for better nights to come (soon) for all of us

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