How often does your newborn / babies wake up for feeds in the night?

[AyyX]

Currently a walking zombie with these feeds every 2hrs with my 4wk old DS💀
My DD was ok when she was younger, think it was every 3/4hrs which is less tiring than 2hrs, also she went straight back to sleep every feed. My DS however.. most of the times doesn’t settle straight back to sleep after feeding, fidgets a lot and seems quite unsettled most of the time. I feel sleep deprived 💀💀
Not to mention he cries a lot 😩 also doesn’t like laying down....

Every 2 hours is pretty normal at that age unfortunately, though it will start to get longer soon.

Are you breastfeeding? Is it just you or do you have a partner on the house? If yes to both, get them to wake with you at least some of the time to do settling post-feed. You may want to consider pumping so baby can be given expressed milk by someone else while you rest. If you are formula feeding then make sure your partner is pulling their weight.

OP the sleep deprivation I'd very hard.

Hey OP I have a 4 week old too (well almost 5).

I'm formula feeding, he wakes every 3 hours on average but takes forever to settle back down. He woke at 3am for a bottle and is only just drifting off again now. As I typed that he woke up again! I think he has reflux too so we have to keep him upright for a while after a feed, which is really hard in the night.

I am also exhausted, I feel like by the time I get to sleep he is awake for his next feed! So I can imagine it's worse for you after 2 hours. He also cries a lot, definitely harder then my first two babies. One if the many reasons he will be my last!

If you are
Breastfeeding
Not on any drugs
Not a smoker
Not drinking

Cosleep. Honestly it saved my sanity. I had a sidecar cot so I would pop baby between the cot and me, feed lying down. Hair tied up, no pillow, duvet only on legs, tight fitting pj top so it wouldn’t go near babies face. Always with the intention to transfer baby back to crib after they’d fed but in reality I fell asleep and snoozed while he fed and the beauty is you only have to half wake up when they want more milk. I got sooooo much more sleep this way. Unfortunately it no longer works, DS thinks it’s far too exciting being in our bed so I have to settle him in his room.

He woke every 2 hours til her was about 9 months and then it started to stretch out a bit more. Now at 11 months he wakes 3, 2 or 1 time overnight.

PS feeding lying on my side took a bit of practise but soon got the hang of it!

@AyyX I feel your pain, I have an 8 weeks and at 4 weeks he was feeding every 2 hours, so I decided to up the feed to 120ml from 90ml - this worked and managed to get 3 hours, some days 4 but that is rare at that age.

@CoalCraft I’m breastfeeding and no don’t live with partner so the feeds are just me alone, I do express too so in future he can get used to bottles and others can feed him. I’ve seen scenarios of others where they just breastfed and when it came to bottles they wouldn’t take it so that made me want to express and give breastmilk through bottle as well as through boob.

@2gd2btrue I feel like my DS has silent reflux too but I’m not sure... my DD had reflux for sure because she would always throw up her milk after and did projectile vomits too. With my DS he throws up very little amounts, it’s different to my daughter so I’m not too sure. He breathes funny and makes weird noises and always chokes on breastmilk.

@Bigoldmachine Breastfeeding
Not on any drugs
Not a smoker
Not drinking yep to all those, I did cosleep with him last night because he was so unsettled and kept crying when I put him in the Moses basket and it was waking my toddler up. But I don’t want to make it a habit because I coslept/cosleep still with my toddler and made that mistake in a way because now she won’t sleep in her cot and is attached to my hip when it comes to bed time 😭
So after I breastfeed him I try to put him back in his Moses basket then when he outgrows it I’ll put him in the cot. I must admit cosleeping was much easier. Last night he slept for more than 2hrs and every time he made noise and fussed about / fidgets, I tried to give him boob but he didn’t want it and he slept around 4hrs!
I think I’m going to have to suffer a bit if I don’t want them both clinging to me.. hopefully in a few months he sleeps longer than 2hrs per feed.

@SteakChips it’s making me think if I should mix feed now.. maybe give him formula at night to keep him happy and asleep for longer. But at 2 weeks old I did give him formula at night to test it and he still woke up the same.. might give it another try but might still get the same result

@AyyX I never breastfed as baby couldn't latch and when he did he was lazy, and then I dried up.

Also mine has a habit at night to cluster feed especially after a large bottle. He goes through the "Witching" stage he also makes himself over tired and the crying and screaming is beyond help. Of course lack of sleep makes everything 10times worse.

@SteakChips ahh I remember those days with my DD, the crying and screaming. She had colic for like a week, any time between 12-6am once she even cried from 12 to 6!!!! It was a nightmare and so stressful.
But once that was over I was so glad!
I had to use the hairdryer and that would help for a bit..
when it first happened I thought she was in pain or had a bellyache (which did sound like it) so I was so close to taking her to a&e then she was so tired from crying for hours she fell asleep just before we were about to leave to a&e!

For what it's worth, I'm formula feeding my baby and he's 3.5 weeks now and also wakes up every 2 hours so I wouldn't change your baby to formula just in the hope of them sleeping longer at night.

I do feel your pain though, it's a struggle. This is my first baby so nothing to compare and hoping he starts to go a bit longer soon. He just seems to want to feed all the time during the day too! Luckily he does settle back to sleep after a feed and nappy change though

I have a 10 week old and exclusively breastfed, she goes down from 10ish-3ish and then I feed her, but after that she is so fussy and unable to settle so then I bring her into bed and we Co sleep, not sure if I'm making a rod for my own back here, but it gets her to sleep until 6ish so I'll take it.

@Fleetw00d my baby is the same!! Every time I put him in the cot or Moses basket he either wakes up straight away or doesn’t sleep for very long! So I’ve been putting him next to me. When (if) he ever settled a bit more and sleeps for longer I’m going to try to put him back into the Moses or cot. My toddler coslept with me and now she won’t get into the cot!

Settles*

@AyyX it's really hit and miss, sometimes she does but I reckon she gets a bit colicy at 4am, I also was talking to a friend and apparently they have a serotonin drop after 3am making it harder for them to settle at that time.