9 week old sleeping less at night than he was, *new mum*

[Rjksmumx]

Hi everyone,
Ive only just registered on netmums and I am a new mum to a 9 week old baby boy. He isn’t a bad sleeper for a new born I think, he goes down well and only wakes up for feeds. He started sleeping 4-5hour stretches at night from 8 weeks, which we was loving! Now the last few nights him leading up to 9 weeks (turned 9 weeks yesterday) he has started to wake up at night every 2-3 hours again, for feeds, but during the day will nap and sometimes go 4 -5 hours without a feed, should I be waking him up? I thought he would continue to start sleeping more/longer at night, Is this all just normal for a new born, am I thinking too much into it? He weighs about 12lbs now too if that is relevant, I read that babies can sleep longer at night without as many feedings, he has 6oz each time. Sorry for the long post, I don’t know if I’m worrying too much, but 2 hours at night is so hard, my partner works away so I’m struggling :-( any advice welcome! Thanks x

This is mumsnet not netmums, but that’s not a big issue.

Sleep isn’t linear, it will get better and worse all the time for the next few years. Honestly his sleep sounds normal even more in the side of ‘easy’ although it won’t feel like that to you. You can try offering him milk more often during the day but it may not make a difference but it could. If he is draining his bottles then you should be offering more milk and allowing him to choose when to stop feeding.

It will get better but this all sounds normal to me. It’s really tough!

Thanks for your help! :-) I realised when trying to log into the wrong site before that I had the wrong one, woops! that’s sleep deprivation for you I guess haha

Hey honestly this totally normal

Have you heard of Lyndsey Hookway? She has a good Instagram page, she's a sleep specialist

Are you breastfeeding? If so I would definitely be waking him to feed if he's sleeping that long in the day.

I thought he would continue to start sleeping more/longer at night

Sorry, that's a myth, or at least isn't the case for a lot of people.

Babies and toddlers sleep is all over the place for a few years. Some people get lucky and have a good sleeper through, or a progressively improving sleeper, but for many of us its not linear at all.

My first slept better at 6 weeks than she does now at nearly 5. But she has also gone through periods of properly sleeping through for months on end. But we are back in a non sleeping phase.

My second was worst from 6-18m - she was a far worse sleeper then than as a newborn. Then she slept through suddenly from 2-2.5. She's now 50-50 on having a good or rubbish night.

Their sleep goes up and down, you have to just go with it. Priority at this early age is to feed when they need it as they need to grow.

Normal. It’s up and down for the first year to a year and half at least.

during the day will nap and sometimes go 4 -5 hours without a feed, should I be waking him up

I would. Try to feed him at least every 3 hours during the day to try and give him plenty of daytime calories and hopefully it will help him wake up less at night.

Thanks I will have a look! X

Thank you, that’s helpful, it’s hard not to read into things when you’re a new mum, there’s so much information out there that’s not true isn’t there.