Hit the magic 12 week mark and baby’s sleep has gone backwards

[Moonshine160]

I have read a lot that things start to improve around the 12 week mark with feeding/sleep/colic etc. DS2 is 12 weeks old tomorrow and over the last few days he just hasn’t been sleeping at night. Prior to this we were doing really well - he was always quite unsettled in an evening and colicky so never fully went down for the night until 10/11pm but he would then sleep fairly well and have either one or two feeds until 7am, and always went back to sleep quickly after a feed.
Over the last few nights he is waking every hour for a feed :( and he hasn’t been settling down for the night until at least 11pm. After a feed he is also taking a while to settle so sometimes I’m only getting 30 mins of sleep at a time. It’s only been a few nights but I feel broken from exhaustion already. He is breastfed. He has also been feeding more frequently during the day, apart from today when he’s been really fussy at the breast and refusing it.
He still sleeps a lot during the day, it’s like he’s still a sleepy newborn on some days. Does this just sound like a growth spurt? Is there anything I can do?
He has a consistent bedtime routine from 8pm (bath every other night, then song and nappy on, feed and sleeping bag) and I make sure he gets up around the same time each day but it hasn’t been helping lately. He sleeps with white noise on. Any advice appreciated!

Maybe early 4 month sleep regression? Ours came at around 14 weeks I reckon.

I really wouldn’t put anything by ‘magic’ weeks. Babies are all different, and their environments are all different.

Everything going to shit at about 4 months seems to be fairly universal, but other than that, just go with what comes at you.

You have hit the 3 month sleep regression. I'd never heard of it until my DD started waking every 1-2 hours, this lasted 6 weeks. I breastfed, it was at about 4 months my DP started giving her a bottle of formula at the 10pm dream feed, it helped her sleep for longer at Little bit, but not a massive difference. It was a huge risk as I was worried she then wouldn't go back on the boob, but I was beyond desperate. Thankfully she did and was happy to have both boob and bottle....but not all baby's are. Google the 3 month sleep regression.

We started the 4 month sleep regression at 3.5 months and woke up every hour for about 2 months. Then moved to every 2 hours and not really recovered at 7 months 😂🙈 her sleep was better at 3 months than it’s been since. So…. You’re not doing anything wrong. It’s just a phase. Hopefully a shorter phase for you than us.

Thanks all. I didn’t know there was a 3 month regression, I thought now was usually about the time that things start improving for most. He’s been feeding more in the day too so I’m hoping it’s a growth spurt but we will see

I think it's just something they tell me parents to give them hope if I'm honest.

Sleep is up and down often erratically, for many babies/toddlers, for the first few years.

Often 4m (and 8m) are particularly low points, but it varies a lot.

It'll pick up for a while at some stage. Then crash back down. Then up etc. It's tricky :-(