3 month old has stopped sleeping through the night

[fairgame84]

DD was sleeping from 10pm until 8am with a feed at around 4am. It was great she's been doing it for weeks.

This week its all gone wrong. I've carried on putting her down at the normal time but she's been feeding at around midnight then 5am.
Last night she's feed 3 hourly since midnight. It's broken me because I wasn't expecting it.
Her last feed before bed is always around 8pm/9pm.

What's gone wrong and how can I fix it?

She's breastfed with formula top ups but is spending less and less time on the breast so I think she'll go all formula soon.

Probably needs more milk as she's having a growth spurt. Every 3 hours is completely normal for a small baby.

To be fair she wasn’t sleeping through the night in the first place if she had a feed at 4am surely?
Baby sleep isn’t linear, just because they sleep through the night or only have 1 wake up for a few weeks at 3 months old doesn’t mean that’s it and that’s the new normal unfortunately. At 3 months you just have to roll with it.

Nothing is wrong, your baby is growing and needs more milk. I would have been more concerned she was sleeping for long periods of time without a feed a few weeks ago tbh.

4 month sleep regression
Is having/about to have a growth spurt and needs more food
Starting to teeth.
She's still very small and is unlikely to stick with any sort of routine for more than a couple of weeks.

What's gone wrong

Nothing. She’s a tiny baby. Sleep in the first year at least (maybe even the first 3 years) isn’t linear and will change depending on development/physical growth/separation anxiety/cos babies be babies.

how can I fix it?

Change your mindset. This is a phase and it’ll change again before any attempts to ‘fix it’ either work or fail.

Thankyou. I'll just go with it and try and nap when she naps later.

I'd say a 3month baby feeding at 10pm, 12, 3am and 6am isn't awful.
Maybe try and get another feed in durin@g the day, since it appears more milk is currently required. It might not be what you've got used to, but it's still pretty good

It's not terrible but when you're expecting a nice 5 hour stint it's bloody awful. It won't be as bad tonight as I can mentally prepare myself for it.

She feeds 2-3 hourly in the day so there's no really any gaps to give an extra feed. She's quite a pukey baby as well so I don't want to push her.

She's knackered bless her. She woke at 8.30am but for a cuddle and she's sleeping happily on me.

Just to say I’m in the exact same position. My just turned 3mo had been doing 730-6 and past few nights has been up every 3 hours. So hard when you’ve gotten used to the long stretches!

I’m thinking either growth spurt or 4mo regression. She’s my second so I do know it’s all a phase and fairly normal but you’re not alone!

Sleep regression brought on by growth spurt and developments possibly early teething or even vaccinations could affect sleeping.

can happen again at 6 months 7 months 8 months etc etc. my DS nearly 10 month never a great sleeper but currently a nightmare sleeping. Naps fine but doesn’t want to be in cot at night. Could be regressing, teething, separation anxiety, because he’s in his own room now. Who knows, not me for sure as he can’t tell me. Just having to pursevere (sp) and hope he settles again soon

@CheeseAlways my 1st didn't do this, he was the easiest baby ever. He was a nightmare child though!

Hopefully it won't last too long.

This sounds perfectly normal sleep behaviour for a 3 month old. Doubt there is much realistically you can do. Rest when baby rests & power through is all I can advise sadly

It's the 3-4 month sleep regression. Babies sleep matures around 13-16 weeks and they develop light sleep as part of their sleep cycles. They then wake up every time they enter light sleep. It's not fun...

Babies are biologically designed to wake up overnight.

My DD's 11 months and I don't yet get a 5 hour stint so I know how shit the lack of sleep is. It will be a growth spurt or going into the 4 month regression a little early. My DD was probably a better sleeper as a tiny baby than she is now

Every three hours is incredible. 4 month sleep regression for us saw every 40 mins one point! Now at nearly 6months and wakes twice in the night for a feed and this feels great - readjust your expectations a little (and consider yourself lucky!)😁

This happened to us. Baby was sleeping through up to 11 hours until 12 weeks then started waking two or three times, then at the worst point waking more than hourly. It lasted until we (gently) sleep trained her at 6 months old.

I felt the same as you at first. Couldn't cope with it physically or mentally because I had become used to a good stretch of sleep. After several weeks it just became the new normal.

Up until 3 or 4 months old a baby doesn't have proper sleep cycles like an adult, they're either awake or in deep sleep. Around 4 months they start to develop sleep cycles and will go through all the stages of sleep. Often they wake in between sleep cycles at this point and can't put themselves back to sleep. So it's common to have a baby that 'sleeps through' at that age and then suddenly doesn't anymore.

No advice I'm afraid! Just hang in there because everything is a phase.

My baby hasn't slept for more than 3 to 4 hours overnight since he was born. He's 7 months now. Last few nights he's only woken once at 3am through his 8pm to 730am night. Not that my body clock has understood this. Still waking up every 3 to 4 hours myself.

Best advice I can give you?? I follow something that my good friend once told me, which has helped me immensely through the long nights and short daytime naps.

Everything is a phase!

Nothing will stay the same for the first year or 3. Just roll with it. You're one of the lucky ones to get any kind of rest in the early days! Btw its worth looking at wake windows - no one told me about these, and looking at wake windows stopped me from being so disappointed with late bedtimes or naptimes! If your child aleeps shorter or longer at naptime, their wake window still needs to be a minimum time, meaning you need to adjuat their next sleep time. Another of my friends has a 7 month old and she is up with them every 3 hours for at least half an hour or so for feeding. Day and night. I don't know how she functions!

Another piece of advice.......someone, out there, will always have it worse off than you do. Trust me. Persevere, and you will eventually get there.....everything's a phase!