8 week old suddenly feeing hourly at night? Growth spurt? Comfort sucking?

[Bubblewrap22]

Our EBF 8 week old has been waking up for feeds every hour during the night the last few days. It used to be every couple hours. He’s absolutely getting enough calories in the day because I’d say he feeds every 1-1/2 or 2 hours max during the day. Great wee and poo output.

He does a 2-3 hour stretch from 9:30-midnight during the first stretch without waking. And then from then on literally every hour he will grunt / wiggle / squirm for the boob. I suspect he is doing this for comfort and to transition sleep cycles rather than hunger because he goes to sleep within 10 minutes and he’s a lot less sick after feeds during the night. I am very receptive to his cues and don’t wait for him to cry and just offer the boob… I do wait for a few mins to see if he settles himself though.

we do co-sleep and have done since early days as he will cry when put in his bedside crib immediately so I guess he’s always smelling milk which doesn’t help with the rooting We’ve tried all of the transfer advice out there but he will cry immediately when put down if he’s asleep. But when he’s awake he can happily spend 15 mins in his crib coo’ing and smiling contently

I feel awful complaining because I love the cuddles so much and I know this is just a phase and won’t be forever but when I’m waking up at 3 and then 4 and then 5 it does get gruelling… and then as soon as he wakes up for the day I’m like ‘you’re the cutest thing ever’ …and immediately forget about the night until it comes round again. Thankfully at least I do get sleep every hour on the upside and do manage to dream so i must be getting restorative sleep somewhere which doesn’t make me feel too awful in the day. But by the time my husband comes home from work I’m exhausted.

caveat that my child is 16 but i am sure when the breastfeeding support woman came round at seven ish weeks when i was on my knees feeding round the clock she said they have a growth spurt around that time. It stuck in my mind so must have been a very trying time!

I thought it could be! But it seemed different from the classic ‘cluster feeding’ in the early days but he is a big chonker so it could well be :)

8 weeks is prime growth spurt time.

I still remember my son suddenly sleeping through the night at 7 weeks 😮 it lasted a whole 5 days, which I will never forget 😂

he then started waking every 1-2 hours at 8 weeks on the dot. He's 20 months and he sleeps much better but has yet to replicate 5 days straight of sleeping through the night (obviously he doesn't wake every hour, that improved by 4 months, but he still regularly (not every night) wakes once a night)

It’s a combination of growth spurt and your body settling and adjusting to your baby’s needs.

i remember before 8 weeks I had so much milk. I could express 8 or 10 oz and still feel full. Then at 8 weeks everything settled, I couldn’t express, i wasn’t getting engorged between feeds like before.

it is completely normal as your hormones settle to demand production. Freaked me out though, though my supply was drying up, and I do believe many women switch to bottles at this stage as they think the same.

combine that with a growth spurt and suddenly your baby needs to demand the supply themselves. They don’t just do this be feeding, but also by increasing suckling as that triggers hormones. Especially at night.

so yes, completely normal behaviour.

Completely normal for babies to need night feeds until 12 months and beyond!

Will your baby take a dummy? If you think it's mostly for comfort, a dummy might help.

Sounds normal. DH describes it as installing updates. They're fussy for a day or two, feed continuously, don't sleep, then they have a day sleeping for recovery, then next day they're an inch longer and have learnt something new! It'll pass, then it'll be time for the 4 month regression ;)