16 wk old up 5 times a night - what am i doing wrong?

[sweetpea5]

She takes an hour to get to sleep around 9pm then up again at midnight, 2, 3:30, 5, 6, 8am - rounghly.

i am losing my mind - this has been going on for 4 months. i know babies wake at night, but all night like this is not normal and i am having problems coping.

does anyone have any advice? She is breastfeed on demand. thank you.

Hello sweetpea,
No advice I'm afraid, just wanted to say I'm in the same boat as you and am feeling your pain! My LO was born in September, 15 weeks old yesterday, and up all night. Last night I gave up, got up, and sat in the living room with a cuppa and a cookbook for company!
God love him, I am so fed up and can't seem to cope with my little girl who's 4 for the exhaustion!
My 15 wk old is also breast fed, but I'm going to try an expressed bottle tonight at 10.30 (He goes down no probs at 7pm), and see if that helps at all.
Hope someone will be along soon who has some good advice - i'm watching with interest!

again, no advice only sympathy - my 15 week old feeds at least every two hours at night at the moment - a few weeks ago she was having at least one longer sleep of 3-4 hours but that went out the window and not sure why or how to get back to that point!

you are doing nothing wrong.

16 weeks is spot on target for her growth spurt, she may be like this for a couple of weeks and then settle again. i never knew about growth spurts with ds1 but it made it so much easier to know what to expect with ds2. i will pass.

should add, because it's a growth spurt, they are waking because they are hungry so feeding them is the best thing you can do. if you try and get them back over without it, you are really only settling a hungry baby who will wake again very soon and very grumpy.

How is she doing weight gain wise?
How is feeding going in general?
Do you feed her to sleep?
How long does each feed take from start to finish?

If she's not feeding efficiently then she will need more feeds per 24hrs - have you talked to a BFC about her latch?

Classic 4 month sleep regression I would say! We've had this for 4 weeks so far!

I'd say not sleep regression if it has been going on for 4m already so basically from when she was 4 weeks old.

I don't think thats particularly unusual tbh, and certainly it is well within the bounds of 'normal'.

My 22 week old still wakes for at least 3 feeds in the night - we co-sleep though so I only wake for a few minutes if that, latch him on, and go back to sleep.

Is co-sleeping an option for you?

Mine does this and is now 6months.........Fed up of it and am now working to sort it out by not feeding when he wakes quite so often.

Mind you at 16wks may still be hungry. I fiqure my DS probably isn't though still try to feed at least once in the night.

Good luck!

Wow this is amazing thanks for all the replies , somehow it does help to not be the only one! Obviously I wish we all were getting a lot more sleep...
Yes don't think it's sleep regression as it's been pretty much like this all along apart from a week or 2 when we had a few magic 5 hour stretches. It's hard to remember all the details of when it changed now. She is on the 9th percentile I think, down 1 line since birth. To be honest I am not sure she eats really well although steady growth and nappies ok.

I don't feed her to sleep I wish I could but she just doesn't sleep after a feed.

I can't believe this is a normal amount of waking... I am just getting ready to start the bedtime torment now. I just know I'll find myself begging her to just go to sleep in a couple of hours (and again and again all night) :(
Thanks again for support x

Bert2e feeds last forever , she never wants to stop, but is calm and smiling a minute after I un latch her so I think she is getting enouhgh. Does that sound right?

I'd get a breastfeeding counsellor to check her latch - sounds like she's feeding inefficiently so takes for ever to get enough milk - bit like drinking through a kinked straw.

Maybe if she's feeding forever, it's not actally feeding so much as comforting? I'm convinced my wee one does that. Likes the snuggle and closeness long after the feed is finished! Just a thought...
PS. Writing this as I express milk for a bottle dream feed... wonder how much he'll take/ if he'll sleep longer??? Anything's worth a bash!

Comfort feeding. My DS is 8 months old and I cant tell how many times he wakes during the night( for comfort feeding). We co sleep.

It is normal. The hard end of normal granted, but normal nevertheless!

It won't last forever honestly. However, why, if it takes an hour for her to go to sleep at 9pm, don't you just put her to bed at 10pm?

What's the point of puting her to bed an hour before she's ready?

Sorry, also read that you unlatch her during a feed. Demand feeding really means letting her continue a feed until she chooses to come off herself.

Not got a lot to offer in advice (actually nothing!) but wanted to say that i am in the same boat but dd2 is only 15 weeks. She rarely goes for more than 3 hours between feeds day and night. We sometimes have 'good' nights like last night when she only woke at 10.30, 1.30. 3.30 and 5! Sometimes (more often) we get nights where she wakes every 1-1.5 hours,sometimes to feed, sometimes to poo! She will always need help resettling which I appreciate is not unusual at this age. She is content to sleep in her cot until early morning and then usually needs a cuddle in with us to resettle.

It is difficult and i am tired but I swore after dd1 that I wouldn't get stressed about sleep stuff because i know it all sorts itself out at some point and she is still sooo little.

Hope you had a decent night!

I'd get a Bfing Counsellor to check your latch too sweetpea. Are there are BFC local to you or is there a Bfing Support Group you could go too?

How long does she go for between feeds during the day?

Last night was slightly better - up 4 times but went down easily enough so less stressful. Startingover I love 'the hard end of normal'! That made me laugh and makes so much sense. I don't think it's the time she goes down that's the problem, just that she finds getting to sleep hard but I will try putting going later to see if that helps. Will go to bf cafe next week too to get latch checked again.

During the day she feeds about ever 3 hours but has gone longer, like 4 or even 5 hours.

Ginger, my 1st baby slept really well so I haven't had this before (lucky I know). You're right it's not forever - an trying not to stress but it's hard!

Sounds like there could be a bit of reverse cycling going on as well then - day and night mixed up so feeding more in the night than in the day. Try feeding her every 2-3 hrs in the day whether she asks or not and see what happens.