why would he still be waking at this time?

[tiredemma]

i have a nine week old boy who is great throughtout the day/evening but during the night is waking at approx 3am, seemingly for a feed, settling again after @ 3/4 oz and then waking again around 5.30. Because of the feed that he has at 3am he appears to be not interested in his 7am feed ( im following gf book, not ritually though, just mainly for feeding time advice and nap times).
im so tired, i suppose i just want some advise on how to break the habit of him waking at 3am. it cant be hunger as he feeds well during the day (or can it?!).
he has his last feed of 5/6 oz at 10pm, so should he still be waking so much in the night?....help!!

hi tiredemma,
i'm afraid that i don't have the answer for your problem but i can offer sympathy. your baby seems to be following the same pattern as my ds. my ds seemed to wake up repeatedly after we started waking him at eleven. in the end we stopped doing this and have found he now only has one feed between 7 and 6.30. unfortunately this is between 3 and 5 am so not ideal but by going to bed early my husband and i have at least caught up with our sleep. i did read somewhere that some babies do wake up repeatedly if you wake them yourselves. however it could just be that we didn't persevere long enough. good luck and i hope that you have a chance to catch up on some sleep during the day today.

thanks mimm, for the past week i have not woke him up for his 10.30 feed, so he has slept through from 6.30/7pm till between 3.30/4.30 am, has a feed and goes back down till 7am. its so much better, im not as tired and find hes better to cope with during the day. does your baby still wake up at this time for feed andhow old is he/she? ( just so i can get an idea of how long this may last for) thanks again!!

I was under the impression that babies needed a feed during the night until they are much older than 9 weeks!

My ds was still have a night feed at 6 months old. In fact he fed every 3 hours until he was 4 or 5 months. It was a nightmare.
I think it's just par for the course I'm afraid. I have never read a GF book so I don't really know what it's telling you.

I know it must be horrible, but he is only 9 weeks old, he WILL settle down.

Is this your first baby?

Tiredemma - just read your update... oops.

I think he sounds like he is doing MARVELLOUSLY well for a baby that young. It probably doesn't feel like it, but you are very luck if he sleeps from 6.30pm until 3.30am... after all that is 9 hours solid!

My DS is 2.3 and still has never done that!!!

Tiredemma, you may not feel like this but you are very, very, VERY lucky indeed. A nine week old baby who sleeps from 6.30 until 7am with one waking is a gift from Heaven. Be grateful! My ds woke repeated at that age (I mean every hour or more) and was still waking until 8months. I would have done ANYTHING for a baby that slept as well as yours. I also think the vast majority of babies still need to feed at night until they are three to four months at least. Though of course, some go through earlier. I am extremely jealous of you! Is he gaining weight well?

He is probably hungry. I think you are very very lucky. My little boy still wakes up between 4-5 for a feed and he is 2!!
I think they normally say that after 6 months they won't need a nightfeed anymore, but I think it varies.

tiredemma, sounds like your ds is doing really well. I followed gf with both my dd (26 months) and ds (5 months) and they both went through the night (7 pm - 7 am) from 13 weeks. DD was a pain to wake for her 10.30 pm feed so we stopped waking her and she would wake at about 3 or 4 am then one night she just went right through and we never looked back. Ds was more "texbook" GF, he went from 7 pm - 7 am with a 10.30 pm feed at 8 weeks and then right through at 13 weeks. I'm obviously over the moon, but I don't think luck has anything to do with it.....sorry I know many will disagree with me here but I followed gf to the letter because I was so keen to get them to go through at an early age. I got frustrated, fed up, tearful and generally pissed off at the restriction it had on my life, the constant clock watching for naps, feeds etc, but 8 weeks is such a short time in the grand scheme of things. I've found that many people have told me how "lucky" I am but they couldn't be more wrong.
How much does your ds weigh and how much is he having during the day? How rigidly do you stick to nap times during the day? I think you'll be surprised and very soon he will hopefully start going from his late feed through to 7.
Gook luck

Without wishing to start up a heated Gina Ford debate, I would agree with Melly on this one. DS' sleeping patterns were really up the creek before I read GF.

We started the routines when DS was 8 weeks and within 2 weeks he was a dream to settle at night and was sleeping 7-7 from 11 weeks with a feed at 10.30pm. He was also a little difficult to wake at 10.30 and in the end we just dropped it.

I think these routines have a value depending on what type of person you are. Now me, I am a control freak , love to know where I stand, how long I have to stand there for and the exact purpose of the standing. There are others out there (lucky, lucky people) who couldn't give a fig about this and are happy to go with the flow and can cope with the general up & downs of tiny babyhood more easily, the book is definitely not for this type of personality.

I always suggest that it's worth a read, sometimes I get laughed at (fair do's) and other times people really get on with it.

HTH

ive just read this after another night of only waking once and i realise now that im quite lucky to have a baby that only wakes once.
a friend visited yesterday with her daughter who is two weeks younger than my boy and she is wide awake till 1130/midnight then sleeps till 6.30 am has a feed and goes back till 8am. Although i have to get up at 3am to feed i know which of the two i prefer.its nice for me and my partner to put the boys to bed , eat our dinner in peace and watch t.v. till i pass out at 9pm!

If it makes you feel better I've only just cut the 1030pm feed and my ds is 8 mo!

and mine is 6mo and goes to bed at 10 pm, stil doesn't sleep trough. i think i'll get this book

my 1 year old still occasionally wakes for a feed in the early hours of the morning. I know some people say they dont need night feeds at this age, but when i hve tried every other way of settling her back down at 2am, and the hungrey cry kicks in, i know only a bottle will settle her down.
when she was younger, she was awake every 2-3 hours for a feed, she settled down at around 4months, slept thro most nights, and like i said occasional night feeds even now

I know my ds isn't that bad, but would like some advice. He goes down at 7.00ish without a peep - no problems at all (having had slush and a bottle - he is 4+ months...)- but wakes at 3.30/4.30ish. Doesn't want feed, but clings onto hand and obviously wants to be physically close - I end up taking him into the bed as I need some more hours sleep (am back at work..)and he will drift back off once we have a cuddle. Anyone got any ideas on how I can get him to settle in his cot? He isn't screaming the place down, but neither is this just half awake wimpering....New mum so don't know if I should just accept this is his 'pattern' at the moment.

Blackduck - no advice coz I did this too. I went back to work when ds was 4 mths old and he was already a bad sleeper. Up twice a night for feeding then up for good 5.30 - 6ish. I took him in bed beside us (anything for a nights sleep!! ). He is 2.3 years old now and STILL comes into our bed every night between 11pm and 1am. Goes to his own bed no probs at 7.30. But always wakes and cries to get into our bed....

... I am very much still of the mentality that I'll do ANYTHING for a nights sleep. Good luck.

I do love waking up with his little breath in my face though and seeing that big smile first thing always makes me smile too.

Hello tiredemma. Glad things are going well for you. Ds has dropped 3 am feed (at about 17 weeks) but I am sure your baby will be sooner as ds is not a 'natural' settler! Do not be surprised if your baby has some bad nights (we find they tend to come in threes). I wasn't prepared for what I think are growth spurts after 12 weeks but they definitely happen. I do a version of gf. I follow feed and naptimes as a guideline but do not try and use it to hurry ds to drop feeds etc. He always needs an extra feed at 5 pm for example. Anyway hope that you continue to get a chance to sleep!

thanks mimm, i have left him sleep through now from 7pm through till 3am for the past couple of weeks, he has 4 oz formula and then goes back down till between6am/7am. last night though he woke up acouple o times but as he is 12 wks old this week i suspect it may be a growth spurt so i know what to expect. im back at work on 6th oct so knowing that he is only waking up once doesnt worry me too much about being tired at work.
i started him on gf at 4 weeks old but like yourself i just use it as a guideline for nap times and feeding times. i found it a chore to follow it completly but once i structured the sleeping and feeding pattern i never looked at the book again.
the best advise i got from it though was that young babies get tired about two hours from being awake. i now know automatically when ds is crying cuz he wants a nap.....wish i had known this with my first ds, how naive i was id check he was clean etc and assume he wanted feeding again and labled him a "hungry" baby, in hindsight now i realise that he was just bloody tired and wanted a cuddle to get him off to sleep!!

M2T - thanks for the comments - at least know I'm not alone! Have to admit I like the cuddles too!! Funy, last night he wimpered and I settled him and he was fine until alarm went off, but, of course, I couldn't get back to sleep.....!

blackduck it's up to you only if you want child in your bed. i think it's very natural and nice baby needs a cudle. just be prepared he might get the habit for longer. mine didn't want to sleep with me, he wanted me to hold him in my arms whole night ! i didn't agree with him and had to go throu some crying to get him to fall asleep in cot. but he was 6 mo