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Sleep

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Original poster

15 week old BF ds sleeps only 3 hours at a time at night a

15 replies

lillibet1 · 22/02/2011 14:22

help my 15 week old ds has never slept well during the day only 2 hours max from birth and only now 1-11/2 hours t-3 times a day. have tried quite time and more stimulation and dummies etc but this seems to be the way he is. but at night we have a problem. he starts moaning not crying just constant grumbling from about 6pm cluster feeds from about 7pm goes down at about 1030, then wakes every 3 hours until 730 then is up and awake ideas please

OP posts:

callmeovercautious · 22/02/2011 14:28

Sorry but this sounds normal to me - in fact DD never napped more than 45 mins so I am a bit

It does get better though!

ILikeToMoveItMoveIt · 22/02/2011 14:29

I would say that 3 hours at a time in the night isn't that unusual.

In the day can you read his sleep cue's? Rubbing eyes, the thousand yard stare etc. When I learnt to pick up on these before ds became over tired, that really helped. I then spent time on getting him into a sleep routine during the day.

Once we started to crack the daytime sleep the night time sleep improved by itself.

How about trying to coax him into cluster feeding earlier in the day, then putting him to bed earlier too? I found we were keeping ds2 up too late in the evening (he came to bed with me at 9) and was getting overtired, so we tried putting him in his cot at 7 and hey presto - a happy sleeping baby.

I found with my first because I always wanted to make things better and because I really didn't know what I was doing, I bounced from one idea to another. Bad idea. Make a plan and stick to it, after a week if it isn't working tweak something. Give it a week, then tweak again if needed.

TanteRose · 22/02/2011 14:32

very normal - he is only tiny!! he needs to feed so he can grow...you are doing nothing wrong, and he will gradually sleep longer (hopefully sooner than my DC1 who fed every 2 hours for the first year of her life! She loves her food!!)

mamsnet · 22/02/2011 14:34

Sounds pretty normal to me...

beela · 22/02/2011 15:31

Every 3 hours in the night is 3-4 times - sounds very normal in my (limited) experience, and the daytime sleep sounds great! (see the no nap thread).

defineme · 22/02/2011 15:34

Totally normal, but it won't last for ever. It feels like hell, but it's a short time to suffer.

LaTristesse · 22/02/2011 16:14

Normal. Mine is a year old and still only does 3 hours at a time... sorry

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 22/02/2011 16:20

That sounds totally normal, which in some ways I am sure is bad news to you, but be reassured that you don't have a problem that needs to be 'fixed'.

Those daytime naps sound great, he's obviously well rested and not overtired or anything.
If you are struggling with the night-waking, can you get some sleep during the day when he does? At not quite 4 months post-birth, you should definitely still be sleeping when the baby sleeps! :)

CatIsSleepy · 22/02/2011 16:24

sounds like he's taking great daytime naps, actually

and if he goes to bed at 10.30 and wakes every 3 hours that's only 2 wakings a night really isn't it? sounds ok for this age!

Original poster

lillibet1 · 22/02/2011 16:32

ok obviously he's normal and I am just knackered

OP posts:

narmada · 22/02/2011 16:32

He sounds like he is doing great to me - it's exhausting, you have my sympathy but if he is your only one, could you sleep in the day while he does?

I know it's probably no consolation but my son is far, far worse and never naps for longer than 20 minutes at a time....

ImFab · 22/02/2011 16:34

Normal baby doing what babies do but obviously knackering for you. Try and sort the day time naps if possible and have an afternoon walk. The better and more they sleep in the day, especially if afternoon fresh air, the better they sleep at night ime.

CatIsSleepy · 22/02/2011 16:37

well broken sleep is exhausting...but he actually sounds like a fairly good sleeper, and things will get better. Hang in there!

Antidote · 22/02/2011 16:45

Sounds like you are doing a great job. It is still pretty bad for the mood to only sleep 3 hours at a stretch.

I've JUST managed to get 18 week DS to do the 3 hour stretches at night, after 4 days of making a real effort not to feed him after the 3am or 4am feed till 6am or 7am, and he is still very unsettled that last block.

I know he can do 3 hour stretches, he was just comfort eating the last 3 hours of the night and it meant he wasn't at all hungry till about 11am, and even then was pretty meh about feeding all day. Not great for weaning!

I'm really pleased to hear that lots of people think this is normal (all those stories of 'sleeping through').

gummymum · 22/02/2011 20:23

This sounds just like my dd and I'm happy to hear that everyone thinks it's normal. However, we have had a couple of nights where she has woken before three hours and I have settled her down for another 2 hour stretch.

So I know that she can go 4 hours or so without food in the night. I think part of it is habit and partly that I find feeding her the quickest way to get her back to sleep!

You wouldn't do any harm to try settling and not feeding at the 1am ish feed. Just be prepared to be up for a while! Someone has suggested to me to offer water, haven't tried it myself. If you don't want to do that then try to sleep during the daytime naps.

I would definately work on getting him to bed earlier. Perhaps the grumbling at 6 is tiredness? My LO goes in the bath at 6.15, feed in the dark 6.30 and out like a light at 7. If I didn't put her to bed then she would loose the plot.

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