13wk old waking every 2hrs

[EggsandBacon]

Hi,
I'm hoping for either reassurance that this is normal, or tips on what to do....I have a 13wk old DS, he was generally sleeping from 1pm to 7am with a feed around 3 or 4am, but has for the last week or so gone back to waking every 2hrs in the night for a feed. I feel like I'm losing my mind. He is breastfed and I've had trouble expressing so it has to be me getting up. I struggle to get him to take a nap during the day - if he does, it's generally in his pram while I walk around (and therefore can't sleep myself), or I have to hold him as when I put him down he wakes up.

Is this normal? I feel like I must have messed up somehow, maybe because I always feed him to sleep so he needs me to settle him back down in the night, or maybe because he is hungry and I'm not producing enough milk. I'm already feeling anxious at the start of another long night....

Any advice gratefully received!!

xx

Just read that back, meant to say he was sleeping 11pm to 7am with one feed in the middle, not 1pm, that would have been weird.

Mine did that through growth spurts. He still (at 7 months) wants feeding about every 3 hours through the night.

What saved my sanity was co-sleeping (probably why he's dropping day feeds rather than night feeds now that he's weaning too)

I lie down and feed him to sleep for his naps too (apart from when he falls asleep in his rocker).

I have some 'rod for my own back' concerns, but it's not a problem for me to do this right now as I work from home, and we all get excellent sleep (meaning I don't need afternoon naps).

How do you feel about co-sleeping as an idea for a while?

At around 12weeks babies have a huge development leap. So extra food and a bit of disruption is normal :)

When are you expressing?

If you express after a feed, the same feed every day (or feeds depending on how much you want) your body will realise that you want extra milk at these times and start producing it for you. It may take a few days, but keep trying at regular times and it will come. Are you getting on ok with your pump?

I personally would ride the storm and once the growth spurt is finished you should FX be back to normal.

HTH

Ah, thanks so much, it helps just to know that this is normal and happens to other people too!!

I tried co-sleeping but I keep waking up in a panic that I've smothered the baby (even without him in the bed, I wake up at least once in the night and start searching the duvet for him) so it ended up I was getting less sleep that way!! But I might try it for daytime naps, I hadn't thought of that.

Ok, I feel a renewed confidence to ride this out, thanks guys.

xx