sleep longer- anything I can do?

[spicecrystal]

My 18 wk old BF DS still wakes up every 2-3 hours.
i'm no expecting miracle ' sleeping through the night' but even extending it to 4- 5hours would be fab!

we have a co sleeper cot and sometimes ( usually the later part of the night), he joins me in bed.

He goes down around 7- 8 pm. Can take anything up to an hour.
We have started given him a bottle of FF at 11 ish. i gets him through till 2 before he needs another feed. Then up again at 4 ish then awake at6- 6.30! He doesn't always burp at night so I don't know if he's fidgeting a lot because of this.

His night pattern is so variable. the night before he managed 4.5 hrs slepp. yesterday he was up almost every 2-3 hours!

what has worked for others?

his naps during the day total 3 hours.

sorry long but deperate.

thanks

Well, to me it sounds relatively normal for a BF baby of that age. Remember all babies are different, and each has their own routine, some don't settle and sleep through until they're a lot older, some sleep beautifully from 2 weeks! My DD is a choppper and a changer, for example last night she woke every 2 hours, almost on the dot. The night before every 3, the night before she slept for 7 hours straight, woke up for a feed and then slept for another 3. On average she will sleep for 8 hours, but ALWAYS falls asleep between 8 and 9. (in fact she's gone down now but no idea when she'll wake up!) She's 12weeks.

Could you try co-sleeping all night? I found that helped my DD sleep really well, there's no better place for them than in your arms nice and cozy :) And also BF babes wake a lot more often as the milk digests a lot faster than formula. I don't know what more to suggest, but remember he is still pretty young and should hopefully settle in to a better routine soon :)