Structuring night time sleep and feeds

[lookout]

DS2 has never been a good sleeper. He is 19 weeks, ebf and refuses a bottle or dummy. The best he has managed in a night is two night feeds and straight back to sleep afterwards, but this happened over the space of two weeks and not every night. Before and after this miraculous time he wakes for a feed from 3 to 5 times a night! I don't mind a couple of night feeds, but 5? I am having trouble dealing with it on a regular basis.

Last night he went down at 7pm as usual after feeding for 15 minutes and falling asleep, same as always. Then he woke at 9, which is the earliest he's woken, and I fed him close to tears in despair at how unpredictable his sleep/feed patterns are at night. But then he didn't wake again til 4am!!

So my questions are, should I try and put some structure into night feeds by dream feeding at 9ish, or waking him to feed? Or was last night just a fluke and an attempt at structure won't make any difference?

(Have also posted in Feeding).

i think what he is doing it actually the good side of normal for a 19 week old. they're supposed to feed during the night! and 3-5 feeds really is totally normal.

personally i found it easier to adjust my own behaviour than to try and change the baby's. so i went to bed earlier, dp got up with the children and gave me an extra half hour in bed in the morning, i'd have a friend round as often as poss to take the older ones out to the park for 45 mins so i could have a nap on the sofa.

this phase passes so quickly in the grand scheme of things, although it feels hideous when you're in the middle of it.
but I strongly believe that if you leave him to it he will eventually sort out a pattern and drop some feeds when he is ready

That's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to hear . I know it's normal to have night feeds, I'm just flummoxed as to the unpredictability of every night! I too go to bed early (9pm most nights), and DH gets up with DS1 as often as he can.

I have been torn this time round between the forcing a structure camp (which is what I did with DS1) and the letting him sort himself out camp, which is why I'm so confused.