3.5 Month old waking every two hours for feeds - help!

[Pennies]

Has anyone else had this? She is exclusively BF'd (which is another disaster area in itself - she will only take one side at a feed and I think this is why she wakes because she's not getting enough as essentially she's just snacking).

I've tried feeding her more during the day (no effect on nights) so I tried reducing her feeds to make her hungry enough to want to big feed (again, no joy - just lots of hungry tears).

Any ideas on how to get her to sleep a bit longer?

Sorry no ideas at all just lots of sympathy! My dd had always done this too and is now nearly 10months! I would probably leave it until she is 4m, as would be inclined to think it is hunger in a baby that age (but I'm a sucker for that, hence my 10m old still doing it!),then perhaps try some ideas from the Baby whisperer?

I'm sure lots of people on here will be able to give you good advice or if not lots of sympathy

Between the ages of 3 and 6 months, babies don't nutritionally need to feed overnight but it's not recommended to withhold feeding overnight until 6 mths old. How often is she feeding during the day? Try increasing to 3 hrs, including overnight, then try extending it once she's used to it. Another thing, she might not actually be hungry but is waking 2 hrly out of habit, my DS did. On advice from my health visitor, I went in and just shhh'd him if he woke before 3 hrs, and he went back to sleep. Sometimes he woke half hour later, then I'd feed him, so give it a few days to actually work. Let us know how it goes.

Pennies, I had a snacker too. Dd will always be a snacker, even now at 2.5 years, in relation to real food. I am not sure what you can do to change that. It is a feeding pattern that is inborn. And your baby is only little, her tummy is tiny. I don't think any so-called expert (you know the books) can make the statement whether or not your dd needs to feed at night nutritionally. She wants to, that is really all you need to know.

I think it is fantastic your dd is exclusively breastfed. It gives you more options to deal with frequent night feeds. I found that the easiest way is just to take your dd into your bed and feed her lying down from the side she will take when she wakes. That way, she feeds without waking fully and can settle back easily again. And you don't really wake up yourself, so more sleep all round. Hope it gets better for you soon.

i can remember everything i thought i knew and understood about my ds going to pot around the 31/2 to 4 month mark. then it settled down again. it will pass. grin and bear it.

Thanks for your messages and advice. Yesterday I tried to stoke her up during the day and she took at good feed (for her) at 10.30pm - 4fl oz - and woke two hours later. I tried to settle her back to sleep but she was adamant that she wanted some grub so I caved after 30 mins of trying to settle her.

I tried to make her wait for 3 hours before but it's not had any effect, albeit a temporary improvement for 2 nights, but she reverted to type with a vengeance after that.

DH doesn't want her in bed with us and whilst I think this may help I see his point of view and anyway I've never managed to perfect the horizontal feed!

Will keep on until 6 months and then it's baby boot camp!

Had exactly this with ds. He also was a one side only, if I tried to give him more he'd chuck a load back up. The only upside was that each feed lasted about 10 minutes, compared to some I know whose babies took 30 mins plus per feed. Then I'd get a 2 hour sleep, then 10 mins the other side all thorugh the night until we finally got up around 8am.
He was exclusively BF until about 4 monhts, when as well as a bit of baby rice he was having a bottle last thing before bed. DIdn't seem to make any difference to his sleeping. Now he's 8months and on 3 meals and 2-3 bottles per day and is BF when he wakes overnight and when he wakes up in the morning. That said, we only usually have 1 middle of the night wake up now, at around 3/4am and he goes to bed at about 7.30pm. None of that answers your question, but you're not alone, and it DOES!

A word of caution about the lying down to feed, though....my ds was always put back into his cot until I started to bring him into bad and lie down to feed him. It is the lovliest thing in the world to be cuddled up with him in the wee small hours and when he was waking 3 or more times overnight, we both got more sleep that way. But now I have a problem getting him to sleep in his cot at the start of the night!!

Monkeybar - I could have written that. You've described DD's patterns exactly.