10 week old waking in night

[thedicewoman]

my 10 week old slept 7-7at the weekend and since then has happily gone 7-7 without feeding which is fine as he is putting on plenty of weight. however, he seems to have got into a habit of waking up regularly from about 1, I don't lift him, just give him a dummy and/or put white noise on and he goes back to sleep relatively quickly but then half an hour to an hour later he's awake again! He has quite a pronounced startle reflex which wakes him up so he is still swaddled and if he manages to wiggle his hands out that definitely wakes him, but it's not always the cause. he is also desperate to find his thumb which I'd prefer to a dummy, but swaddling obviously means he can't do this at night - catch 22! I feel he's got into a habit of waking and really want to know how to break it! does anyone have any advice or experienced anything similar?

Sleeping through at 10 weeks is not the norm AFAIK. Are you BF or FF? Either way, like Firsttime says I'd feed a baby that young when they woke at night.

With a baby that young, if they woke at night I would feed them. I wouldn't even try other methods of settling them until they had a good feed inside them. You say he first slept through at the weekend- that's only a few days and they will often change their sleep patterns or have the odd night sleeping through before they're ready to do it regularly.

I agree with aname. 10 weeks is so little and quite unusual to be sleeping through. DD was still waking up and being fed during the night at that age. I would definitely offer a feed if he wakes up. Perhaps he is going through a growth spurt.

I dont think you ought to be thinking about breaking the habit. Sounds like hes hungry. Might be a growth spurt that may not last. Dd didnt sleep through till 13 months.

He sounds hungry if he wakes, goes back and wakes again half an hour later. I would feed him.

Below 6 months I think just assuming hunger is the way forward (unless they just had a feed an hour before). My DS is 8 months and is still having a night feed.

ok. my DD slept through 7-7 from 8 weeks which is I guess why I feel it's ok for DS not to be fed if he can go the stretch... it just feels like he's in a habit of waking rather than actually needing fed. he has gradually increased to this period of sleeping too, increasing every few days until he got to this point. but I take everyones point that it's not the norm!

Oh, and I am mostly Bf, his last feed is split between 5/630 at which he has formula and willl typically take 90ml at 5 then up to 240ml at 630

Have you been reading A Certain Book about routine? (it's the split feed that makes me ask)
I think that book gives unrealistic expectations about sleep.Most babies under 4-6 months and many babies above that age do not sleep a 12 hour night or anything like it. There are all sorts of growth spurts and sleep regressions going on, plus teething and all the rest. Just because he could sleep through the night for one weekend doesn't mean he can do it again for every night from now on, his needs might change over time.

Haha. yes I have and it totally works for us during the day, at night we've just let him set his own routine as that seems to suit him better (if I wake him or dream feed him at 10ish he is really noisy for the rest of the night). I think my "unrealistic" expectations about his sleep actually stem from my DD, she was a classic GF baby,but I have no illusions that it was because it just suited her, she was more or less in the GF routine by herself by 6 weeks with no intervention from me (didn't read it until I noticed she was quite routine!). Well, I'll just continue to let him dictate at night and see how it goes, thanks for everyone's input!

thanks for advice people, fed him when he woke at 3 last night and he went straight back down after until 7, so 2 decent bits of sleep for me ,definitely better than getting up and down like a yoyo half the night!