Forgotten what's normal

[Nunyabiz]

Ok so a bit of background-
DD2 is 16 weeks old today.
We endured the hell that is known as colic and reflux for about 3 months (started improving around 8 weeks) needless to say none of us were getting any sleep.

I sleep in the spare room now as there's no point making DH suffer interrupted sleep too when he has to work the next day.

She is EBF. Demand feeding although we do try to have somewhat of a routine. Will not take a bottle at all (although did get her to once a few months ago) so i have no idea whether she is taking full feeds most of the time. Sometimes i can get her to take a proper feed because she does that fluttering thing they do and her hands open, but she often fusses a lot at feeding times so rather than endure the stop start back arching, waiting for burps etc i simply stop the feed and resume again later. But even then she is a very distracted feeder. She feeds approx every 3-4 hours during the day but often 'snacks' which is unavoidable as she shows signs of being extremely hungry and then wont get through a full feed. Naps usually 3 times a day.

She is is a pretty good bed time routine at goes down at about 7 every night without a fuss at all. She loves her cradle and is a thumb sucker.

On a good night she will stir at 3am for another feed, then 5, then wake at 7am

On a bad night she will stir at midnight, then 3, then 4,5, 6 etc

If i try to encourage her back to sleep it only escalates to her getting very very hungry and then takes a lot longer to get her back to sleep again.

She has no problem falling back to sleep after her feeds otherwise... I just find after getting to bed at midnight most nights (cant be avoided) and then only a few hours of solid sleep is really beginning to take its toll on me.

I cant remember what happened with DD1 (now 3) but DD1 had no problem taking a bottle either.

Is this normal for EBF baby of almost 4 months? When should i expect her to be able to sleep through the night?

I am proud of my efforts to EBF to this stage as it was no easy task, so don't want to give up after all the work i put in, but DH tends to think bottle is the answer. I would like to continue to BF until she is at least 6 months.

If you're still reading, thanks for getting this far! I Would really appreciate all of your experiences.

I really don't think you should be expecting 7-7 at 4 months. Some babies naturally sleep long quickly, but most don't.

Dd is 6mo and we are down to 1 feed which I will hopefully be reducing and dropping over the course of the next couple of weeks.

She is still also waking most nights about 4 but settling herself back to sleep without any/much intervention.

Do you feed when you go to bed to maximise the sleep time you get?

Hey littlef00t. I didn't mean to say i expect 7-7. I am just wondering what is normal for others who EBF, as I honestly cant remember at what stage DD1 slept for longer stints...actually she didnt drop her 4am feed until she was 17 months old but i only remember that because we were on holiday in Greece and it was so hot and i remember thinking hallelujah! After such a long time.
Anyway, to answer your question yes. Her bed time routine is usually, pick up DD1 from nursery around 5.00 (she's awake) then walk to park, playground until 6 then home (she stays awake so shes nice and tired) i make dinner for DD1 and give DD2 a bath while Dd1 eats- this tires her a little more as she kicks and splashes around, then pyjamas and i will either top her up if shes fed recently or try to give her a good feed in the dark. Then put her in the cradle and job donw. This usually gets her to 12 at the very earliest, 3at the latest... But thats not the problem. Its the 4am, 5am, 6am feeds that are the killers for me.

That sounds about the same as my 5 month old to be honest. They will do their longest stretch at the beginning of the night and their sleep will be lightest from 4am onwards. Is there really no way you can get to bed sooner? I'm off to sleep shortly as it's the only way I'll get a decent stretch if I'm lucky.

You could also be hitting the four month sleep change when they start sleeping more like adults with specific stages and it all goes haywire!

With ds, now three, he had a night feed until about a year when he dropped it himself.

Oh, and your bedtime sounds AMAZING!! be prepared for that to go out the window too

Hehehe yes i do remember with DD1 thinking ah, i got this routine stuff sorted, then BAM she changes just to keep me on my toes
I fully expect DD2 will change it up and my perfect little evening plan will go out the window, but we'll just have to adapt...again hehe
Thanks for the reassurance Misty. It makes sense that they would sleep a little lighter in the wee hours and i guess its just a matter of her adapting with time. I just hope this cluster feeding business doesn't become a habit that we cant shake.
As forgetting to bed earlier...well that is possible but it means no one will have any clothes to wear because they'll all be dirty...the kitchen will be a mess...the house will be a tip...its pretty hard in these early days getting the never ending list of things done (as well as a little me time) but im
Still figuring out how to make it all work smoothly too.

I would have killed for 7-3 at 4 months - mine had hit the 4-month sleep regression at that age and was waking hourly! You might be running in to the start of that, in which case good luck and do whatever you need to to get through it. But where you are now sounds totally within the range of normal to me, although the 4/5/6 feeds sound exhausting.

Also I wouldn't worry about that full feed/proper feed/'snacking' thing - it's also totally normal for EBF babies to eat often and take varied amounts at each feed. The way a breastfeeding counsellor explained it to me was that sometimes you're in the mood for a 3-course meal and sometimes you just want a cup of tea, and babies' appetites vary in the same way. Breastmilk is digested quicker than formula and changes how fatty/watery it is from feed to feed depending on what the baby's after, so it's fine for them to only eat a bit at one time and not do the long feed, flutter-sucking thing every time.

Im not even going to try to spell your name but THANKYOU! that is sooooo reassuring you have no idea. Yay! Im winning hahaha!
Thanks again! Very helpful

I just realised you are pteradactylteaparty after taking more than a second to read it (sorry- sleep deprived)