DD waking every 45-60 mins after 3am - why????

[annmarieandlily]

Just had our umpteenth night of mad sleep pattern. Great stretches of 4 and 3 hour sleeps between 7pm and 3am - then it all goes horribly wrong!

Even after taking a full feed at around 3am, from then on she wakes up every 45-60 mins without fail. I know she can't possibly be hungry because she takes a full 4.5 oz of expressed milk in a bottle at her 3am feed (fed her from the bottle to satisfy myself that she was full up!).

Have tried to get her back to sleep with her dummy (bad mother I know...) but she simply won't settle. Only way to get her back to sleep is on the breast.

Have done all the usual checks - nappy, wind, too hot, too cold, but nothing obviously waking her.

As you can imagine I am dead beat...anyone had a similar experience? DD is 6 weeks old by the way.

it's prob because she's 6 weeks old

a good stretch between 7 and 3am is excellent - it's just not chiming in with your sleep (imagine if that was 10pm till 6am - it's the same hours just 3 hours later)

that is very good for a baby that old, consider yourself lucky!!

Don't get me wrong I'm so happy that we've got a bedtime routine going, and that she sleeps so well between 7pm and 3pm.

Just not sure how to extend it beyond that time. Do you think it will just come naturally?

BTW even lack of sleep can't take away the pleasure of a new baby!

Try slipping that bottle in at your bedtime. It is probably, however, because she is 6 weeks old. Sorry.

at 6 weeks old thats amazing, she's probably hungry

The very easiest solution would be for you to go to bed at 7pm!

It seems that I am expecting too much of her then. Pleased that its just her age and I am not doing anything wrong!

Try to think of it this way....she wakes up ready to start the day at 5am or 6am !!

I remember DD1 doing this & it's awful - at least with a 3am feed, you get a decent sleep before it's 'proper' wake up time

My DS is 7 weeks and I am facing exactly the same problem.Sleeps like an angel between7 and 11.Wakes up for a feed and then sleeps till 3.After that wakes up every hour.I am hoping that it is a growth spurt andthings will get better, but it is exhausting.

Thanks Neilsmum - its reassuring to know that its just an age thing and hopefully they might grow out of it. I am just managing to stumble along by getting my DH to do the dream feed at 11pm. Hope you also have some help.

Keep posting to let me know how things go and if you find a magic solution!

annmarieandlily , my dd2 is also 6weeks, 7 on wednesday and were having the same pattern, could be the same baby!!!!. I also swap boob for dummy , otherwise shed be on there fr HOURS!!!

My doula told me to moniter her sleep during the day to help get her sleeping at night rather than day, although how u do that all day I dont know , its dirving me a bit barking. I tend to cluster feed her afternoon and evening say every 2hrs, dh does 11-11:30 dream feed (EBM) then I do middle of the night , normally 3ish, althugh last night we swapped and typically she woke nearer 4am for him, & then she went back to sleep till 6:20 result really .Im sure its due to the fact that I dont let her sleep for hrs and hrs and hrs during the day.

Hi melsy - that's really interesting because I now realise that I have been doing the exact opposite. Recently I have been trying to space her feeds 3 hourly during the day and avoid cluster feeding to try and get her used to going for 3 hours at a time between feeds. Its only now that you mention it that I think this change in her daytime pattern coincided with the odd nightime sleep.

When you say that you avoid letting your DD sleep for hours during the day, do you mean that you don't let the daytime naps stretch for too long? Or are you able to keep her awake for more of the time? And if you do could you please tell me how you manage it!

My DS kept waking at 3am every night for no apparent reason.

Someone suggested that the temperature tends to drop quite sharply at this time in the morning and this may be a trigger. Wasn't sure if was just old wives tale but kept a closer eye on the warmth of his bedding/nightwear etc and it seemed to work.

Felt awful afterwards thinking that he had perhaps been waking because he was cold, although it hadn't been obvious this was the case.

Just have to post an update - to get it off my chest if nothing else.

I must have tempted fate by typing the words in my OP "great stretches of 4 and 3 hour sleeps between 7pm and 3am" as last night was the worst ever. Last night woke DD for a dream feed at 11pm (which I did incidentally as DH said he was "too tired"... ) but instead of going back to sleep until 3am she continued to wake every 45-60 mins from midnight until morning.

Am so tired I barely had the energy to wind the poor little love. Have almost got to the point of not wanting to go to sleep as I can't face being woken up again an hour later.

Having been following the advice of 'Baby Secrets' and spacing feeds 3 hourly during the day, I am now going to try melsy's tip and feed feed feed during the day to see if she might be less hungry at night.

Have to do something positive so I don't cave in completely - watch this space...

Hi there

I sympathise totally but i'm resigned to the fact nothing I do makes any difference. My ds is 9.5 weeks old and follows exactly the same pattern. His last feed is at 8pm and he goes down shortly after that until midnight or 1am. I know I should leep then but I would rather eat with my dh..read..watch telly and cuddle up etc. I tried to dream feed him at 11pm but it didn't work. He then gets up around 3 - 4am for a feed and then constantly after that. Like you, I try very hard not to feed him as I know he is not hungry but in the end I relent as I am tired and it's the only thing that gets him back to sleep.

I have tried - spacing out feeds during day - cluster feeding in evening - feeding all day long - none of it makes any difference. And he is not a big sleeper during the day so it's not as if he's done sleeping. If anything, the longer he sleeps in the day, the better the night.

So, I'm just waiting for it to get better naturally in his own time - if not, I'll start thinking about some more formal measures but only when he's a bit older.

Btw, a dummy doesn't make you a bad mum. Some babies are very sucky and need it more than others. Out of interest, how much does your baby weigh and what was the birth weight. I thik smaller babies need to feed more frequently. Mine was born at 6 pounds 4 oz and feeds roughy 2 hourly during he day.

Poor poor you amijee - its so frustrating when nothing you do makes any difference. You must be totally shattered.

I must admit I feel the same as you and like to have some time in the evening with DH rather than going to bed at 8pm. It makes you feel that you do have some kind of a life that isn't a human feeding machine! But I suppose we can't have it all...

DD wasn't really a small baby (7lb 14oz) but is really sucky and can feed hourly during the day.

Tried reverting to feeding on demand yesterday and had a much better night (only waking 3 times) but I guess it could just be a blip so trying not to get my hopes up. Have learned to take each day as it comes!

Keep in touch and let me know how you get on. Have thought about cranial osteopathy as a outside chance that it might help - do you have any experience of this?

annmarieandlily hi , bit of a long one this , as Im not sure Im doing the right thing.

with regards to sleep , I just dont let her sleep longer than say 40mins, or just little 20min cat naps here and there. Im not sure really , it feels awaful to wake her up, I feel rotten as sometiems shes Zonked and cant keep her eyes open, but she slept loads yesterday during the day as we were in the car alot and shopping and she did her usual up from 4am onwards YUCKKKETY YUCK. She been asleep now since 11 this morn and I keep looking over thinking what do I do , let her sleep , wake her urrghhhhhhhhh as she had a couple of hrs ths morning already. I do all sorts toi keep her awake : talk with her under a play mat , do her nappy , massage her hands , move her to different positions, take her with when I go to different rooms. Its quite stressful really , but better than the twilight nightmare!!!

My doula said to not let her sleep any later than 4 in the afternoon and keep her up till bed time, eeeeeeeeekkk sometimes its impossible, but I do fit in a feed and a bath in that time to do stuff.

Shes not quite old enough for a strict sleep routine I suppose , but for my sanity I need it and like to get her to bed around 7 , so dh and I can have some dinner together in peace. With dd she was ff fed so I could time feeds and sleep patterns, she was on 7,11,3,7 bottles and slept mid morn for 1hr, then after lunch 1.5 hrs, then later for 1hr or so. Its not quite like that this time around with BF as feeds are different times and so is sleep , so dont know were I am during the day.

I may need to seek some advice on it , as Im sure shes meant to have some long naps during the day , but as you know If I do ask Ill get all differing opinions. Maternity nurses etc would say yep thats right , wake from sleep ,feed at certain increments , others will say let them go were they want to with all of it, but that makes me go insane not knowing how my day will be. I need routine & structure really to function. so If im a happy mummy hopefully Ill have a happy baby who knows.

Although since typing on here , shes woken up herself after nrly 4omins, so may be letting her have one sleep cycle is enough and ok.

Hi melsy - thanks for taking the trouble to explain so carefully. Its amazing that we seem to have baby clones!

DD does actually only catnap during the day for between 20-40mins - only longer if we go out in the car or pushchair. This is more by accident than design and used to drive me crackers as I thought the same as you that she should be having a long sleep during the day.

However, now that I've accepted that's how she is its a bit more manageable - although I get absolutely bugger all done at home.

In this daytime pattern she can b/feed almost every hour - which is hard work but it seems that's what she needs. I know people will tell you that babies don't need to be fed that often, and that they are whingy for another reason, but I can't seem to comfort her any other way. Its only when I stopped feeding on demand during the day that the nights became horrific - and I wouldn't have realised without your reply.

Like you my ds1 was bottle fed and was a completely different baby. He fed at regular intervals and slept through from 8 weeks. I adore breastfeeding but its really hard when you have experienced both sides.

For the last few nights I have been giving dd a bottle of 50/50 EBM and formula at her 11pm feed, and have generally been getting 3 hours on that. The only night I didn't give her the formula mix she woke more often than ever.

Have been debating whether to try a bottle of just formula at 11pm to see what happens - but somehow feel guilty doing it. Don't really know why. Will let you know if I do give it a try tonight.

I think for the time being we might just have to accept difficult days in the hope of getting the nights sorted - maybe things will get easier in time. Of course I could be deluded...

i think a lot of it is 1. age 2.breastfeeding 3. acceptance. when i say acceptance, i mean being resigned to do what the baby wants - trying to nudge him into what i want but ultimately realising that he will set his own routine. I am a very organised and type A person and its taken a hell of a lot for me to realise if i wanna carry on exclusively breast feeding him i need to go with the flow. However, i also realise this can't go on forever esp when i need to go back to work so i think that maybe the time to be more routined and consider giving formula.

You shouldn't feel guilty about wanting to try formula - everyone's experience is different and it works for some. My own theory is that formula feeding eliminates the comfort feeds - a lot of the time this is why we are feeding so much. i'm cool with it and love giving my ds comfort- but not if i become a walking corpse and risk making mistakes when i go back to work.

go with your instincts - they are ususlly right.

I think I mis-read this when I first commented...now realise what you meant & this is what was happening to me too.

DD2 is now almost 11 weeks (on wed) & I think (although my memory isn't that great at the mo) that from 9ish weeks, she stopped waking up like this. Last night she went to bed about 7:30, woke at 4:30 for a feed & then 7:45. She is solely bf, so my guess is it's just an age thing & in a few weeks it will have probably passed.

Ref the sleeping in the day, my DD2 is getting over tired & not sleeping anymore than the quick car durings or trips in the baby sling. Tomorrow (when DD1 is at nursery) I am doing the routine...I don't think I can say her name. Having said that, it may be more based on the baby whisperers one of 2 hours awake, sleep, 2 hours awake. How I get her to sleep is anyones guess...

Thanks mojomummy and amijee.

You are so right that acceptance is huge factor in your state of mind. Like you I can't function properly without some kind of routine, but sometimes you can get so obsessed with it that you stop enjoying the time with your baby.

Would be interested to hear how the routine goes mojomummy.

BTW, my dd will not go to sleep on her own and needs to be b/fed or rocked to sleep. I have a hunch this might be part of the problem but maybe you could let me know if your babies are the same?

Hi there, perhaps we'll be a support group then ?!

Well, DD2 woke at 3:30am & then 6:45am. We both went back to sleep 8:15. She is now bobbling away on my shoulder, I haven't eaten & I'm wearing my dressing gown not a good start...

Will let you know how today goes...good luck with yours

amijee , your post could have been mine , I really relate to the type A thing , I like routine and control. I did a test at work many years ago which said I was a type a person , I didnt relaise how much control I like with things until now.Wierd what you learn about yuorself from having babies.

welll my night errrrm , woke at 3:14 precisley one min before dd2 woke for her feed totally wide awake fed her for half an hr to 40mins , then I layed next to her on the floor (she was all snuggly in carry cot) and she just could not get back to sleep as was sooo blocked up in the nose poor little thing. Finally at 4:40 I thought shed gone to sleep , went up and within another 40mins she woke again arrrrrghhhhhhhhh, so back down I go to have another attempt at soothing, after that I really cant remember , although I did wake in my bed at 7 something with dd1 saying shed done a poo LOVELY!!!!!

Ive managed for some reason to feed dd1 ,feed myself, get dressed and give dd1 another brekky ! Although no make up on or hair done, just couldnt let in the dishawasher repair man (when he bloody gets here) in a nightdress coveredd in milk !!!

she was having a grwoth spurt and trying to keep up your supply

feed her whenever she wants for a few days (even if that is constantly)

she'll soon go longer I promise

Yipee DD2 is asleep in her moses basket (& I should be clearing my wardrobe, but drawn here instead)

I managed a shower while she lay in her crib looking at her mobile, then she had some music on, then she had enough. A quick feed, burp & put her for a nap, which she wasn't having any of. I left her for 5 mins whilst I put the kettle on, then cam back & cuddled her on my shoulder. I could see her eyelids going & she fell asleep, gently placed her in the moses basket at 10:30...fingers crossed...