Going back to sleep after waking

[LittleMissPear]

My DS is 9 weeks, so I know that he is still small and sleeping patterns etc are still early days. He seems to have settled into a pattern of having 4/5 hours of sleep early in the evening, sometimes starting around 8.30 but occasionally as early as 6.30 . After he's woken for a feed he never goes back to sleep for any great period of time, perhaps 2 hours at most, often he's then awake every hour and I try to settle him back in his crib but he's wide awake! A lot of nights he ends up in bed with me between 3am ish and morning as we both at least get some sleep then. Any tips on settling him back to deep sleep after his initial 5 hour block? Will it change or am I doomed to having to sleep for 5 hours a night and not ever having an evening again?!

It will stretch out on it's own, he just hasn't learnt that it's nighttime yet. I remember that DS would go down at 7, dream feed at 10, night feed at some point and up for the day at around 10 weeks so hopefully you're not far off.

Have you tried a dream feed?

My DS is exactly the same although he's 6 months now! He's a rubbish sleeper but can occasionally do a 5 hour stint at the beginning of the night. Whatever time his first wake up occurs, he will never do another long stretch after that. It's usually in 1 or 2 hour blocks with a lot of patting and settling in between as he stirs a lot. If anyone knows how to overcome this I would love to hear about it too!!

It certainly is not forever, I promise, even if it feels like it might be.

Little babies tend to do their 'best' sleep pre-midnight. DS would be up and down from 12 on, sometimes having another 2-3 hour chunk at around 5am.
Bringing him into bed with you is very sensible - he's far more likely to sleep well cuddled up with you (and again, that won't last forever).

You could try:

Do a dream feed - go in and feed him before he wakes up properly (so if he always wakes for milk at 11pm, go in at 10.30 and feed)

Go to bed in the evening and get some kip in. I know it's horrible to feel like you're not having an evening (especially if you have a partner you haven't seen all day), but it is a temporary measure and will help you survive the nights

Bring him into bed with you earlier.

Don't fight it. He will learn to sleep through the night, it just takes time and you're doing everything right. DS was a terrible sleeper til about 10-12 months, and now he is great (though I'm mindful that this might be a phase!).