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Sleep

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Original poster

how many times does your 12 week old wake up?

16 replies

neilsmum · 30/10/2006 09:38

i know this subject has been discussed ad nauseum, but just need to know how many times your 12 week old wakes up at night.
My ds wakes up at 2.30,4.45 and 6.00 .as a newborn he was waking up only at 2.00, then 5 and 7.he is bf but has a bottle of formula at 11.30.he takes a full feed at 2.00, then feeds from only one breast at 4.30 before falling asleep. he is loing interest in his 7.00 am feed. has anyone else faced the smae problem and is giving cooled boild water at 4.00 a good idea?

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Newmum1000 · 30/10/2006 11:38

My 16 week old was sleeping 11 hours through the night at 11 weeks though is now waking up at 5.30 because of clock changes.

What I did (and will still do when her body clock readjusts) is feed at 7.30am, 11.00, 2.00, 5.00 and 7.00pm, bed straight after feed. Both breasts every time and have just started giving her bottle at last feed. Do you feed that frequently during the day? I found that when I upped the daytime feeds and cluster fed in the early evening she started sleeping through. it may have just been luck of course. Maybe drop the 11.30 feed as well? When I did, it made no difference to the night time waking, actually improved it if anything.

Original poster

neilsmum · 30/10/2006 11:48

yes,i feed at all the times you have mentioned.cant drop the 11.30 feed yet because he wakes up screaming for a feed.maybe you are just plain lucky!

OP posts:

Newmum1000 · 30/10/2006 12:02

Probably am. Could you maybe try giving him bottle at 7pm feed? i used to find that my milk supply was lowest at that time so would always top up bf with about 4oz of express milk. He may go longer and you'd only be getting up twice after bedtime.

kbaby · 30/10/2006 12:05

Hi my 12 week old feeds every 3 hrs during the day on one boob only then in the evening I feed him at 8pm and leave him on until he comes off then give him the 2nd breast. He still wakes twice at night but I do find the early morning feed is a snack. I was thinking of the water but decided to wait until 16 weeks.
So our nights are
8-9pm both boobs
2am - feed one boob/maybe two
5am ish small feed

Ive been thinking of doing a dream feed to see if that helped us but I can see you already do that at the moment.

robin3 · 30/10/2006 12:17

DS2 is 17 weeks and has last feed before bed at 6.15pm approx then I wake him and feed him at 10.30pm and he drops back off. Then he wakes at 4ish and again at 8am. I find letting him wake up on his own in the morning is better because he's very tired otherwise.

So moving in the right direction.

Haven't tried boiled water but he does seem genuinely hungry at 4ish so I feel that we're not quite ready for this.

Lots of people advise you keep you baby up at 9pm for an hour and a half. This then means they sleep through but I haven't tried this because personally I would rather get up at 4am for 45 mins and go back to bed.

pucca · 30/10/2006 12:31

I have a 12 week old ds and he has his last feed at 11pm (no matter when his one before was) and sleeps till 9am (has a huge feed at this one to catch up) atm i am still swaddling which i think helps.

See alot of other people are concerned with getting the baby upstairs out the way but i just go with the flow, i leave him downstairs (sleeps in his moses basket) with me until i go to bed, don't get me wrong i will be introducing a routine soon for going up to his cot at 8pm and dreamfeeding him at 11pm (i dreamfeed this feed atm anyway), but i don't think there is any rush tbh.

Original poster

neilsmum · 30/10/2006 18:02

pucca,are you kidding me?sleeps from 11 until 9 am?could we swap babies?

OP posts:

mumofben · 30/10/2006 19:21

ditto neilsmum! I'll swap my 12 week old as well! I do feeds at 7.30, 11, 3 ish 6.30 then 10.30 but he still wakes up at 4.30 (now 3.30 since yesterday) then 6.30 - 7ish (which was actually 5.30 this morning - yawn). I tried water at 4.30 a few nights ago, and he took 4 oz but this seemed to make him hungrier and he didn't settle so I ended up giving him milk anyway. Most nights I don't feed him during the night if I think he's had plenty during the day and it doesn't seem to make any difference to his morning feed - this seems to suggest he isn't really that hungry at night it must be just habit. I'd give the water a go and see if it settles him?

mumofben · 30/10/2006 19:27

to newmum1000 - how old was your lo when you dropped the 11.30 feed? I find I have to wake my ds out of a very deep sleep at 10.30 ish to feed him and have wondered whether to drop this feed and do what you did - give him an extra feed before his bath and see how long he sleeps?

annmarieandlily · 30/10/2006 20:53

Hi all - just thought I'd add my own experience about the 11pm dreamfeed.

DD is 10 weeks old and for a couple of weeks nearly exhausted myself by staying up until 11pm to wake her out of a deep sleep to feed. The result - no difference whatsoever to her night time waking! She still woke a couple of hours later at around 2am. When I finally gave up I found she slept happily from 7pm to 2am regardless.

In my opinion, waking her at 11pm actually disturbs her sleep rythym and makes her restless for the remainder of the night. She sleeps far better when left to wake up when she's ready.

pucca · 30/10/2006 21:13

Neilsmum...Tbh i don't think it is anything i have done myself, just luck i guess, has slept 11pm to 9am since being 3 weeks old (my dd was the same too). As i said before i do still swaddle him, which will have to stop soon as he is starting to escape from it anyway lol, i do give him a dummy but he very rarely has it tbh, sometimes he has it to go off but he spits it out as soon as he is asleep.

Have you tried feeding your ds a bit before going down for the night? my ds has his 11pm feed no matter what, even if he only had a feed at 10pm i still top him up.

katylou25 · 30/10/2006 21:36

HI My DS2 is 9 weeks tomorrow ands have also dropped 11 feed because after me falling asleep and missing it he slept better without being disturbed and now goes from 7 ish to 3 and then to 7 ish have also had a couple of nights fo 7 to 5 so am definetly getting there!

DS1 slept through 7 to 7 by 10 weeks so have got my fingers crossed for DS2.

Drean feeeding is in my expereince a false economy!

Original poster

neilsmum · 31/10/2006 08:49

guess what happened!gave ds a bottle feed at 11.30.he started whimpering at 2.30.was so tired i could not be bothered.he fell asleep and woke up at 4.30!

OP posts:

robin3 · 31/10/2006 13:40

That's kind of what happened to us. DS2 sometimes wakes at 1030pmish so I think he still seems to need this top up.
During the night it was firmly 2ish but he seemed to wake and be a bit restless BUT settle himself after a few minutes...the feed then slipped to 4ish when he wakes crying. Whilst I find being woken at 4 harder for some reason, I am pleased that it's moving in the right direction.

I really can't remember where we got to with DS1 but I think it was 6 months before he was convincingly sleeping through.

sjcmum · 01/11/2006 21:43

Think they might go through a bit of a growth spurt around 12 weeks don't they? My dd is nearly 12 weeks - and someone suggested this is what is causing her to wake up more than she was before. She used to only wake up once a couple of weeks ago, and this was gradually getting later. More recently though, she has been waking up at least 2 if not 3 times in the night - and the dummy or anything else won't do, she seems to insist of feeding. I'm finding it pretty exhausting, and a bit frustrating when before she was only waking once.

I briefly tried the dream feed thing - and agree with what some others said - if anything it made her wake up earlier in the night - sure it can't be good to disturb their natural sleep rhythms. But then again I didn't persist for long, and I know other people who swear by it, but say it took a couple of weeks to work.

Good luck!

LucieLocket · 02/11/2006 13:18

My first Mumsnet posting - don't know all the abbreviations so forgive (what's a ds?). My nearly 12 week old has just started sleeping through 7 - 7 but for food only - she insists on being very tightly swaddled and wakes several times between 4 and 6.30 with arms flailing like windmills to be reswaddled and settled down again - it's driving me bonkers as she CAN get through to 7 for food (does it sometimes) but then sometimes demands food between 4 and 7ish as she has woken up by escaping the swaddle again! We've tried a sleeping bag but got 90 mins of hysterical screaming until caved in and wrapped her again. I have visions of her going to school and me still folding big sheets corner-to-corner to wrap her in at night! She's still in the moses basket - but nearly out-grown it - and I daren't try moving her to the cot until this is sorted............

For neilsmum, my 12 week old is part breast and part bottle fed - gets 6 - 8oz bottle at 6.30 and then dreamfeed at 11 but normally only takes about 3 - 4 oz of this. Manages then to sleep to 7 when not escaping swaddling!

Any suggestions gratefully appreciated!

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