Help with sleeping through the night

[MummyMarie]

My 12 week old keeps waking at 3am and then again at 5.45/6am. For example, last night he went to bed at 7pm, he woke for a feed at 9.50 and then we dream fed him at 11.50pm, but then he woke at 3am, i tried feeding him but he bearly took an ounce so then i put him back to bed, he then woke up at 5.45, we tried leaving him but then gave up at 6am and he took 5oz. He generally has 7 feeds a day (33oz). He never takes the same amount of food in one go, he also never goes between feeds for the same length of time. This morning I thought I'd try to Gina Ford him but instead of staying awake until 9.45am this morning he was yawning by 8.15 so I put him to bed, its much better than then trying to settle an over tired baby.
Does anyone have any tips? Don't know what to do, I've read and re-read both GF and Baby Whisperer and don't really know what to do for the best!
HELP!

I sympathise MummyMarie, my 18 wk old is very similar. I hate Gina Ford but the Baby Whisperer seems a bit more flexible and sensible to me. Things are getting a lot better with my ds now but I can't say it's really due to anything I did - he just seems to have worked out that night time is night time. His night feeds were getting more frequent but we have just started solids and it seems to have helped. Sorry I can't be more helpful!

hello mummymarie.... what u describe was normal for my dd at that age ... but she was bf and perhaps they do wake/fed more eratically.... fed on demand and all that.... i dont know what the 'rules' are for bottle fed. i hated the look of gina ford... couldnt see how it was possible to develop such a regimented routine with a baby under 9 months.... i did a baby whisperer type thing and dd was happy with this... no set times, just observing behaviour and taking cues... will still do a baby whisperer thing, no set times, and we've found that she sorts her own times out and the same pattern happens every day to .within an hour or so

Well, I've just trhown my Gina Ford book in the bin! You're right the baby whisperer is far more flexible. What I'm going to try is just trying to settle him when he wakes at 3am. I just need to be persistant. Its funny you say about frequency as a friend of mine whos baby is 3 weeks older than mine only has about 4/5 feeds a day and has slept through the night since about 11 weeks. I'm switching formula to Cow and Gate Omneo Comfort in the hope that this will keep him going for longer and in turn help him sleep longer at night. What do you think? Has anyone else tried this?

if he's happy on the feed he's on at the moment i would realy stick to it bcause we changed ds feed at this age and caused no end of problems where he's waking in thenight but not hungry hes looking for comfort more than anything and yes this is normal at this age mine neveer slept through the night until he went onto solids if there is a certain feed in the night where he dont take much try just picking him up for a cuddle and also well done for throwing that gina ford in the bin as far as im concerned shes evil trust our own instincts and keep reminding yourself it dont last forever
hth
good luck