10 week old - won't sleep for more than 2/3 hours

[londonowl]

Please can someone help me? My DS1 is only sleeping for 2/3 hours at night before needing a feed (I'm breastfeeding). When he does wake, he feeds for a short amount of time (10 mins or less) then falls asleep and won't be woken up to carry on feeding, then wakes up 2/3 hours later. During the day he feeds for longer, as far as the hind milk, but still needs a feed every two hours. Does anyone have any advice please about how I can extend the time between feeds please? I'm dreading another few weeks of this lack of sleep!

10 weeks old is still in the newborn phase and so really breastfeeds every 2/3 hours around the clock are not unusual.

You could introduce a dummy and see if baby will settle in the night with just something to suck, rather than a feed. Or you could try feeding more often in the daytime (but it sounds like you are already doing that) so baby gets most of his milk in the daytime, so needs less at night.

But really, it may just be baby working to increase your milk supply for his growing needs. I know it's a cliché, but could you sleep when the baby does during the day?

This is totally normal.

It won't last forever - just go with it.

Congratulations on your new baby

I wouldn't recommend giving a dummy - he's waking because he needs to feed, and you need him to feed to keep your supply up.

It really, really won't last forever. They go longer as they get older, but 2-3 hours for a ten week old is fine. Great, some would say!

Another one here saying this is normal, it might go in for some time yet I'm afraid so try to make peace with it. It's very hard, I know

My dd did this having previously been 3-4 hour stretches, I think it was a growth spurt, hard though!

Disagree about the dummy, babies won't choose a dummy over food! I introduced one at 6 weeks and it had no effect on bf.

That's pretty normal, just be glad he goes back to sleep nice and quickly! My 11 week old is the same.and my FF fs1 was the same at that age too.

Yeah, agree with all pps - totally normal for a 10wk old. Sorry!

Sounds totally normal to me ;)

I got more sleep by safe co sleeping (no duvet just a sheet etc)

I also found that if I could let ds cluster feed for a few hours in the evenings he'd go longer for the first sleep of the night.

If your supply is established then you could express a bottle and get your partner to do one night/morning feed to give you a break.

It will pass.

Hi everyone, thanks very much for the advice. I feel a bit better if this us normal - I heard last night from a couple of friends saying that their babies were sleeping for five hours from four weeks and I suppose I was just a bit jealous - I'll ride it out until it gets better. Thanks again

Both my BF DD and my FF DD didn't do longer than 2 hours until well over 5 months old, I really wouldn't worry. It does get better eventually!