12 week daytime routine - am I doing something wrong?

[MissObsessed]

I have a 12 week old DS and I've started the EASY routine with him (didn't realise that him being overtired was actually making his sleep worse!) He has reflux for which he is prescribed Infant Gaviscon so feeding when he wakes rather than before he sleeps works better for him.

So, I've really tried to crack his daytime napping for the past few days to help him sleep better at night. Some nights he was waking every hour for a feed (he is FF) so I'm trying to calorie load him during the day and give him good quality daytime sleep to help him sleep for longer periods however his sleep is still erratic. Can anyone have a look at a typical day for him and tell me if I'm doing something wrong or if actually his sleep is quite 'normal' for his age please, can't see the wood for the trees as I'm so tired!

Wake 7.20am Feed (4oz)
Activity - change nappy, story, etc
Sleep 8.50am-9.40am - sleep in pram with dummy
Feed 9.45am (5oz)
Activity - as above
Sleep 10.55am-12.55pm
Feed 1pm (4oz)
Activity time
Sleep 2.10pm - 2.40pm
Feed 2.50pm (5oz)
Activity time
Sleep 4.10pm - 5.40pm
Feed 5.45pm (4oz)

Then his sleep goes to pot a little after this time. Some nights he is awake for 2-3 hours, feeding on and off (and usually little and often, sometimes 1.5-2 ozs a time)

He usually has his last bottle around 8.30pm-9pm and then sleeps round until about midnight/1am. He then takes around 3oz and then has restless sleep from about 2am onwards, sometimes wanting to start the day at 5am! He has a dummy and I replace it when he wakes and pat his chest/shh etc and he sometimes sleeps round until 6am/7am, often in bed with me.

I've tried a dream feed at around 10.30pm/11pm, hoping that it might see him through a bit longer but he will not take it, I literally cannot get his mouth open to put the bottle in! He also doesn't like to take more than 4oz at a time. The one time he took a 7oz bottle I actually texted my DH at work!

I must add, I am more than happy feeding him every 1hour during the day if necessary and don't prescribe to any 'routines' in that respect, I feed on demand, it's just this disturbed time from 2/3am onwards which is draining me at the moment.

All naps are in his pram, with a dummy and wrapped in his blanket (he has always refused to be swaddled.)

Thank you if you have managed to get to the end of this post! Any advice is gratefully received

p.s He is a big boy (13lbs 7oz) and I'm only 5' tall so rocking him to sleep is quite a task for me now!

4oz bottles are plenty for a 12 week old. I would probably make 6oz bottles, but would be happy as long as at least 4oz is taken for any one feed. If I was having disturbed nights, I'd be feeding 2 hourly through the day, or more frequent if baby showed hunger signs - so 7 or 8 bottles between 7am and 9pm, give or take.

You sleep looks fine. You are right on the cusp of sleep changing, so it's difficult to suggest. Just follow baby's less.

In the "fourth trimester" stage (first 3 or 4 months), babies ususlly sleep for longer chunks because their sleep is passive, as it was in the womb. So as long as all needs are met, baby will be asleep as their passive state.

Once out of this state, you get to what some people call the 4 month sleep regression.its not really a regression, it's a perminant change to sleep biology.

From 3 or 4 months old baby's sleep matures and develops into sleep cycles - whereby there will be brief periods of light sleeping every 40 minutes or so, between sleep cycles.

Sleep also becomes active, not passive. So baby (and parents) have to actively work to get to sleep. Babies who already have active "getting to sleep" mechanisms (like the pushchair movement and dummy you use) may not "regress" at all at 4months old, they may quickly learn to link sleep cycles. Most babies though do take some steps backwards at this stage. It's not unusual that daytime naps become short (30-45 mins), so it becomes important to keep naps frequent to avoid over tiredness.

Your baby is having longer naps. So it might be he still has newborn passive sleep. Or it might be that he's already learnt to link sleep cycles in more mature sleep.

Thank you FATE, I was hoping you'd reply as I've based a lot of what I do on advice you've given to others. Glad to hear that what I'm doing seems ok in terms of getting DS good sleep and forming good associations for the future. Touch wood he seems to settle quite quickly in the pram with his dummy so hopefully this will continue once he hits 4 months.