My 3 month old is waking up all through the night!

[alicianasmummy]

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do and starting to go a bit insane from the broken sleep!! My DD is EBF. She had been sleeping for around 6-7 hours between 7 and around 1am then waking for a feed and sleeping again until 6am. This was working fine for us and giving me a decent amount of sleep considering her age. She was swaddled in a swaddle me blanket which she loved and helped her sleep and she wouldn't go to sleep without it but she is a very strong girl for 13 weeks old and weights 14 pounds and she had started struggling and breaking out of the swaddle which resulted in her waking up and crying many many times a night Resulting in me having to re swaddle her and feed her before she would settle again. So it was almost a vicious cycle, can't settle without the swaddle but then breaks out of it! So we bought a love to
Dream swaddle up which is a bit looser with her arms upwards and she seemed to be ok with it so we were putting her down at around 7 as usual but she is now waking at about 11 then I put her down after the 11pm feed and she wakes almost every hour and wants to be fed after that until 6am then she has 2 hours until 8am. It's almost like clockwork and it's been going on for over 2 weeks now I am so exhausted I'm close to tears most nights. I've even tried going to bed when she does but it's just not practical because I want to spend time with my DH when she is in bed and I've tried putting her to bed later but she just gets very grizzly and needs her bed. She has about 3 naps in the day one at around 10am
For an hour, one at 12 for about an hour and a half and then one at 3 for around an hour. If I go out she sleeps a lot in her pram and sleeps if she's in the car. People keep saying she's having a growth spurt but surely it shouldn't last this long? I'm at my wits end!

When my Ds & Dd started breaking out of their swaddle, I figured they were getting too big for it! Unfortunately, whatever routine you think you have never last long. As they develop they need new routines and you need to help them figure one out that works for both of you! Good luck!

It's really normal with a a 3 month old ebf baby. Try cutting out one of the feeds first - delaying so it's closer to the next one. even if she cries for a couple of nights.
Hopefully she'll sleep through that one in time. Offer more feeds in the day.
And thank your lucky stars you don't have a reflux baby. Nearly 2 and in pain crying every night, every 20 mins some night.
That **is exhaustion.

My two year old still wakes a lot and until about 11 months he never slept for longer than in 2 hour bursts. He has only slept for 5+ hours twice ever. But...you do get used to it which makes it easier

It does seem normal but it does pass.Perhaps you could try expressing some milk and freeze it or moving to mixed feeding in the night using. Premixed formula from a carton.
My hubby and I took it in turns every few nights to do' night feed duty' so I could get a couple of nights catch up sleep just to be able to function.
Not easy at first to establish additional milk and express ( a skill in itself) and occasionally springing a leak if too much milk..but it did help.

Our now 4 year old was ebf but I expressed a lot for nights. I also put her down for all naps in the cot in a sleeping bag without any feeding or cuddling from when she was very little. We just popped her in the cot and breezily said have a lovely nap and left. The room was blacked out for all naps and all night until 7am (black out with Velcro) As a result she was great at self settling. This was consistent for naps and bedtime. By month three she just wanted to sleep at night not feed. She fed loads during the day up till 7pm. Bath and bedtime was always 7pm. And we didn't notice any 4 month sleep regression. But this consistency really suited our kids. I couldn't bear leaving them to cry so we just did consistency from a tiny age and they were happy. I didn't want to co-sleep. Good luck. Things can change. I don't personally believe you have to just live with no sleep for ages. Both my two loved their cots by 4 months and loved their sleep. They still do.

Lots of people are saying this is normal for a breastfed baby but that is just not true in my experience. Mine were around 3 months when they stopped liking the swaddle so much and preferred to wiggle around. Maybe worth a try with a standard sleeping bag instead now? If you're really desperate for a few hours can you express and ask your DH to do the 11pm feed so you can get a good solid block while she rides this out? (Good luck with that though, neither of mine would take to a bottle ).

Also don't believe those telling you she will be a bad sleeper forever. It is much easier to settle a 3yr old then a 3month old (usually bribery )

things WILL get better.

Perfectly normal my 8 month old who is ebf and I co sleep wakes up at least 5/6 times a night and has done since birth

Both of mine were/are EBF and we co-sleep. DS1 didn't sleep through the night until he was almost 2, DS2 is 8 months and has sometimes slept a 5/6 hour stretch from 8pm-1am or so, but it's common that he wakes at least 2 or 3 times through the night to feed. I think it's normal, they are both happy and healthy. I make sure I catch up a bit each day by taking a nap while the baby has one of his daytime sleeps.

At 5 weeks my youngest ebf slept 5 hour block, 6 weeks , 6 hours. I thought i was so lucky. Now at 5 months old he sleeps 11-1 and then comes into bed to feed constantly for about 3 hours... then he will sleep for another 3 / 4 hours. It's a bit shit. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. He doesn't sleep in the day either. Only if attached to me. They're all different OP , a few weeks of missed evenings with your DH won't hurt, your baby needs you well rested.

As many PP have said it's a 3 or 4 month "thing".
Mine is a light sleeper to this day (wakes once a night some nights at 2!) But it DID improve with time after the 4 month regression. She slept through for about 8 months before molar teething ... and even bigger shock as you assume they are older and thus will sleep.
But that will pass too. Yawn...

Thankyou all for the comments I appreciate the advice!! She will take a Nuk bottle and I have only been out in the evening for 3 hours once since she was born but I left my husband with her and she did have a bottle of expressed milk. She always settles for bed like a dream and is also easy to settle for naps. She has only been waking twice again since the weekend and she is sleeping in a love to dream sleeping bag instead of the swaddling blanket now. Her arms are still inside but it zips up and has wings that zip off to let one arm out at a time so that i can start to wean her off it. I think you just go into a haze when you aren't getting much sleep but I know I am very lucky that she sleeps as much as she does being EBF as I know a lot have it much worse as some of you have told me!

alicianasmummy - how are you getting on? I have a dd the same age and she started doing the same thing - waking 4/5 times a night. Some nights she is a bit better than others. wondering if you have had a positive change since a couple of weeks ago?
any tips?

Flowers, I did see a change and she is now sleeping a 5 hour stretch between 5 and 12 and then waking about every 3 hours after that until she gets up about 8. I have just accepted that she won't always be like that and will sleep through eventually and also she does have the odd night where she wakes up more than this. I don't want to give her formula of any description so will have to accept that EBF babies do wake more! It does get easier and it's all worth it to see her beautiful smile in the morning. The main tip I have is I'm not sure if you swaddle but that was a lifesaver for me and when she started breaking out of her swaddle I bought a love to dream swaddle up which zips up and she loves that and sleeps a lot longer in it. It's really good because it has little wings on that zip off so that you can wean them off it when they are ready to start rolling. Hope things get better for you too!