Habit or needed?sleep regression??

[SnowWhite26]

Hi. So i have a 16 week old. He is generally a good sleeper but a bit all over the place with feeds. He has a bottle at 6.30-7 (4-6oz) then bed then we were doing a dream feed but he started naturally waking between 10-12 and drinking about 5oz then 2-3 5oz then sometimes sees him through to 7 sometimes (like today) earlier. He never seens bothered about food when he wakes for about half an hour to an hour.I feel like one of these feeds is habit especially aa he wakes up in morning bit hungry. Should i work on dropping one? ( Dunno how) also im so tired i kinda wana bring dre feef back as leave him but he always wales before midnight and its exhausting if ive just gone to sleep Especially as he then wakes at 2ish for another one. When i say wakes he stirs and starts moving around loads.I no hes only little but his day feeds are also a bit all over the place and sometimes he wants food at 6 but bed at 7 and doesnt have so much. Last night he had 6oz at 4.30 then 5oz at 630 then 3oz at 8 (we were out) and still woke at 12 2 and then for the day at 5.30!
Any ideas? I no it will pass i have 3 yr old but just feel some kinda routine can be installed. Thakyou

Wakes in morning not hungry i meant!

This probably isn't what you want to hear op , but it all looks perfectly normal to me. Your baby is so little and needs to be fed on demand , so I'd just go with it.

Please don't drop feeds. 16 weeks is far too young to think about that.

In your situation I'd just start going to bed earlier.

You're in the timeframe right now for the 4 month sleep regression. DS was all over the place during his, it was so hard trying to figure out what to do. He didn't drop his night feeds until he was 6.5 months (he finally slept through). As soon as he was doing that consistently we stopped offering feeds on nighttime wake ups.

Could you try put a daytime feeding routine in place first? We followed the 7am,11am,3pm,7pm,night feed schedule. The night feed literally fell anywhere between 11pm and 4am it was never the same time and we never did a dream feed. This way you can ensure he is getting enough during the day and may then help with the night feeds eventually.

I wouldn't try do anything about the night feeds for a few more weeks until the regression settles down. It's so tough and for me 4-6 months was my peak sleep deprivation but as you've already said you know it's a phase that will pass (which is the worst thing to say to someone who's desperately sleep deprived).

Thanks for your replies. I no hes tp your ung tp drop them really. Bubbles the 4 hourly plan u follow how did you implement it? Sometimes if we are out and hes napping he goes 3-4 hours sometimes only 2 hours.Did he then natuarlly wake at 11pm as you say beywen 11 and 4 wake up? Its kinda what happens now but eben when i go ti bed early it's tricky to be woken up at 10 or 11 when husband could dream feed but sometimes hes so peaceful lol x

He seems to be in a good 'routine' for a baby of his age; why jeopardise it?

Perfectly normal and baby very likely needs it. Our 4month regression lasted about 3weeks.
My baby is now 8months and going through the next sleep regression. He was on 10pm dream feed then woke for feed at 5am then sleep till 7. But now its wake up roughly every 3 hours. Its hard, but im feeding him when he wants and have faith it will pass.
Hes learning to walk and talk so i think needs the feed and struggles to switch his brain off .

I would bring the dream feed back, no matter how peaceful he looks - it's not exactly traumatising for them. DD is 21 weeks and still having hers, it's saved my sanity when I re-introduced it a month ago, she still has a feed in the night but it's only one, rather than two and she's a lot more settled (well, she was before the sleep regression hit!). It also means I don't stress about making sure she has a bottle just before bed, which rarely works out timing wise for her.

DS never napped that long but sometimes did sleep over a feed, we just offered the feed when he woke. He was feeding every 2-3 hours before we put the routine in place so we slowly upped the oz's and stretched him out a bit. The first day was tough but lots of distraction got him there eventually. Within 2 days he was used to the new routine. For me I needed the routine as feeding on demand just wasn't working any more. I couldn't keep track of when he last fed etc so having the set times helped. There were times with the new routine when he would scream before his feed was due and in those cases we fed him early or increased his oz's, we were still flexible.

At the 5.5 month mark things started to settle into a pattern again re his night time wake ups so we worked to gently sleep train him, dropping the night feed came naturally at that point. I wouldn't try to force out the night feed but having good day time ones will help this along.

Now we are dealing with the 7 month sleep regression which admittedly isn't as bad. He's on the verge of learning to crawl so hopefully his sleep settles when he masters his new skill! They're such complex little things.

I no what you mean trying. Because he feeds in the day are a but hit and miss to when but hes always tired for bed at 7 i do sometimes feed him at 6 which means less at bedtime. Maybe i should bring bk dream feed. I just vaguely remember with 3 year old she got used to it and was a bit of bugger to drip when she was older. But i guess i have to do what works now.

Thanks for that smurfy :) i will try. I suppose sometimes i feed him coz he is crying and just takes a few ozs but really sometimes he just wants attention and a chat lol. Hes quute chilled out generally atm so when he crys i automatically think its food. Feeding routine wise my 3 yr old was 6am 10 2 6 bed then dream feed at 10 the 2am feed the wake at 5.30-6 for a long time till food eventually stated filling her up. But he just hasnt created a natural feeding routine so well. I will start tryong to stretch til at least 3 hrs unless obviously hes screaming and offering him a bit more. Hes a bit sicky so i tend to not offer more than 5 lol x