Sleep Regression/Leap 2/Growth Spurt

[Njh1986]

Just after a range of views from all you experienced mums out there please!

My 10 week old DD from 2-7 weeks had a lovely night time sleep pattern of going down at 7, waking 10.30 for a feed then once at around 2/3 and then going through till 6.30. She’s great with knowing the difference between day and night (night feeds = no talking, in the dark, white noise on etc) to the point where she will not take daytime naps in her crib as she sees that as night sleeps only! During the day she self settles for naps in her Mamaroo whenever I see tired signs, and at bedtime we’ve always had a consistent routine of bath, into pjs and sleeping bag, bottle in dark bedroom then she either falls asleep while I’m winding her or goes down into her crib drowsy and nods off to white noise.

However, since 7 weeks her night waking after midnight has just got worse and worse! She started dropping the 10.30 feed and I tried waking her for it/dreamfeeding it to no avail. She’s now waking randomly for 3+ night feeds; sometimes she’s starving and polished off 4oz, sometimes she acts starving but only has 1oz before clamping her mouth shut. Sometimes she goes off nicely in her crib afterwards, sometimes she falls asleep while winding and sometimes - like last night - she stays awake for 2 hours chatting to herself until getting hungry again! Co sleeping seems to make her more hyper as she then smiles at me in the dark and chatters at me for longer.

Day feeds are pretty much bang on 3 hourly from 7 when I always start her day, sometimes she does 2.5 if she’s hungry earlier. I always make 5oz bottles but she rarely drains them, usually it’s about 4oz. Her stomach capacity is tiny so feeding more often or trying to gw

Sorry accidentally pressed post!

.....trying to get her to take more has been unsuccessful. Her tummy troubles seem to have settled with Hipp Organic, Carobel and Ranitidine for silent reflux and Co-Lactase. She uses Dr Browns bottles on size 2 teat and her wind has got better over the last week.

My questions are:

1. Is this a Leap 2 thing and should I just ride it out?
2. Should I retry a dream feed at 10.30 to top her up before her first waking?
3. (Suggested by HV) Should I try hungry baby milk at night as her tummy is clearly tiny but she’s starving overnight?

I wouldn’t mind but I barely sleep myself (so the sleep deprivation is not an issue for me luckily) and was a terrible sleeper as a baby and child so I don’t want the poor girl to suffer too. Her napping is still about 45 mins 4 times a day, with the off longer stretch but she’s soooooo ratty by about 3pm, so I’m worrying that lack of sleep will affect her development. She’s been worse the last couple of days due to a cold and been fussing over her feeds but I’m convinced that’s stuffiness related (she’s using Snuffle Babe and saline spray).

Please help - all of my friends with babies have all night sleepers who took 6oz bottles by 8 weeks so can’t relate!

Anyone? Please?

Sleep isint linear. Waking three or more times a night at that age is perfectly normal. Heck, my boy twin wakes five times a night at the moment at six months! Your friends also all have magic babies or are economical with the truth. None of my friends babies sleep through and they are all older than yours!

I really think worrying about her development isint needed. She’ll take as much sleep as she needs. Your HV advice is poor imo. Babies don’t just night wake from hunger. They wake for many reasons and stuffing them full to try and prevent it isn’t the way forward.

Just ride it out op. She’s a tiny baby doing what tiny babies do.
Oh and dream feeding doesn’t work imo. I speak as someone who has tried it and found it had zero effect.

Also well done on achieving the holy grail of having a baby that goes down sleepy but awake. That’s impressive in itself.

Sounds like you had an amazing start but you're now seeing a little more of what you'd expect. Things change for all sorts of reasons and you'll never really know why.. sometimes they go back to where they were and sometimes it moves forward in a different direction. Try not to over analyse leaps and growth spurts, just go with the flow. When I stopped expecting a bad phase I felt much better. My main advice would be go with what your baby needs and is telling you, try not to feed to sleep as that's hard to break, dream feeds can be great if you can stir her enough to feed.