230am .. without fail!

[JBCG]

DS is 9 weeks old and in general is not a bad sleeper. We don't have much in the way of a routine but he naps regularly throughout the day and settled himself to sleep when we put him down.

However, he wakes up at 230am every night without fail! He can go to sleep at 8pm or 1am and he will still wake up at 230! I think he's built this habit now and I'm not sure how to break it! Obviously if he has slept from 8pm then he may well be waking from hunger but when he wakes after just an hour or so, it can't be hunger. He is BF but with one bottle of formula at night. When he wakes at 230, he is looking for a feed and won't settle until he gets the boob. No amount of cuddling or comforting does it .. he just wants to feed .. which is does for about 5 minutes and then drifts off again.

Any tips on getting him to break this habit? Do I need to try and start more of a fixed routine?

To be honest if he wakes and has a feed then goes off after 5 mins I'd just keep doing it rather than try to break the habit. He will drop it soon enough and at 9 weeks it sounds as though he's doing brilliantly. If you're coping with it ok I wouldn't worry about bad habits I'd just do what makes life easiest for you both.

At nine weeks he is sleeping amazingly well. Just feed him!

Another vote for just feeding him and all going straight back to sleep. Nights are long and babies are programmed to wake up to check you're still there

Thanks for the replies .. I think I've been indoctrinated slightly with the idea of having a brilliant sleep routine that I keep forgetting his so brand new and needs to do what he wants to do for a while!!

Having said that, he woke up at 230 as usual last night but I gave him his dummy back and turned Ewan the Dream Sheep on and he was back off to sleep within a minute or so til 340am when he woke for a feed .. so we are making progress! He'd had his bottle at about 1am last night.

For 5 weeks I think you are doing amazingly well

9 weeks and waking once a night? You must be very lucky! Ive got a 2year who still keeps waking up at night and never sleeps through lol Just keep feeding him and eventually he will stop waking up. Its just a matter of time

At 9 weeks your baby should (according to biological theory) still be inside you. Read up on the 4th trimester.

That a 9 week old would have formed any sort of habit is pretty laughable neurologically speaking. They are changing by the hour at that age. Nothing stays the same, so nothing can be a habit. Night time is when most new neural connections are made. Neural connections increase through cuddling. So waking for a feed or even just a cuddle is good for his brain.

Way too early for any sort of routine.

Another method if you believe he is comfort suckling is to offer a bottle with water . After a couple of times they think if this is all I am getting I won't bother!

At 9 WEEKS? That, I’m afraid, would be pretty abusive.

@JustMe9 he's waking up more than just at 230 but the other times are more consistent with when he'd wake for hunger (if that makes sense?).

It is just the routine of 230am I questioning because he always wakes up then regardless of how long he's been asleep before. In a typical night he wakes 2-3 times.

I'd just follow his lead to be honest, 9 weeks is so young I don't think the ability to form routine is particularly present.

Sorry you did say 9 weeks. It’s still really, really good. Half of all babies still wake at least once at 12 months so one wake at 9 weeks is outstanding.

Sorry all, I just reread my OP and realised it didn't make lots of sense 🤦🏻‍♀️ think my tiredness took its toll when attempting to write it!!

DS typically wakes 3-4 times a night for a feed with roughly 3 hour intervals in between. My confusion is that he always wakes at 230am regardless of when he went to sleep. So he can go to sleep at 10pm for example and wake up at 230 (which is absolutely fine and obviously for hunger and completely normal for his age) but if he goes to sleep at say 130am after a feed .. he'll still wake at 230am. So it's almost like he has built this 230am habit, regardless of previous sleeps / feeds. He's not always hungry when he wakes at 230, and often just wants a suckle rather than a feed and will drift off within a minute or two but he always wakes at this time.. it's starting to feel like a bit of a witching hour in my house!

I was hoping for some guidance as to whether this was totally normal or whether he had built a habit that needed to be addressed. But appreciate from all your comments that it seems normal and a cuddle and suckle is perfectly fine to send him back off to sleep!

When we lived in caves, night time was dangerous for babies. Evolutionary theory suggests that being wakeful at night was beneficial to babies surviving. It may just be that 2:30am is pre-programmed onto him.

Or maybe that’s when your hot water comes on.