10 week old waking every 2 hours throughout the night.

[Lexylizard]

My DS is now 10 weeks old, and when we think we've had a breakthrough with sleeping it's 10 steps back!
In the day he won't let me put him down for naps so I have to hold him all day!At night I can put him down after he's fell asleep but he usually wakes approximately every 2 hours. Occasionally he'll do 3 hours but this is OCCASIONALLY.
Is this normal as I keep reading about babies this age sleeping through! If it is normal is there a light at the end of the tunnel and if so when...??? From a very tired mummy

This is completely normal. My DS didn’t sleep through until he was well over 6 months from what I can remember

Does he vomit at all?

My DD was a poor sleeper at this age and we eventually worked out she had reflux that only became symptomatic about 8 weeks. Mind you she woke every 45 minutes all through the night. It was horrendous.

2-3 hours at a time probably is on the scale of normal at this age I'm afraid. Most babies will not be sleeping through for longer stretches until they are much older - 6m or more.

It's really tough. Does he take a dummy? This really helped comfort both of mine.

My son didn’t sleep through until he was about three months old. He fed every two hours. It’s was exhausting. Is your baby bottle fed or breast fed. The reason I ask is that my son was bottle fed was birth after failing to breast feed. We kept a diary of times of feeds and measure of feed he took. It helps you see every little bit of progress.
Why can you not put your baby down in the day. Is it a crying thing. Have you tried a sling or a rocking cradle so there’s movement occurring.
Don’t catch up on housework when your baby does sleep but try and catnap. We also went to bed at 7pm when he did and took turns with his feeds. You’ll get through this difficult time 💐

Sounds completely normal to me - 10 weeks is still within the ‘fourth trimester’, your baby is pretty new to the world & hasn’t read the rule book yet!

If he prefers being upright and is unhappy lying down it’s worth looking into reflux/silent reflux as that can cause pain when he’s in a prone position. However it’s likely just be his ‘normal’ for now. It’s exhausting but it won’t be forever (although I would brace yourself for it to be a fair while longer - take all the advice about sleeping when he does etc, sleep deprivation is torturous - I feel like I aged 10 years in the first year or so after my first!).

There will, of course, be people who come along and claim their baby slept through the night after 2 weeks or whatever, I know a lot of parents & I have never met one of these who had a mythical baby like that IRL & if you don’t have a sleeper it’s not helpful to hear tbh, it’s just pure luck if by some miracle they sleep well as a tiny baby & it’s not something you can force (or can actually be less than ideal if you read the article below).

This is useful and explains why babies under three months sleep for 2-3 hours maximum at a time:

helpbabysleep.co.uk/newborn-sleep-patterns-10-tips-to-help-you-survive-the-4th-trimester/

I think that's pretty good, mine only slept for 45 mins at a time until she was about 1, and didn't sleep through until she was over 2. Honestly I think 2 hour chunks are normal for a newborn.

Completely normal, and I'm agog at posters saying their babies didn't sleep through until 3 months or 6 months. My first still doesn't at 3... and my 6.5 month old contact naps during the day, and wakes every 1.5-2 hours at night. I understand that this is normal. Babies really vary in how well they sleep and it'll click in their own time.

Not especially helpful but you must look after yourself and find opportunities to nap and rest and do something for yourself where possible. That might mean your partner taking the baby for a bit each day, so you know you have that time to yourself. Hope it gets better soon 💕

@StopTouchingYourFairyGarden

Does he vomit at all?

My DD was a poor sleeper at this age and we eventually worked out she had reflux that only became symptomatic about 8 weeks. Mind you she woke every 45 minutes all through the night. It was horrendous.

2-3 hours at a time probably is on the scale of normal at this age I'm afraid. Most babies will not be sleeping through for longer stretches until they are much older - 6m or more.

It's really tough. Does he take a dummy? This really helped comfort both of mine.

No he doesn't vomit, I don't think he has reflux. He was VERY colicky but this has gotten much better recently which is great. He will only have a dummy when he's in the car and sometimes in the pram!

@Boardeduplife

My son didn’t sleep through until he was about three months old. He fed every two hours. It’s was exhausting. Is your baby bottle fed or breast fed. The reason I ask is that my son was bottle fed was birth after failing to breast feed. We kept a diary of times of feeds and measure of feed he took. It helps you see every little bit of progress. Why can you not put your baby down in the day. Is it a crying thing. Have you tried a sling or a rocking cradle so there’s movement occurring. Don’t catch up on housework when your baby does sleep but try and catnap. We also went to bed at 7pm when he did and took turns with his feeds. You’ll get through this difficult time 💐

He's breastfed in the day and we give him a bottle before bed and one in the night, as the first few weeks of exclusively breastfeeding were torture!! The problem with doing both is that sometimes he refuses the breast and sometimes he refuses the bottle! He's very contrary!! Or just knows what he wants! Haha

[quote chipsandgin]Sounds completely normal to me - 10 weeks is still within the ‘fourth trimester’, your baby is pretty new to the world & hasn’t read the rule book yet!

If he prefers being upright and is unhappy lying down it’s worth looking into reflux/silent reflux as that can cause pain when he’s in a prone position. However it’s likely just be his ‘normal’ for now. It’s exhausting but it won’t be forever (although I would brace yourself for it to be a fair while longer - take all the advice about sleeping when he does etc, sleep deprivation is torturous - I feel like I aged 10 years in the first year or so after my first!).

There will, of course, be people who come along and claim their baby slept through the night after 2 weeks or whatever, I know a lot of parents & I have never met one of these who had a mythical baby like that IRL & if you don’t have a sleeper it’s not helpful to hear tbh, it’s just pure luck if by some miracle they sleep well as a tiny baby & it’s not something you can force (or can actually be less than ideal if you read the article below).

This is useful and explains why babies under three months sleep for 2-3 hours maximum at a time:

helpbabysleep.co.uk/newborn-sleep-patterns-10-tips-to-help-you-survive-the-4th-trimester/[/quote]
What a great article, thanks . I need to stop reading the Gina Ford books! Someone recommended them but I find her way to strict, and I think those expectations were adding to my stress as it's unrealistic!

Oh goodness- definitely stop with Gina Ford, I had my first baby in early December & had used my Gina Ford book to light the wood burner with by Christmas that year, bloody awful woman!

Gina Ford didn’t actually have children & was clearly entirely clueless as to how having a baby actually makes you feel or indeed how they work. I burnt the book as I didn’t want to pass it on or give it to charity in case some other new mum was made to feel stressed, guilty or inadequate by her patronising, unscientific nonsense! (I obviously still feel quite strongly about that despite it being a while...DS1 is going to Uni next year 😂!!)

It can be completely normal. DS was like this until he was 11 months! He slept through for 12h for an entire month (when he was 3-4months old), then one day just decided “nah, i need the milk” and that was it until i reduced breastfeeding.
DD slept through from 3 weeks.. i had to wake her for her morning feed most of the time. We didnt do anything different

How often do you feed him through the day? I was feeding my baby every 3 hours and she was waking every 1-2 hours at night. HV said to feed her every 2 hours in the day which I rolled my eyes at, I tried it and now she sleeps 4 hours for her first stretch. I’ve not admitted to the HV yet that she was right and I was wrong!

It's totally normal. Most babies don't sleep through till they are much older. I'd say the usual bracket for starting to sleep through is 9m-2years, but a bit earlier or a bit later is normal too.

Sleeping is like 2 steps forward, 10 back, 8 forward 2 back. By that I mean it's all over the place. My eldest slept better at 10 weeks than 10 months, or 3 years fine to think of it. My youngest is nearly 2 and her longest stretch in a night varies between a very very occasional 8hrs to 2 hours. If I get a 4 hour stretch out or her, I consider it a reasonable night. It's 2.30am and she's done a 30m, 2.5hr, 2.5hrbajdnicenjustbheen up with her for 90 mins and and am heading back to bed.

So to expect your baby to sleep through at 10w is a bit unrealistic I'm afraid. Which means if it's possibly long haul, you and your partner need to work out a way of you getting more sleep longer term.