8 weeks - noisy sleeper or hungry!

[Orangepen13]

Hi all,

FTM trying to figure it out! I thought my 8wo baby was waking every 2-3 hours to feed. As soon as she stirred and started fussing I’d pick her up to feed. She’d take a short feed (5-10 mins) and then go down for another couple of hours. This would usually happen 3-4 times a night (1, 3 and 6am ish usually)

Now I’ve found out that babies do just make noise in their sleep and I don’t know if I’ve been responding appropriately or whether I should be letting her sleep through it? Lots of sniffles, grunts, heavy breathing, kicking, punching/flailing arms etc. But not actually tearful crying.

What would you do? Carry on waking up to feed, or try to ignore and sleep through? I can’t work out the difference between normal noises and waking 🤷‍♀️

Hi there! Babies tend to sleep in the REM phase for the majority of the time which has far more movement / noise / flailing arms than the deeper sleep us adults tend towards. It might be worth putting your hand gently on your baby's chest and sssshhhing them if they really are stirring, to see if they will settle enough to go back to sleep, rather than pick up and feed each time? I know how frustrating the very short feeds are, as they lead to short sleeps! Over the past couple of days our 5w old has woken up and I've managed to cuddle him back to sleep if it hasn't been a full 3 hours. Sometimes they just want a cuddle it seems! Hth.