1 and a half hour wakings!

[Coates1989]

Hi All

I did a post previously about our DS (7 weeks old tomorrow) having a frantic feeding session 10am to 2am

Although hes a bit of a night owl this seems to be slowly phasing out.

But we do have another interesting situation, where through the night he seems to be waking up every hour to an hour and a half.

We give him chance as we arent sure if its just a chance to settle, but he doesnt. We then try feed him and doesnt take much (although hes been eating less)

Basically reassurance is needed. Is this just a phase? Do we need to do anythinh to help him?

Hes still small so understand we may need to ride it out.

I hope that's a typo? because a 10am to 2am feeding session is 16 hours...
Assuming you mean 10pm-2am, I think the usual advice is to make sure they get lots of milk during the day, so they get used to wanting less at night. But it'll take a while for the balance to shift and he is still tiny, so there are no rules at this point.

Swaddle and white noise on all night

@JustAnotherUserinParadise Yes I meant 10pm to 2am. Tired eyes!

Thanks for the responses. I totally know that its unrealistic to expect all night sleep, 100%.

Just hoping a little more than 90 minute blocks happen soon

90 blocks are totally normal, sorry! It’s shite, it will pass.

I know it’s crap, but celebrate 90 minute blocks because some poor sods only get 45 minute blocks… they have such small tummies abs are used to no difference between day and night.

What time do you start your bedtime routine/darkening down?

haha I thought so!
7 weeks is still really really tiny, it's not surprising he needs feeding that often. As his tummy gets a bit bigger it should stretch out a bit.
At this point all you can do is try and keep night time different from daytime - keep it dark and quiet, no playing etc while you feed him.

All normal. Hard but normal

@DonnyBurrito usually about 7.30pm

He has been a little better over the last couple of days, we even had a 4 hour stint! But that was a one off. 2 / 2 and a half hours stint is probably the length consistently now but accept change is always afoot!

Ooh that was kind of him! 😊 Hope you managed to sleep for most of it! I was just wondering as I was dealing with 8/9/10pm - 12/1/2am feeding frenzies/unsettledness for the first 6 weeks until I realised it was because I was keeping him up, as he wasn't wanting to be awake at all until atleast midday the next day. He wanted to sleep 12 hours a night (with little quick feeds throughout obv), so I started opening the curtains at 8am and taking him for a walk in the buggy at 9am every day, darkening down the house at 5pm, bath at 6/7, tummy time to wear him out and then lights off, white noise and pitch black for the rest of the night. That fixed things almost instantly! He's been an 8 - 8 boy ever since...

I used to take him to pick my partner up from work at 9pm, then we'd go to big Tesco to pick something up for tea, come home and have the TV on and be chatting away as we ate, fairy lights on over the changing table etc, and then we wondered why he wouldn't go to sleep before 2am! 🤣 Absolute n00bs. Not saying you did anything as silly as that, but little things like limiting exposure to artificial lighting can make a big difference!

Following with interest because I’ve got a six week old (second time around, just as painful) and we’re on 90 minute feeds too. He’ll have a feed around 10pm, then he’ll wake up at midnight and be up every 90 minutes until 6am when he’s Up Up.

It’s brutal.

@DonnyBurrito we are trying our best to keep him away from any artificial lights including the TV but its hard, we want to make sure me and DH are having some time together but want to make sure the little one is with us too.

Current situation is that we had a 5 hour stint a few days ago but still a bit up and down sleep wise ever since and before.

For those experienced, i know sleep is a real mixed bag, how quick does it change to something consistent?

We havent had a night or day really the same which we totally accept being 8 week old tomorrow. Just would love more sleep

Ahh, thats fair enough... It is recommended to keep them with you, and unless you want to go to bed at 8pm then it does mean having them in some kind of artificial light. I felt like my son was such a low SIDS risk, ticking off all the Safe Sleep 7 (I know that's for cosleeping, which we also did... once I went up to bed, anyway) that I was happy to just watch him on the monitor from downstairs and periodically check on him. Not recommended obviously, but I really wanted to make the difference between night and day very crystal clear for him. I'm not saying this is what definitely worked though, all babies are different and he may have just been ready at that point to sort his clock out.

My sons sleep stretches (night and day) are still unpredictable and he's 6 months old. Sometimes he'll sleep 5 hours a piece, sometimes 1, sometimes 45 minutes... etc. I remember finding the unpredictability very hard at first, but I am very used to it now. The best thing I did was stop stressing about it and comparing with friends. And do not download Huckleberry...