Night wakings - 12 wk old

[Maedosanti]

Hi everyone

FTM here and would really appreciate some advice or even just hearing your own experiences.
DS is 12 weeks old and is waking up 4/5 times (sometimes 6/7 times) between 7pm and 7am, he does a couple of 2 hour stretches at the beginning of the night and then from about 12am/2am he is waking up every hour, this has been his pattern since about 4 weeks.
I try to see what he needs before giving him the boob so I rock him/ wind him/ hold him for a little bit but he always ends up feeding (EBF, overnight he sometimes feeds anywhere from 15mins to 45mins). So my question is;
Is this normal? should I be doing something to help him at this age or will he reduce his wakings naturally? Can he really be hungry every hour?
I keep reading about babies doing longer stretches from this age (probably shouldn’t read so much!) so I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong.

Just a few things I’m doing at the moment but other suggestions would be welcome :)
He has a bedtime routine and is usually asleep by 7pm
Still trying to get his wake windows right but he sleeps 3 to 4hours in the day and 4/5 naps
I feed him to sleep at bedtime and sometimes his naps
He doesn’t have a dummy, I’ve been trying but not taking it

Don’t really have anyone else to ask so thought I’d post on here and get your thoughts. These nights are hard but will ride it out if it’s just a natural phase. (Very long phase...)

Thank you so much!

His bedtime is too early for his age I think. I'd be giving him a nap around 7/8pm then putting him to sleep in bed for night around 10/11pm. Then slowly bring bedtime earlier until 6 months old.

I was putting him to bed around 8.30/ 9pm a few weeks ago and giving him his last nap around 6.30pm but noticed these naps were getting longer and longer and at one point he was feeding and going back to sleep so just assumed he was ready for bedtime earlier.
He doesn't wake up fully in between the night feedings until about 5am when he takes a little longer to go back to sleep and then stays until 7.30am

How is his feeding? Issues like tongue tie can make it so that babies need to eat little and often or for longer as their latch and suck is less efficient. 15-45 minutes up to 6/7 times per night seems like a lot to me for his age, although I'm sure there is a range of what is normal! My daughter eats little and often throughout the day but rarely longer than 10-15 minutes (she was born with a tongue tie but it's been cut).

@MumtherofCats hi - yes feeding is probably not the best. He did have a tongue tie revision at 5 weeks and his latch has improved but it's still not great, I have seen 3 different lactation specialists for help and the last one said his gag reflex is really strong so I can't get a deep enough latch and advised me to do some exercises with him to help him but it's still a struggle, on top of this I also have a fast let down so he tends to pull away. I want to keep going with BF though so if this is what is causing him to wake in the night then I might just have to accept it!

That not only sounds normal, it sounds pretty good in comparison to many, to me.

It sounds similar to how my youngest was at that age, but then from 6-18m, wake ups were more like 5-15 a night. Frequently the wake ups (1 of them a night would last for 3 hours!).

Your number of wake ups may feel horrific, but in the grand scheme of babies its very normal, You also shouldn't have to do them all - unless you are a single parent, dad should be dealing with nights too. Him being at work isn't a get out of parenting card.