Hi MN, looking for some advice about my FF 10 week old DS's sleep. First of all, I know it is entirely normal healthy and expected for a baby of his age to wake throughout the night. He's been a relatively good sleeper (he's my first but comparing to some horror stories I've read here of wake ups every 45 minutes) basically since birth, and his pattern hasn't really changed since we brought him home apart from a rough few nights after his 8 week injections.
We do bedtime routine (bath, bottle, white noise, cuddles on the bed) around 7:30/8 and he's asleep by 8:30 usually. I try to put him down almost asleep and 80% of the time it works. Sometimes he will wake and I will resettle which does not take long. Then he will have his longest stretch of sleep, normally around 3.5-4 hours, which is great. He has a feed and goes back down without any trouble at all in less than 30 minutes, and will sleep for another 2-2.5 hours.
It gets to around 3am and has another feed and then it's like he can't sleep anymore for the night. He will drop back off after his feed but he's awake again 20 minutes later. He's not always very hungry during his feeds either, sometimes he will only take 2oz or less when in the day he takes 5oz. I try rocking and shushing and all my usual tricks which work any other time but he won't stay asleep after 3am ish.
Do you think he's just had enough sleep and is up for the day? The past few nights I've managed to eek an extra hour out of him by bringing him into bed with me (I do chuck all the pillows and duvet off and do the C shape hold but I don't really feel comfortable properly co-sleeping, and it doesn't work for long anyway so I don't think it's the answer, he's grizzling not long after).
I considered bedtime may be too early for him but we have also had a few later nights recently due to being out and about at birthday parties and the like and he's not been getting off until 10pm or so, and it's made no difference to the wakes.
His naps during the day were really bad 3-4 weeks ago, he was a chronic nap fighter and got very overtired and hysterical for a while. His sleep during the day has really improved since then as I've figured out how to get him off to sleep best and I'm happy with how his daytime naps are now, he seems more content too, but he's still only getting about 5 hours during the day at the absolute most so I don't think it's a case of being undertired?
Not sure what else to add other than he's a solid big baby, he was 12lb 5oz at 8 weeks and was gaining weight really well.
Sorry for the long post and if there's anything I can do to extend his night sleep just for a couple of hours I would appreciate the advice!