8 week old up every 30 minutes

[Sleeplessinswindon]

I’m My 8 week old used to wake every hour to feed and has always been a very hungry baby with exceptional weight gain. Waking up every hour was bad enough but now it’s every 20-40 minutes, except at the start of the night when I usually get 2 stretches of 90 minutes. When she wakes she really wants to eat, this can take 10-40 minutes. I’m confident she is feeding well and she’s happy and full after but to be sure the problem isn’t hunger I’ve also tried topping up with expressed bottles, it made no difference. She’s dry, doesn’t seem to be too hot or too cold. She isn’t cluster feeding (she has cluster fed a lot and this isn’t the same)
She isn’t great at napping in the day, but even days where she’s had enough naps nothing changes at night.

I’m now almost 3 weeks in to me pretty much only sleeping in 30 minute chunks..
any suggestions on how to fix this? When I look online all I can see is posters describing a couple of days clusterfeeding, or posters complaining their babies only sleep for an hour or two all night. I would love an hour or two!!

It does pass! Just one of those parts of having a baby where their routine changes month by month. Mine did the same (huge girl!) I remember being dog tired then it all suddenly evening out and her sleeping 6hrs straight - one of the benefits of the bigger baby is they can last longer asleep quicker. Hopefully the longer breaks in between will start for you soon, sounds like you're doing a great job!

Thank you were you feeding as often as I am? Or similar? I only know people whose babies slept or sleep 3 hour stretches or longer by 8 weeks

Just to add she will sleep longer if she’s on me, typically 1.5-2.5 hours
but Co sleeping doesn’t work

I had a similar situation with my now 11 week old

What else have you tried - I started using the swaddle bag with the arms up - I think it’s love to dream? I don’t know if it’s a coincidence but I Ben I started using it my baby started sleeping way better - I think he thinks he’s still being held!!

also I’ve started a “routine” I use that term loosely - I make sure I wake him and starts our day at 8 (same time daily) and I force proper naps rather than cat naps if possible

taking him for long walks helps get a good hour - 2 hour nap in! Or sometimes gel nap on me for an hour - during th day I find it impossible to get him down in cot to sleep for some resson

but I’m now managing to get him in bed at about 10 and he’s sleeping 4-5 hour chunks

no Idea if it’s just a coincidence that these things works for me - or if maybe it just changed naturally as the weeks went on

sorry this is happening - it’s so hard isn’t it

do you have anyone to help??

I found getting my husband to take one night feed giving formula and I at least got a longer stretch useful

It's pretty normal, currently up with my 2.5 year old. She was a 45 minute stint baby until about 6 months where it stretched out to 1-2 hour stints. I wasn't the only one in the group of us with a baby like that and believe me I tried everything. Some babies are unfortunately bad sleepers and you may just be a zombie for a while

I force proper naps rather than cat naps if possible
how do you do this? I’m not even attempting a cot during the day. All contact naps and putting her in the sling

Thank you for the hope that it got better for you both

I don't think you can really say 'typically' and 'used to' with an 8 week old, or that this isn't cluster feeding because they do xyz, as if they've got any established pattern. It's only been a few weeks and they'll be changing up on you many times. Know it's hard with the sleep deprivation but try to go with the flow and take it as it comes rather than trying to find order in the chaos of these very early days. It will pass and constantly evolve, and you and DC will sleep more again. In the meantime, try to get DP or someone to do a decent stint so you can notch up more hours of uninterrupted sleep at some point each day or night.

When I say force naps I mean any way possible ! So if I whee him on the buggy for an hour / 2 hours he will usually sleep - I have to put the snooze shade on the. Iffy so ta dark otherwise he gets distracted

or yes if he’s in the sling he sleeps - so he’s not napping without assistance

i can’t get him to sleep in the cot for long stretches for naps yet either - think it’s fairly common! I have a 3 year old too and I didn’t manage proper naps in cot til she was about 7 months !

I would try swaddling too as previously mentioned. Hope you get more sleep soon! :/

Oh and white noise maybe !!

Sorry this sounds so tough OP! You're doing amazing to keep going!

Just another thought! Are you sure she's actually waking every time? I found with mine that I was responding too soon and DS wasn't actually awake just doing active sleeping and making lots of noise between sleep cycles. Maybe you could try leaving her for a minute first to see if she settles.

She might be too cold or too hot. If the weather was very hot she was just thirsty. She might just want your smell. Try Wrapping her in one of your clothe. She might just wake up when she moves and wants to go back asleep with milk in her mouth. Try taking the tit out of her mouth for a few seconds before she gets asleep so she will not look for it when she moves and will go back to sleep.
It is very tough on you but your baby is doing well. Drink a lot. Like a ton. Having a big flow of milk in one go will knock her off for a while. I used to try to not pick them up immediately if they wimpered and look at them smiling to see if they would go back to sleep. It does not work every time but when it does it's a tiny win that helped a lot for the sleep.

sleeping next to the washing machine or the dryer can help. And the previous post explained about "not being really awake".

Yes unfortunately I’m often up in between wakings for other crying and noise, she’s either not actually awake or she is awake and resettles herself, so I always give it a second to see