Am I the only one?? 3 1/2 month not sleeping anymore. Any advice?

[mummyistired]

My 3 1/2 month DD, has taken to waking all night long, roughly every two hours. it started three week ago when we finally managed to get her to go down early on in the evening, about 6.30, she is so exhausted by then, she absolutly needs the sleep. The downside is though from about 11.00pm she wakes almost every tow hours, wants to feed, have to admit she might re-settle with lots of effort and not feed, but 3 in the morning knackered, cold and dark...you know the feeling. She will also not settle straight back down after feeding, keeps waking. result is I have not slept for more that 3 hours at a stretch for three weeks! Please any support advice would be much appreciated. She is breastfed, wanting to perhaps introduce formula feed at night, but currently she is refusing bottle, bottle boot camp starts this w.end!

tbh, I'd feed right now. It could be a growth spurt, and you won't do any harm by feeding her through it - ignore any crap you hear spouted about "habits" - she's still tiny.

If it is a growth spurt, breastfeeding is best, as the frequent feeds are designed to increase your milk supply.

You have my sympathy - sleep deprivation is very hard, but it will pass, and if feeding is the quickest way to get you both back to sleep, then do it.

there is a spurt at 3 mths but developmentally something funny happens at 4 mths and babies that used to sleep thru wake up!! It happened with ds1 and now with dd2 who is 4 mths old and can't distinguish between day and night any more ( unless she is sleeping with me in bed)

It's really tough but it will get better - just hang in there and consider co sleeping

Exactly the same happened here - we had no problems with sleep early on when everyone else was suffering, but it all went horribly wrong at about 3.5 months. But we got through it.

It lasted 3 weeks and she seems to have come out the other side - now sleeping 9-8 with waking about twice a night in general (touching lots of wood here!) - big improvement on 7 or 8 a couple of weeks ago! She grew a lot in that time. All we did to try and sort it was to feed her as much as I could - especially in the evening, back to the old days of the whole evening on the boob. And we also made sure she got naps in the day - and since she will only nap in the sling on the move it was exhausting! We also ended up putting her to bed later again - totally against all the book advice, but I was going insane not getting any sleep. Now edging her earlier again and it seems to be going ok.

So hang in there and it should be ok I think its a growth thing.

Now we just need to sort out her napping....

Agree with everything said so far and also... just so you know, she sleeps til 11 because the first few hours are their deep sleep time; after that she has shorter phases of lighter sleep, inbetween which she is more likely to wake up- and does, by the sound of it.

Sleep deprivation is really tough so whatever you decide to do, good luck and make sure you look after yourself too! I know all about the 3am weak will power, so I used to practice all sleep strategies during the day for naps (against book advice!) until DS had got the hang, then introduce them at night when we were both in the habit. Sometimes it works, sometimes...

Have you tried co-sleeping? My DS was like that in the earlier months (but still has a night like that every now and then) I found the thing to do was kick the DH to another room and just bring DS in with me so at least I could fall alseep whilst DS was drinking.

I have a feeling I might know this poster....

Hi,

I really sympathize, as we're having similar problems. Our boy is 15 weeks (3 & a half months, like yours) & he's waking more & more often through the night, most times every 2 hours or so. He used to go for 5-6 hour stretches of sleep, but for the last month that has happened more & more rarely, leading to me & DP feeling exhausted all the time. The only place the baby really settles is when he's between us in our bed, but we have struggled for a while now to keep him in his cot next to our bed, because we don't feel we want to continue with co-sleeping & we know it's easier to get him out of our bed sooner rather than later. I think- hope!- that this lack of sleep thing is probably a phase, but I wouldn't think it's a 'growth spurt' when it lasts so long! So I don't really know what causes it...

I do agree with the others that co-sleeping definitely works (it works for us, in any case), and it's an easy solution, but then you have to consider whether you want to be co-sleeping with your baby in the long run. If not, then it's probably a good idea not to fall into the pattern of ending up with baby in your bed just due to exhaustion. DP & I are thinking of moving our son in his own room in the next week or so, to see if that makes a difference, because I feel we are waking him up when we enter the bedroom to go to sleep. Lets hope that change makes a difference.

Anyway, GOOD LUCK, as I said, I really sympathize, as I'm exhausted too.
M.

My DD is exactly the same.

At around 3.5mths she started waking more often and staying awake for a good hour or 2 before going back off. She would then wake again after an hour wanting feeding again! - Cue a very tired mummy!

Its been like this for a good few weeks now ( shes 16 weeks) but slowly improving. She also started being funny with her feeds,only taking a max of 2/3 ozs per feed.

Thankfully we seem to have gone through the staying awake after a feed bit but she will wakes for a feed every 3 hours and her feeding has improved and now downs 5oz bottles.

I def agree with the developmental phase. In the past few weeks we have noticed a huge difference in her. She has found her voice (and now doesnt shut up!) , she is begining to sit unaided and is generally so much more alert and aware. Shes really "grown up" and her little cheeky personailty is coming out!
With all that going on in her little head its no wonder that it would distrupt her sleep.

Thanks for responses, it is good to know that others are going through the same thing, with babies the same age. This phase is a killer, I am desperate for a good nights sleep and we are still battling to get DD to take a bottle, and will then try hungry baby formula for a night feed, has this helped anyone else with getting out of this pattern of waking?
Interested that you are considering moving DS out of your room maria2007, we are thinking about it too as DD is a very light sleeper, and I am worried that I we are waking her, but thought of spending most of the night in the nursery, does not fill me with joy. Other problem is everytime I think about it, I have let down, so is an emotional decision and cannot decide if I am being selfish or selfless!!