Night wakings when not hungry

[ChocOrange05]

My DS is 4 weeks old and he wakes in the night for a feed at 2.30-3.30 (after 10pm feed) but for the past week he has been waking again between 5-6am where he whinges for a bit and we leave him but eventually he wakes up and cries. I then feed him and he will fall asleep on the breast but I don't actually think he's hungry as he is usually sick after this feed and he is hungry for his usual 7am feed.

During the day he naps at 9.15-10, 12-2 and 4.15-5 and sleeps fine between 7-10pm. He's a very good baby but since waking at 5am I am getting knackered.

Does anyone have any ideas about why he might be waking and what I could try to stop it.

Thanks in advance!

bump

4 weeks is a classic growth spurt time (as is 6 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months). At this age (and for several more MONTHS) he will need feeding 8-12 times in 24 hours. Only one feed overnight at this age is not at all recommended and you WANT them to wake up at this age as it's nature's way of preventing SIDS.

Have you tried feeding him as soon as he whinges? you might find he takes a smaller feed and falls asleep more easily than if he's left till he's fully awake. I kind of figure that if I'm not sleeping (as presumably you're not if he's grizzling) I may as well be feeding!

I remember having something similar with DS and I was terrified of going back to two night feeds, but he dropped it again after about 4 days - think he just needed to boost supply or get a few extra calories for a few days or something. Remember that if he's on a good routine in the day and he needs to boost supply, he's got no other way to do it but add in a feed at night.

If it helps, he was back to one night waking (after 10:30pm feed) by 6.5 weeks, and at 11.5 weeks is beginning to occasionally skip his 4:30am feed altogether. The other thing that helped was to allow him to 'lie in' in the morning and feed him a bit later. I don't know if you're doing GF, but your routine sounds v similar - I found that when DS fed very late in the night it was easier to give him a lie in until 7:45 or so and then cut a couple of mins of naps so he was roughly back on track by the evening.

Oh, and at 4 weeks, it's probable that whatever the original reason for the waking, it doesn't take them long to be hungry after waking, so there's no point trying to get away without feeding.

Is your room warm at night? Temp drops a lot in ours, and we tend to get a much later night waking if we have the heating on for an hour from 2am...

Thanks Hopefully - I am following GF routine (but not too strictly!).

I will try the small feed thing tonight if he wakes - we are also trying waking him for a feed at 10.30 instead of 10 to see if he goes a bit longer.

GUTTED at the moment as I just knocked over the evening bottle of expressed milk (and I have no reserves) so instead of getting to bed early I have to BF.

Breastfed baby + routine = unhappy mummy and baby.

At 4 weeks they can't even tell night from day. At this age they have so many growth spurts, etc. that trying to impose a routine on them leads to (1) your supply not responding through a growth spurt as it should (2) them not gaining the optimal amount of weight as not being fed to THEIR feeding schedule and (3) misery for all.

I disagree completely ches. I am very happy with the routine whereas before I was miserable - and my son is a very happy baby who at 4 weeks old has 1 hour in the morning and afternoon when he is wide awake playing in his rocker or jungle gym or dancing with mummy. Routines aren't for everyone but it has been wonderful for us.

Also disagree ches - I breastfed both DC's for a year following GF (after a nightmare 9 weeks with DS1 with no routine, I tried it in desperation) with no milk issues - they both slept through from 12 weeks and i was the envy of my friends as got 2/3 hours a day to myself whilst the kids slept. They are both excellent sleepers/eaters and GF was our salvation. Whatever floats your boat