any tips on sleeping longer at night for 12 week old baby?

[charleyb]

Hi There, IM a first time mum who is facing info overload on what and how to get my 11 week old little boy to sleep longer at night. I made the mistake of comparing his sleep routine to people whose babies seem to be sleeping longer and longer at night and now i feel like i must be doing somethign wrong. he seems to of regressed in the last few weeks and sleeps in 4 hour stretches at night regardless of how much food he takes in the day (typically arounf 35 ounces including his 10.30 feed). can any of you more experienced mums give any pointers on how to encourage him to drop his 3am -3.30 am feed or start to go longer?. Ive stopped breastfeeding and have even introduced hungry baby milk at 10.30. Am I expecting too much and is it a case of waiting untill hes on solids? any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I agree with not comparing his sleep routine to others - or at least, only compare it with others who are worse: that way you'll feel more cheeful! My 12.5 week DS used to sleep for at least 4 or 5, even sometimes 6 hours at the start of the night, but for the last 5 days or so it's been 3 hours max between wakings, but usually more like 2 hours between wakings.

I work on the assumption that they wake up when they wake up at this stage and there's not much you can do to stop them. And they do change all the time!

Thanks - its nice to know im not the only person in this situation one thing ive learnt is not to get too excited when they do along sleep as it seems to be 2 steps forward and sometimes 3 back - i used to get stressed when things went in reverse but i guess they all have their own little personalities and will do what thye need to do

He may well do it by himself eventually. I find Grobags help them sleep at night. Check with your health visitor regarding hungry milk - I was advised not to use it at this age.

Agree grobags are good and little and often as dd was still a monster cluster feeder at that age. Hungry milk never seemed to make any difference. If it's any consolation I think sleep did settle out once she was weaned but was very patchy til
then.