17 week old not sleeping through ever!

[Niccers]

Hi, I haven't been on here for quite some time - well, since we had sleep issues with my daughter, who now sleeps incredibly well so I guess I know deep, DEEP down it does get easier but anyway. I would love some advice if anyone is out there who has had the same problems as us, We had a beautiful boy 17 weeks ago, but since day one he has been rubbish at sleeping, napping, just a very fretful baby. He sleeps for about a total of about an hour to two hours during the day, mostly made up of 20 minute, half hour naps which I do try to put him in his cot for, not every time though - usually in his car seat, truth be told, on one of the many many shopping trips I go on to just get him to sleep for a bit!!! We've managed to get him to sleep from about 7.30 to about 11.30 so we have our evenings, but then pretty much from 11.30, its a merry go round of waking, crying, screaming where a breastfeed is the only thing that seems to calm him, although there are occasions where even that won't. I don't think he's as hungry as we think he is either as he only sucks for about 5 minutes or takes an ounce if that. During the day, he's on formula after having BF since birth as he was feeding very hour almost and with a 3 year old to look after aswell, he seemed to settle better with a big bottle of formula. Still BF as much as I can to keep my supply going. I try to get him to go for3 hours between feeds but sometimes gets too fretful. I've tried him on rice and some fruit but he's not interested. I know he's still young yet, but 4 months with roughly 4 hours of broken sleep a night is sending me loopy. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I know this won't help - but I didn't think they were supposed to sleep through at 17 weeks, are they? Mine certainly didn't!

Ooh, sounds tough - have you covered all the bases eg are you sure he's warm enough in bed, is it dark enough etc. Sorry if that sounds simple but I've only just worked out that my baby likes to be warmer than her big brother did as a baby. For the night waking, with DS, pick-up-put-down methods worked well for us (you pick up and comfort, but don't feed, then put back to bed - helps them learn to self-settle). Otherwise, hope someone with better sleep expertise will be along.

Ds3 still doesn't sleep through at 18 monhs, Not much help sorry

I wouldn't necessarily expect sleeping right through at this age, but waking all through the night (and for the OP to only get 4 hours) is unusually bad.

Try gro bags if you're not already.

Also it sounds like he is a sucky baby and I'd reluctantly try a dummy if I was in your shoes. So when he wakes at night, give him that instead of your boob. He's clearly not hungry overnight, as you've noticed, probably just waking habitually. I'm not a big fan of Tracey Hogg, but her book the Babywhisperer has some solutions for just what you're describing that you could try. A friend of mine had some success with getting rid of habitual waking.

Also, seeing as you're mixed feeding, you could try giving a big bottle of formula at 1030pm which should last for a bit.

Lots of babies do sleep all night at that age, so ignore those who say they're not supposed to and keep trying lots of methods to encourage it.

Thanks for all of your advice - I will reread Tracy Hoggs book, see if i can gain some new insights into his habitual waking. I agree, he is a sucky baby, and he already has a dummy which works in the night but only for a bit, he also has a big bottle of formula at 10.30pm. Whether breast or bottle, he just wakes up fretful for some comfort, which of course, we're not denying him. I understand 17 week old babies don't necessarily sleep though without waking, but was kind of hoping for some blocks of 4 or 5 hours by now, if only two or three times a week!! Just have to keep going and hope that we will have that marvellous night where we wake up at 5 or 6am and immediately panic thinking something else is wrong with him!!