Sleeping through.

Argh I'm so tired!

I'm not greedy, I would be happy with 4 or even 5 hours straight but he only does two lots of 3 hours at night!

He won't settle until midnight, which is when he is 100% satisfied, full, burped, dry and warm which is fine, I'm ok with that.    But getting up 3 hours later to feed him is getting so draining!

I've tried putting him down earlier but he wakes up 10 minutes later no matter how many times I resettle him and I will not let him cry it out, I just don't have it in me.

Family members have suggested a top up of formula in the evening so that he will sleep longer but I'm not keen. I have a good supply, and breastfeeding is going really well and he's happy, I'm happy etc.     I have tried to give him a bottle of EBM twice in the last 10 weeks and he absolutely refuses and even if I get a little bit into him he vomits it all back up anyway.

He mostly sleeps well during the day, sometimes for an hour, usually 2+ hours 3 times a day.    I demand feed him and he cluster feeds in the evenings but I just want a bit more sleep!!

He's 10 weeks old next week, and I know that's still quite young, but Sam starting sleeping through at 7 weeks, (bottle fed) so it's hard not to remember how nice that was!

Any tips? Should I just ride it out and hope that he starts doing bigger stretches overnight?    Resettling him at 3AM is really more trouble than it's worth as it can take up to an hour and feeding him is much easier. And I figure, he must be hungry as he makes all the hungry noises, movements etc

TIA,    Sorry it's a bit of a ramble, I'm so tired!

ETA to fix the shocking spelling and grammatical errors!    

Edited by mamanee

You make the whole world smile, with your little button nose.

Your itty bitty feet and your tiny little toes.

Even in the still of night when your a little so and so.

You make the whole world smile.

Edited by MrsMojo

He's pretty young and I'd say still needs night feeds. Ava stopped waking for food at 5.5months. Also I don't know if it's true or not (one week it is, the next not) but bm doesn't keep babies as full as formula.

What time is his last nap? At that age I think Ava was up from around 5.30 until bedtime (aimed for 7pm). We had major problems with the witching hour where she wouldn't go to sleep any earlier than 10pm until she was about 11 weeks old.

Hugs Nee.........Altho Jesse isnt quite that bad, he does his first sleep 5hrs to the dot (anyone would think he has an alarm clock).........then its only 3 then 1........my biggest problem in all that is hes almost awake for a whole hour trying to burp him and then he does a poo etc........

I kinda figure that he is gonna stay this way until he is on solids..........i too wont top up with formula but maybe you might need to try the EBM from a different teat as that one maybe a little too fast hence him throwing it up...........and at least that way DP can give him his first night feed and you can get almost 6hours of sleep?? may be worth just trying a couple of different teats or if all else fails, give it to him from a cup.

I hang out for the weekends cos DH takes Jesse in the mornings from 7-10am and altho they come downstairs to sleep i get to have a whole extra 3hours sleep..........I hang out for the weekends so bad!!!!

So unless we can miraculously get our babies to stay full longer through our breastmilk i think we have to accept this could be it for a few more weeks/months yet...........oh and try if you can to be ready for bed the second he goes down at night........i fart ass around and watch TV and come on here etc so i really do waste the first 2hours of his 5hr sleep.

but hey if you find a way then let me know i might try it also.

LOL - I dont mind DH giving him a feed when i go out to movies etc but when im there i like to cuddle and feed etc so dont like giving up that time either...........and DH always tells me off for not going to bed earlier but i say i need my down time too...........but i think sleep would be so much better.

I am also really bad at expressing..........i just cant be bothered!!!! The only prob with men ive found (in general) is they will feed the baby and burp then in the same room where your trying to sleep and I know i dont sleep with all that going on, thats why when DH brings him downstairs i sleep like a baby.......

I feel your pain, Brennan only used to sleep for 2-3 hrs over night. I dont have the magic answer sorry. I cant even remember when it changed but i think it was around 3-4mths he started sleeping longer and longer. So hopefully this long tired phase doesnt last too mcuh longer for you. I miss those late night snuggle feeds!

Try him in his own room? Cooper was waking every 2 hours. Once I got his reflux sorted it went to about every 3 1/2 hours. Put him in his own room, one waking a night & sometimes I think I sleep though him waking so he goes back to sleep if he's not too hungry or whatever. I wish I'd shifted him rooms earlier now instead of at 11 months LOL

Hrmm yeah I'm still resisting putting her in her own room, but might think about it... we do have a dummy and it does sometimes work a treat - but if she's a bit worked up, or even just in that alert/zombie state, she sucks so hard that it just keeps on falling out!

Ty started sleeping 6hrs a night at 3 weeks, then sleeping 8 hrs a night from 7 weeks... the same week he started formula top ups I kept him in a strict routine from a couple of weeks old. His routine from about 7 weeks was: get up at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm and 10pm - each time he got up, he would be up for an hour then sleep for two. If he was still awake after two hours I would wake him up for a feed. His 'bedtime routine' (bath, massage, bottle) was at 10pm for quite a while before I changed it to 7pm. I found having him in a routine was so helpful, as it eventually just became natural for him. At about 4 or 5ish months we dropped the 10pm feed and he slept 12hrs a night.

His routine has changed alot over the months but there has always been one in place, I have found he doesn't really get upset much because he always knows what he's supposed to be doing

Just to add, some people introduce formula top-ups at night so baby sleeps longer but I have seen it result in baby going off the breast and wanting the bottle - so be careful about that!