Habitual waking 11 week old, please help!

[xZoeyx]

Does anyone have experience with habitual waking this young?

Jacob is habitually waking every night at midnight, then 3am then 5:30am.
It doesn't matter what time he goes to bed.

He also appears WIDE awake at midnight, not just a little awake or rowsing, I mean eyes wide and kicking around!

At midnight he doesn't really take much feed, last night for example he took 2oz, however he would NOT settle with anything other than a bottle! I tried pacifier, patting, re-swaddling etc.

At 3 he will normally drink his normal 4-5oz and at 5:30 he will drink anywhere from 2-4oz.

It doesn't sound too bad does it that he wakes at these times? HOWEVER... He has now started waking inbetween, yes inbetween!! these times. Last night for example he was up at 12 (went to bed at 8pm) and then at 1:30 and wouldn't settle atall until I gave him an ounce of feed, then he was fairly noisy (not fully settled) until 3ish when he had his next feed.

I just don't know what to do cos he's started waking Inbetween habitually waking and it's killing me.

 

[Lady_Bee]

I have no advice but I totally sympathize as mine does this too. He is breastfed but snacks all night. I am up 4 or 5 times a night with him usually and I'm so exhausted!! It does get better though I promise! My first was like this too and settled down eventually.

 

[Pertie]

Ummm, I think you need to adjust your expectations slightly. That is totally normal baby behaviour.

He is still so, so tiny. If he wakes any will only settle with a feed, then feed him. Not rocket science surely?

 

[Lady_Bee]

Why the snark??? We should all know that it's not easy coping with multiple night wakings... yes it can be totally normal (has been for both of mine!) but actually not all babies wake every 90 minutes at night. Maybe her baby was a fantastic sleeper at night until now. She was only posting for support because she's finding nights tough sheesh.

 

[staralfur]

There's a growth spurt around 3 months so it's entirely likely that he's actually hungry (even if he's not ravenous it could be that he just needs a little top up more frequently). I would just offer milk whenever he wakes and wait for it to settle down. Babies go through so many sleep changes (and sometimes well into toddlerhood) and I think you'll find there are phases of good and bad sleep (unless he's like mine was, then it alternates between really bad sleep and mind-numbingly awful sleep).

 

[HKateH]

I found that sleep didn't become predictable until around 6 months. Even now, at 13 months, we don't have a predictable wake up time week by week! Babies' sleep is constantly changing. Feed when he wakes and tell yourself that it will all be a distant memory sometime soon!

 

[xZoeyx]

I'm actually suffering with postnatal depression and yes I am finding it tough because before this he was really good, sleeping for 4- 6 hours before waking. Now he wakes at 12 everynoght and won't fully settle for rest of night..

Excuse me for wanting a little support.

I really truly don't think he is hungry at 12, he fusses over even the smallest amount of feed. I'm hoping it gets better soon, my headaches from lack of sleep are killing me! And I'm certain he is cranky because of the lack of sleep! Vicious circle

 

[Pertie]

You didn't ask for support. You wanted advice for how to stop your baby behaving like, well, a baby.

Support wise:

Go to bed when he goes to bed so you get as much sleep as possible before the night wakings begin
Nap in the day
Seeing as you are bottle feeding, ask your partner/family to do some night feeds.

Cranky behaviour also tends to accompany growth spurts so it's not necessarily tiredness.

As previous posters have said, their sleeping habits vary so much, and just because they start doing long stretches doesn't mean that will continue.

 

[xZoeyx]

Your not getting it are you. I know this is habitual waking, for example, he went to my dads for the afternoon and due too traffic he didn't get back till 10pm, his normal bedtime is anywhere between 8-9:00 now. And he still woke bang on 12 O clock.

I love my son too bits and I KNOW my son, you don't. What I KNOW is that he is not a happy baby with this lack of sleep and he hates waking at 12 as much as I do! I'm trying to find a way to break him of this cycle so that both he and I can get a better nights sleep. Napping during the day is NOT an option as he does not nap for longer than 20 minutes! Which means I either A) have stuff to do before he wakes, such as bottles or make a cup of tea or feed the chickens etc or B) I can't fall asleep that quickly! I could be absolutely shattered but the second I lay down for a nap during the day, my body finds this stupid amount of adrenaline this making it nearly impossible to nap.

I know that babies don't come with instruction booklets, and I know they are not programmed in a certain way. I am not asking for unrealistic fixes or expectations, I just want to see if there is any experience or advice that I could put to the test too see if I can make both mine and my babies nights a little better.

So unless you have something nice/useful/constructive to say, don't say anything at all.

 

[xZoeyx]

As for Daddy doing night feeds, this also isn't an option because I wake just to Jacob breathing a bit heavier or stretching his legs (which means he often kicks end of the Moses basket). Whereas partner can sleep through Jacob crying. If I'm already awake, it's far easier for me to just feed him.

 

[staralfur]

Truly the best advice you'll get here is that it's normal and it will pass. Just keep giving him milk if that's what settles him. Again, I don't think it's crazy to think that he wants a feed after 3-4 hours at that age, even if it's just a couple of ounces.

 

[special_kala]

If he drinks some milk its not habit. Even if he is just waking for the comfort of milk that is still a legitimate need which should be filled.

He is still very new.

 

[cocosianelle]

Could he be too hot at night? Has he got enough room in his Moses basket?

 

[M2B83]

ok, what I am about to say may "annoy" some people but please remember every family is different and I am only offering an opinion to try and help a bit

is he still in your room? I think I may have said before if he isnt, maybe it would be an idea to move him out for a few nights to see if that helps?
With our little one we realised that every time he made a noise it woke us up. Charlie is a VERY loud sleeper (I mean sooooo loud) so we were pretty much awake ALL night. almost killed me, esp when I was BF as hubby couldnt help at all.
we moved him to his own room at 6 weeks old and we all had such a better nights sleep! we realised that sometime when Charlie woke up, we would just feed him, thinking thats what he wanted/needed. what was actually happening was is that he would just wake up, have a little look around for a while and then go back to sleep. we think we were also waking him up (we both snore pretty badly haha) so now baby also gets more sleep!
Dont get me wrong, he still wakes up for feeds etc BUT he has stopped snacking so much. and he really does comfort himself and we have a mobile above his cot (he is in moses basket then placed on cotbed) and he loves it.
we have a video monitor and I have that next to me, on silent but have the door open to both rooms. sounds a bit bonkers I know but otherwise I would be up every 5 mins staring at him, this way I can still hear him make some of the noise but just not as loud and I can see him clearly so I know if he is asleep or actually needs me.

Hope that makes sense and good luck! x

 

[JessesGirl29]

11-12 weeks can be a 'wonder week'. You might want to google that, it makes you feel a lot better when you understand that it may only be temporary from mental leaps and physical growing. My little boy is an awesome sleeper and just went through about a week of waking up almost every two hours. I'm happy to report he's back to sleeping well and hope it works out well for you.

 

[MummaMoo]

I don't have any answers I'm afraid, but just saying I understand (like many of us do) how tough it is when your LO wakes up all too regularly.
I recently started my LG with a formula feed early evening, thinking that would help her sleep longer as her belly would stay full longer. WRONG! She'll still wake up when she wants to, be it for a snacky boob feed or just for comfort to help her drift off to sleep again. We have the odd good night where she might sleep 3-4 hours before wakings, but I've learnt not to get too excited thinking it's a turning point. We have tried a bit of sleep training, to get into a regular nap routine in the hope she'd improve at nights, but she fought it so much, we decided to just scrap it and just go with it, relax.
It feels a bit like admitting defeat in a way, but I figure it's got to get better, so am changing my attitude towards it and trying to go with the flow.

Stay strong mama!

 

[MindUtopia]

I agree that that sounds completely normal. Babies tend to wake at the same times each night, whether they are especially hungry or not. It's not so much out of habit (as in, for no good reason) as it's just what babies do. My daughter always woke at the same times, even when she also went through periods of also waking in between those times. She night weaned on her own at 9 months, but still woke at the same time until about 14 months until she started to STTN. My advice would be just to feed him or do whatever else works to get him back to sleep, and also get as much sleep as you can yourself. And yes, dads can help with feeds (even if you have to wake him up yourself). My husband was up for every single night feed until our daughter stopped wanting them at 9 months. He runs a very physically demanding business and puts in long hours, but everyone can survive on a little bit less sleep if it means offering their partner support. I'd say do whatever you can do now to get yourself through this period. It's likely a growth spurt, or the start of a cold, or the beginning of teething, or a big developmental jump (is he starting to or trying to roll by any chance? that meant lots of night waking for us). And just hang in there. It will probably be very different in a few weeks time.