Sleeping at Night

[maclex's mum]

Hi, I have a 9 week old baby boy who is beautiful. I am however having trouble with him sleeping at night. He wakes every 3 hours for a feed thru the night. After he has been breast fed and burped and put back in his cot, he will not go to sleep but cry until he is nursed again or held to go to sleep. He does go to sleep by himself during the day, we are currently doing the self settling techniques.

Should he be sleeping longer during feeds at night. I am starting to feel like I am feeding all the time and am exhausted.

Thanks
Claire

[Pinky McKay]

Hi Claire,
Your bub sounds perfectly normal for such a wee one - sorry you probably dont want to hear this! The thing is babies are hardwired to be near their mums - bonding is a 24 hour process which doesnt shut down at night.

You say, you are doing 'self settling' during the day - this may be the key to your babys night waking. Do you mean you are implementing a day time routine/ leaving bub to cry to sleep? or doing 'feed play sleep'?

Your bub needs a certain amount of calories in a 24 hour stretch - if he is being stretched out during the day by aroutine he may be hungry and needing his night feeds - he will also need a certain quota of cuddles and skin contact for emotional development and brain growth - really, some of this baby training advice isnt evidence based or in bubs best interests and just makes life more difficult - why not try more feeds and cuddles during the day/ watch your babys cues and feed accordingly - some babies like "feed play feed sleep" at this young age, then they have more food during the day and sleep longer at night.

If you would like a more gentle aproach and more comprehensive information, take a look at my book Sleeping Like a Baby.

Pinky

[maclex's mum]

Hi Pinky,

Thanks for your advice. I am trying the feed, play, sleep technique, it usually ends up being the feed, play, feed, sleep way - which I don't mind at all. I suppose I am just worried he is not getting enough from me, I have two other children as well.

During the day he is not sleeping much, but I do manage to get a couple hour sleep out of him in the afternoon, which is great. I have resorted to giving him a bottle after a breast feed at night, and he will take anywhere from 60-120mls. I would rather him breastfeeding, but am sure what to do as I didn't have this problem with any of the other 2. Last night he slept in bed with me as he was continuously feeding.

I have started taking fenugreek tablets as I have heard they boost your milk supply. He was a big bub born at 4.3 kg and as of last week was 5.2 so he hasn't had a massive weight gain. It took him 6 weeks to regain birthweight.

I am being told to keep topping him up with formula, but I rather not.

I was just thinking that him not settling well might be that he is not getting enough milk from me.

Sorry to go on. Thanks for listening.

Claire