3 month old suddenly needing more night feeds

[Lisa-Marie]

Hi,

My baby girl is just over 3 months old and up until now has pretty well much slept through the night, however, for the past 5 nights she has suddenly needed 2 feeds during the night that she never used to. Is this just a 'growth spurt'? and is she likely to go back to sleeping through or is my milk maybe not enough for her (I am soley breastfeeding). Other than this, she is a happy baby and still has her 3 or so sleeps through the day which she always has. I don't let her sleep for too long during the day, but rarely disturb her as an hour is usually all she wants (or less). Can anyone advise?

[Gemma]

It is most likely a growth spurt. At 6 and 12 weeks they can increase their feeds for about 1-2 weeks and then go back to their usual routine. Another thing you can try is a top up feed if your not doing one already. Give a top up feed when you go to bed, the baby should attach even when asleep. I only bottlefed but we were told in the pre-natal breastfeeding course that if you lie down with the baby and offer your breast they will attach in their sleep. (Mine will drink from the bottle asleep) I found a top up feed helped mine sleep right through.

If that does not work I would ask someone who has breastfed or a child health nurse RE: getting enough from the breast.

[wilsmum]

wil is 16 months old and i have found that in the past he has gone through periods of waking in the middle of the night for a feed, even though he was sleeping through at an early age. although he would wake up for a week or so, he would soon settle back into routine, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
if you can handle it i would just keep feeding her until the phase passes. i was advised not to feed wil as he would get used to waking up for a feed, i ignored this advice and he did stop waking up and settled back to normal sleeping easily.

[mamafelix]

Hi Lisa Marie

Don't worry your milk supply will be fine- your baby regulates how much milk you produce. Its a really fine tuned thing, any changes happen within 24 hours. Please don't feel you have to supplement with forrmula- if anything could decrease your supply it would be less time on the breast. If you want to increase supply, increase the frequency of your feeds.

I solely breastfed my baby until he was about 8 months and he only really started eating solids at about a year. He has always been the chubbiest, most solid little guy you could imagine!

Yes I think its probably a growth spurt, your baby needs more milk so she's feeding more frequently. Its hard but they do change their routines from time to time...
Can you have her in the same room as you- maybe that would help with your sleeping?

Hang in there! Night-time parenting is the hardest bit about having a baby, and the first 6 months are definately the toughest. Make sure you're getting enough support from people close to you, and keep having confidence in yourself, you sound like a great mum.

You can always contact your local Australian Breastfeeding Associataion group- they will have trained counselors to help you with any questions.

[nyrrek]

I agree abot the growth spurt theory and that it is just, probably, a phase. The only thing I would add is to make the night feeds as low-key as possible - no lights, no talking or playing and as unstimulating as possible. It helps keep the baby in a day/night pattern. Good luck!

[JJsMum]

Hi All,
I agree with WillsMum, I had the same problem with my little boy. He has now broken this annoying habit with minimum fuss... I think they just go through this phase. I noticed that my little one was doing this wake up thing for the first few nights that he was in his own room. I think this was partly because he wanted to check that I was still around in the middle of the night... Now that he is used to the idea that I can hear him and will come whenever he needs me, he has settled back into the routine of sleeping right through (thank goodness!) But he did the same thing of waking at different stages of development and then went back to sleeping through the night...