should my 3 month old be sleeping through? i'm still doing a 4am feed. our schedule goes like this:
7.30pm - last feed before bed.
11.30pm - dream feed
4am - feed (want to lose this one)
7.30am - feed and start the day.
when he does the 4am feed, it's a full feed, so i know he was hungry. luckily he still goes straight back to sleep. will he just grow out of this himself? i try to cluster feed at the end of the day, but doesn't seem to help.
need help! am going back to work soon!
(btw, he is breast fed in morning and night and given formula during the day, at 12pm and 3pm).
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Hi Sashimi Girl, mine didn't start sleeping through until about 5mths.
At 3mths he was still eating at 12am, 3am, 5am, 10am...(breastmilk)and i had tried cluster feeding too.
I remember when he started sleeping through the night and hubby and i woke up in the morning and looked at each other and were like omg is he ok??? and jumped out of bed to check on the sleeping mm. it really was a great feeling :) Hang in there, it's just about to get better.
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some do (i hear!) but NO BABY i know of ever did.. the "easiest" babies in that sence that my friends have slept through at 4 months, mine not till 5 months or a bit later. we did start cutting the 3-4 am feed tho around 3 months to smaller and smaller amounts eventually switching to water if they woke up! Also, try giving formula 1t 11.30! Good luck!
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my baby didn't sleep through unless he was 18 months old. Those were tough nights, but now I almost can't imagine I've been through them.
You know it only happens once on your life while you take care of your baby....you can just make the best out of it.
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both babies - totally breastfed -slept through (a 10:30-7:00) shift from 10 weeks, and the other at 12. There is this common misconception that formula helps them go longer in the night - but I know a lot of babies that make it through on breastfed only - and with no problem. one thing I did - which I don't know if it made a difference or not, was that my dream feed, before I did it, I pumped out one breast - and let my baby feed on that one first. My own personal theory was that she would get more fatty hindmilk and therefore go a bit longer. (and I got a couple of ounces of milk for a daytime feed as well.) Even after you pump, you generally have a few more ounces of milk still in your breast. If you are mixing formula and milk, it IS possible that you just don't have the breastmilk capacity to have enough milk for your baby. you're not stimulating your breasts enough to provide enough milk for your baby. If that is the case, I'd also add a day time pump (if it is possible) to help you increase your supply, OR if you're not working, add a day time breastfeed as well.
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One of mine did for a few months from 2 months to 6 months, then started waking up again.
What is your feeding schedule for the morning? Does baby go from 7:30 til 12 with no milk? I would try increasing the daytime nursings...this can sometimes satisfy them. But then again it could be teething waking your baby up and in this case, there's not much you can do.
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smsm
19 yrs ago
sashmi girl...i have a 3 mth old girl and she was following exactly the same schedule as ur baby till a week back...i was also thinking when would be the 4 am feed go...and there were days when instead of 4 she would straight away wake up at 5.30....but now since a week things have changes...last night got at 3.15 and then again at 5.30...dont know whats causing that..just hoping she returns back to her normal schedule sooner than later...
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hkchoichoi, it is not a misconception that babies go longer on formula - they do. Formula is much "heavier" than breastmilk.
SashimiGirl - try formula for 11.30 feed, see if that works (hope it does!).
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agree with Ruth - how many feeds does he take during the day? It may not be enough to simply cluster feed at the END of the day - it is OVERALL caloric intake for the day - and if you're trying to overfeed a tiny stomach at the end of the day, it may be too much all at once.
formula is harder to digest than breastmilk - but I've know personally many cases where moms changed to formula for the final dream feed - and no change in the wakeup. It's not always the solution. An overall examination of the day and feeds and caloric intake and naptimes is more important than simply saying changing to formula is the answer.
3 months is still young - some babies take a bit longer than that - and I would say that the 4 AM wakeup is probably not HABIT, but real need. AT this stage, babies need lots of calories...
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i think baby's calorie intake is fine. the whole day's intake goes like this:
7.30am (b/f)
10am (b/f)
12pm (formula)
3pm (formula)
6pm (b/f)
7.30 (b/f) then bed
11pm (b/f)
4am (b/f) the one i want to drop.
the 6pm feed will soon change to formula so maybe that might help. i definately don't want the 11pm dream feed to be formula because i need that feed to keep my supply up,
maybe bubby just needs a little longer!!!
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what are nap times like? how many naps?
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i don't really monitor his naps! as he isn't much of a sleeper during the day. he'll probably do an hour around midday. in the afternoon he'll probably take 2 half hour naps. all i know for sure is that i definately don't let him sleep from 5pm onwards... until bedtime.
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sometimes there is a correlation between daytime naps (timing) as well as night time sleep. Around 3 months is when many parents notice a sort of pattern emerging for naps - and then can begin establishing a routine for it. So if you notice a pattern, see if you can encourage that pattern and get some good sleep time in for him during the day. There is a range in how much sleep a 3 month old needs during the day - but generally, if he or she is doing 12 at night, he or she can take about 3 hours worth of naps during the day. And sometimes, not taking enough naps can lead to over tiredness during the day and possibly, as some sleep experts theorize, mess up biorhythms, thereby making it harder to sleep.
Just try and keep track and see how he or she is sleeping during the day. Even at 3 months old, the general rule according to a few sleep experts, is no more than 3 hours straight awake. So if he wakes up at 7 then by 10 at the latest, a nap. And then again from wakeup and then trying to nap another 3 or less hours later. I'd also encourage you to try and get him to take a nap in the AM, and then one midday and then one in the afternoon - to see if balancing naps doesn't help him to sleep longer at night.
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