10 week old waking every two hours or more

amother

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 1:17 am

Baby is colicky but I'm still trying to establish somewhat healthy sleep patterns. Trying to figure out if the following is normal and will just improve or if I should be doing something different.

The one thing we (b"ah!) established is an early bedtime. She was very obviously tired by 5-6pm, so I latched onto that. The "best" part of our night is the beginning (which is normal, per Weissbluth's book) but she'll do like one 3 and a half to almost four hour stretch, followed by maybe a two hour stretch, then waking every two hours or less. (Sometimes 45 minutes, sometimes two hours ) I do a quick feed, and she often goes back to sleep within fifteen minutes (occasionally we'll have a half hour/45 minutes stint).

By 4am, I'm usually so exhausted I just keep her in bed with me and she sleeps on me until around 7. Then we go back to sleep together in my bed for another couple of hours at like 8 or 9.

My question is, will the 12 week rule apply to her? Will she suddenly be somehow sleeping through the night or sleeping more in two weeks? Is there anything I should be doing differently to make that happen?

amother

Pearl

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 1:22 am

In my experience don't overanalyze what you're doing at night. Focus on what you're doing in the day and the night will often fall into place .
So firstly is the baby getting enough feeds in during the day to be able to go stretches at night? She should be eating every 3 hours from 7am till say 10 or 11 pm (even if that last feed is already a "night feed or lights out etc).
Once you've done this feeding every 3 hours.....for 3 days see what happens at night, she should now manage from that 10 or 11 pm feed to go till 2 or 3 and then again till 6 or 7 or ifnyou feed at 10 pm she may wake at 1 and then feed and then go till 5 or so....but definitely you are looking to reduce the feeds at night and this only is possible when the baby has enough feeds during the day.
The benefits of feeding every 3bhrs also means her body will better digest as she's not taking constant small feeds or irregular feeds so she will hopefully feel more settled and comfy at night.
Hope that this can help a little.

FranticFrummie

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 5:21 am

You cannot establish a "sleep pattern" with a 10 week old baby! Who told you that?

Babies wake up when they need something, not because they have "bad habits." The baby is wet, the baby is hungry, the baby is cold, the baby is too hot, the baby wants a snuggle.

There is nothing "unhealthy" about waking up for that. Please, pay attention to your baby's cues. Your baby is trying to communicate with you!