Sleep inconsistencies..anyone else? I'm assuming it's normal.

rachlee2010

My LO (little one) only wakes once a night to eat..I know that's great for this age but he is so inconsistent with when he wakes.  For a while he was going 6.5 hours from his bed time bottle to his night feed.  But lately he's been all over the place.  A few times he has gone all night and woken after 6 am so I don't count that as a night bottle and counted it as his first day bottle.  He's done that maybe 3 or so times.  Other times he's up at 2 to eat, others 3, others 4, others 5.  If he wakes before 2 which sometimes happen I usually just give him a pacifier and pat him back to sleep and that works.  I could feed him then but he is usually not screaming and his eyes are usually still closed as he fusses and I know he can go longer without eating.  

Should I be doing that more so he sleeps longer all the time?  Like past 2 am? The getting up a lot to get him back to sleep is wearing though and just feeding him and knowing he then goes back to sleep and sleeps the rest of the night is nice.  

His older brother was fully sleeping through the night at this point sleeping 10 plus hours and that was just sleep so going even longer from last bottle to first..I know that no two kids are the same and I am not comparing them but really wish he were like his brother..

Anyone else have an inconsistent one or any tips or advice?

kvruns

Yours sounds similar to mine with times. For me if he wakes up in the middle of the night I feed him because I figure it's been a decent amount of time since he ate. If it were midnight or 1am I'd probably try to soothe him back to sleep like you do if he didn't seem super upset but usually mine is pretty fired up when he wakes in the middle of the night. but for us 2am is 7.5 hours from his last feeding so I figure it it fine to eat. I haven't been able to find any correlation to why sometimes it is 2 or 3 and then a few times it was 5 so I just go with it.

tvh1982

For babies younger than 6 months waking up after 5 hours between feeding is them sleeping through the night. If they sleep longer it's a bonus. That small they still need a night feed, so if they ask, one should give it.
Of course the above is different for every baby! So don't just go by it, and it would be great if they are consistent.

Have you tried a dreamfeed? I do this with my little girl. I give her a bottle before I go to bed at 11. She'll be still asleep so I just pick her up and she'll wake enough to eat. I top her off and she'll be full again. She then sleeps til 03:30 and the last few nights all the way till 06:30. I always try giving her the dummy first, but it's easy to tell when she's hungry. 
I have also been told to give her half a bottle at the nightfeed, so they learn they don't get a lot to eat and will easier skip the nightfeed. 
I haven't tried that just yet, as with 15 weeks I find she's doing pretty well and will be ready when she's ready.

MollySm

Mine is still inconsistent with when she wakes to eat.   I figure that's better than waking consistently,  because then it could be more habit than actual hunger.   When she wakes,  I let her fuss a bit to see if she actually will wake up.   If not she just goes back to sleep.   If she does wake I feed her.