Sleep regression... HELP

g8trkim

So, from 6-8 weeks, DS was sleeping around 6 hours each night. He was like clockwork 10-4, eat, sleep 4:30-7:30. But as soon as he hit 8 weeks, BAM, he's all over the place. At first I figured it was just a growth spurt and it would stop. But now it's been 2 weeks and I'm so over it. He did two nights of 5 hours (no big deal), than an 8-hour night (awesome), but since then it's been more like 4 hours and even a couple 3's. It's killing me. I don't know what the problem is.

We have a schedule at night. 7:30 walk around neighborhood, 8:00 bath, 9:00 eat, 9:30 bed. He doesn't have trouble falling asleep. Any ideas?

jarbatz

DD was on the same schedule when she was 8 weeks. 

Is he BF or FF?   Have you tried feeding him more during the day?   I also feed DD every 3 hours but then the last feeding is 2 hours apart so she is nice and full before she goes down for bed. 

Also - does he take the paci?  

g8trkim

He is BF. I feed him every 3 hours in the day. I think he could go over 3 but I only go over if he happens to be sleeping at the 3 hour mark. I've never had a supply issue but I tried a couple nights to give him 2 oz of formula too during his last feeding to see if that helped. One night he slept 7 hours and the other he slept 4.

He is not big on the paci, sometimes he will take it when he's falling asleep and sometimes he won't. He seems to help him fall asleep but as soon as he's out it falls out of his mouth. But he falls asleep pretty well anyway, it's just staying asleep that's the problem.

I will try to feed him 2 hours apart this evening and see if that helps.

anabell0920

He is only 2 months sorry to say but it is completely normal to not have a pattern that sticks yet and most babies don't until much older.

g8trkim

He seems to be waking because he is hungry, though sometimes he is wide awake like he wants to play. I always keep it very dark and quiet so he's pretty good about going back to sleep after he eats. Do you think it would help if I gave him a formula bottle at night? I've given him formula here and there and he takes it fine. I'm pumping to save milk for when I go back to work anyway so I could give him formula before bed and pump instead. I'm getting desperate. Plus I go back to work in a month and I will not be able to function on theis wierd sporatic sleep schedule.

g8trkim

anabell0920:

He is only 2 months sorry to say but it is completely normal to not have a pattern that sticks yet and most babies don't until much older.

My main concern is that he's not satisfied if he isn't sleeping consistently. Plus, during the last feeding of the night he is thrashing around and really irritable (like it makes it really hard to BF) and then he just passes out. It still makes me worry he's not getting enough.

MFalor

Sounds like he's ready to start a little sleep training.  I guess it was around 8 weeks that my DD slept an 8 hour stretch at night.  Then a few days later she did it again.  So I decided to stop night feeding.  When she woke up at night, I'd come in and change her diaper and re-swaddle her IN HER CRIB and help sooth her back to sleep.  I had to do that less and less and eventually she was able to cry a little and sooth herself back to sleep w/out my help.  It's nice once you switch over to the # 2 diapers (around 12-13 lbs) b/c they hold a lot more and last about 12 hours!  DD's a pro now at putting herself back to sleep when she wakes up at night.

GL!

g8trkim

MFalor:

Sounds like he's ready to start a little sleep training.  I guess it was around 8 weeks that my DD slept an 8 hour stretch at night.  Then a few days later she did it again.  So I decided to stop night feeding.  When she woke up at night, I'd come in and change her diaper and re-swaddle her IN HER CRIB and help sooth her back to sleep.  I had to do that less and less and eventually she was able to cry a little and sooth herself back to sleep w/out my help.  It's nice once you switch over to the # 2 diapers (around 12-13 lbs) b/c they hold a lot more and last about 12 hours!  DD's a pro now at putting herself back to sleep when she wakes up at night.

GL!

Oh, I didn't think of this. One night I actually rubbed his tummy and he went right back to sleep, so it is certainly possible. I have some size 2 diapers I could always put on just for night. He's 12 lbs now so he could fit in them but I was just using up my size 1's.

jarbatz

This is a good suggestion - just b/c he's waking doesn't necessarily mean he's hungry.  He could just be wanting to be comforted, which is why I asked about the paci. 

And there is nothing wrong with giving him some formula to see if it helps...you have to experiment with what works!  But sometimes there's nothing you can do to force LO to sleep longer, unfortunately.

But eventually he will get there and the fact that he's done it before let's you know that he is capable of sleeping long stretches.  Hang in there!

gwennec

My LO did the same thing and it has not stopped. She gets super cranky at night, so started putting her to bed earlier, but that isn't helping either. She seems to be stuck on waking up at 12:30am now, where she would go until 2-4am before. Now she added a 12:30am feeding on top of the others. I feed her every 2-3 hours during the day and sometimes more than I did when she was sleeping better. I tried a dreamfeed the other day and that did nothing. Ugh.