My baby is about 11 weeks now. He naps for a total of only 1 1/2 to 3 hours in the day (from 7am till 7pm), not more than 1 hour stretch per nap. At night, I manage to put him to bed at 7pm and he sleeps very soundly till about 12am, but after that he wakes up every 1-2 hours and wakes up fully by 5+am. This is really taking a toll on me. I swaddle him and everytime he wakes up after like 15mins I'll pat him back to sleep. I'm also breastfeeding him fully and he feeds about 2 hourly and feeds about 10min each time. Tried encouraging him to feed longer by burping him etc but he just doesn't seem to want it anymore. He has enough wet diapers and poos about 1-2 times daily now. Is this normal too? Help.......
Help! Baby don't nap and sleep enough
- Thread starter Pekkie
- Start date
The behaviour you describe is just about what I'd expect around two to three months.
By this age most babies have become very efficient at breastfeeding and unless they are wanting the comfort before falling asleep will usually be done within 10 to 15 minutes. Most babies also don't need burping anymore unless there are reflux problems. So the feeding sounds great.
The sleeping is also very normal. Most babies this age go down for around 5 hours when first put down for the night and then wake regularly, every 2 to 3 hours, until they get up for the day. The secret to coping is making sure you get sleep and rest when the baby is sleeping.
One suggestion would be to make the bedtime later. If the baby slept at 10:00 pm instead of 7:00 pm He would likely at to wake up for the regular feeding three hours later and wake up three hours later in the morning. And so you can benefit from the baby being asleep without having to go to bed at 7:00 pm.
As your baby grows older he will begin to put all his little naps during the day together. Usually by the time the baby is a year he will be having only one or two naps but they could be two hors long.
Best wishes,
SARAH
By this age most babies have become very efficient at breastfeeding and unless they are wanting the comfort before falling asleep will usually be done within 10 to 15 minutes. Most babies also don't need burping anymore unless there are reflux problems. So the feeding sounds great.
The sleeping is also very normal. Most babies this age go down for around 5 hours when first put down for the night and then wake regularly, every 2 to 3 hours, until they get up for the day. The secret to coping is making sure you get sleep and rest when the baby is sleeping.
One suggestion would be to make the bedtime later. If the baby slept at 10:00 pm instead of 7:00 pm He would likely at to wake up for the regular feeding three hours later and wake up three hours later in the morning. And so you can benefit from the baby being asleep without having to go to bed at 7:00 pm.
As your baby grows older he will begin to put all his little naps during the day together. Usually by the time the baby is a year he will be having only one or two naps but they could be two hors long.
Best wishes,
SARAH
Shenzhennifer
Registered User
I`m sorry I have no advice. My baby was exactly like that, still is (at 5.5 months). It does take it`s toll on you for sure. Mine sleeps for 45 min naps, almost never longer. That is his style. I have long since tried making him sleep longer. I`m also fully breastfeeding. He`s still eating allllll the time, waking up at night a lot, waking early in the morning. The only thing I`m able to do about that is to bring him in bed with us and he will fall back asleep, at least for one more 45 min cycle. He hated swaddling - I found it actually woke him up, trying to get out of it.
At that age, my baby was also eating like yours and pooping like him too. He gained weight well so I just kind of accepted everything. It`s frustrating sometimes.
I know what you`re going through totally. I think that is why they make babies so adorable.
At that age, my baby was also eating like yours and pooping like him too. He gained weight well so I just kind of accepted everything. It`s frustrating sometimes.
I know what you`re going through totally. I think that is why they make babies so adorable.
Thanks Sarah, Shenzennifer. Oh it's such a comfort to know my baby is "normal". It's difficult to catch a nap myself as I have a 3 year old at home and having no school now, wants a piece of me whenever possible. I do feel bad sometimes that after feeding and caring for baby and I went straight to bed or do something else instead of spending time with her.
On another note, I plan to introduce formula for my baby at the night time feed eg 10pm so that he has a full tummy and hopefully can sleep better at night. Recently I find my milk supply has gone down, probably due to weeks of lack of sleep. Any comments?
On another note, I plan to introduce formula for my baby at the night time feed eg 10pm so that he has a full tummy and hopefully can sleep better at night. Recently I find my milk supply has gone down, probably due to weeks of lack of sleep. Any comments?
Dear Pekkie,
Please can you describe how you know that your milk supply has reduced?
Sometime around three to four months your breasts become accustomed to lactating. Around this time your breasts stop feeling full and stop leaking. This doesn't mean that your supply has dropped but rather that you are doing everything perfectly.
Before starting formula - I would try to give a breast feed at this time. I know that giving formula or expressed breast milk at around 10:00 pm is in fashion at the moment and people say that it helps the baby to sleep longer but direct breastfeeding work as well.
Also remember that the maximum health benefits occur while your baby is being exclusively breastfed. This means no formula, no water, no juices etc. just breast milk.
Best wishes,
SARAH
Please can you describe how you know that your milk supply has reduced?
Sometime around three to four months your breasts become accustomed to lactating. Around this time your breasts stop feeling full and stop leaking. This doesn't mean that your supply has dropped but rather that you are doing everything perfectly.
Before starting formula - I would try to give a breast feed at this time. I know that giving formula or expressed breast milk at around 10:00 pm is in fashion at the moment and people say that it helps the baby to sleep longer but direct breastfeeding work as well.
Also remember that the maximum health benefits occur while your baby is being exclusively breastfed. This means no formula, no water, no juices etc. just breast milk.
Best wishes,
SARAH
FutureHKmom
Registered User
Dear Pekkie - My experience is a little different than yours but I wanted to share it with you since I do give a bottle of formula at the last feed at night. Our babies are about the same age as mine is 3 months old. He doesn't sleep much at all during the day between 9/10am and 10:00pm. During those hours, he naps a total of between 1 hour and 2.5/3 hours - usually split into two naps (one in the morning and one in the afternoon). But at night he sleeps for a long time. I put him to bed at around 10:45pm after his last feed and he can last until around 6am and on occasion he's slept until 9am! If he wakes up at 6am, I just give him a quick 15 minute feed on one side and then he falls right back to sleep until 9/9:30am. The last feed at night at 10:15pm is a bottle of formula that I have been giving since he was around 7 weeks. The reason we introduced the formula is because my husband wanted to feed him and also because a few weeks ago, I was getting too exhausted to feed him at that time. Also, my husband is convinced that the formula makes him sleep longer. Anyways, introducing the formula has worked well for us though I am very aware of the fact that max health benefits occurs with exclusive bf. My husband and I have just chosen this route as it works well for us and our son.
I was also worried that my baby wasn't sleeping enough, but I read somewhere that babies this age sleep an average of 12-15 hours a day only and since my son has been doing quite well when he is awake, I'm not that worried anymore.
As for pooing - my baby also poos 1-2 times a day (sometimes 3 times!!)
I was also worried that my baby wasn't sleeping enough, but I read somewhere that babies this age sleep an average of 12-15 hours a day only and since my son has been doing quite well when he is awake, I'm not that worried anymore.
As for pooing - my baby also poos 1-2 times a day (sometimes 3 times!!)
Hi Sarah,
While feeding I sometimes realised my baby isn't drinking much milk as I don't hear him swallowing as I used to. I normally observed him feed so that he doesn't take me as a pacifier but really feeding. He will try hard to suck and and fidgets a lot and I thought probably I should put him on another breast. Problem is, he feeds every 2 hourly and I don't feel full one thing, and also he doesn't seem to have a lot to drink by the "sound" of swallowing
and after 10 mins he gets tired and just refuse the breast and may want to be fed again after an hour or 1 1/2 hours later. And I thought he catnaps for such a short time, he is probably not getting enough from the feed (as what I read from Gina Ford but I know there's quite a bit of controversy on that one and I'm one who tried but couldn't work out on her schedule and definitely not a contented one with 
) Thanks for your suggestion and I think I may want to try to sleep him a bit later.
Hi FutureHKmum, thanks for sharing. I hope my baby takes the formula feed as he doesn't take the bottle very well. I have tried several bottles though. I read from babycenter that a 3 month old needs 15 hours of sleep and he doesn't come close to 12 hours a day!
While feeding I sometimes realised my baby isn't drinking much milk as I don't hear him swallowing as I used to. I normally observed him feed so that he doesn't take me as a pacifier but really feeding. He will try hard to suck and and fidgets a lot and I thought probably I should put him on another breast. Problem is, he feeds every 2 hourly and I don't feel full one thing, and also he doesn't seem to have a lot to drink by the "sound" of swallowing
and after 10 mins he gets tired and just refuse the breast and may want to be fed again after an hour or 1 1/2 hours later. And I thought he catnaps for such a short time, he is probably not getting enough from the feed (as what I read from Gina Ford but I know there's quite a bit of controversy on that one and I'm one who tried but couldn't work out on her schedule and definitely not a contented one with ) Thanks for your suggestion and I think I may want to try to sleep him a bit later.Hi FutureHKmum, thanks for sharing. I hope my baby takes the formula feed as he doesn't take the bottle very well. I have tried several bottles though. I read from babycenter that a 3 month old needs 15 hours of sleep and he doesn't come close to 12 hours a day!
Hi there - I'm no expert, just a mum with a baby a little older than yours but I had to let you know that the 10pm bottle feed worked like a charm with my little girl. Within a few days of beginning this feed she dropped her night feeds and slept through (at 9 weeks). I have to say though she never fed as frequently as your little one. One bottle of formula a day is really not going to make that much difference to your baby's health in my opinion, but for what its worth I notice no difference in the length of sleep if baby gets EBM or formula... its the quantity of milk that she can get from the bottle that she can't get from me at that time of night. By the way we first started this 10pm feed at 3 weeks, it did not help at that stage and eventually i figured out it was because my baby was not an efficient bottle feeder. What I did was scrap the 10pm feed and give a bottle at breakfast time for 2 weeks so that she could practice whilst awake and alert, by the end of this time she knew exactly what to do with the bottle and we reintroduced the 10pm feed. Getting her to learn what to do with the bottle took persistence though, sometimes an hour for just a couple of ounces! Also - you're doing an AMAZING job 
Dear Pekkie,
Please do not allow Gina Ford to educate you about breastfeeding. Her book is about schedules and not about breastfeeding. So whenever there is a conflict between keeping the baby on a schedule and keeping the baby breastfeeding Gina will go with the schedules and I will go with the breastfeeding.
It is really very normal for a baby of 11 weeks to ask for milk every two hours while awake. I would expect your baby to have between 8 and 12 feeds every 24 hours. These will not be regular but rather part of the 24 hours will be regular, part of the 24 hours the baby will have a longer sleep (maybe even 5 or 6 hours) and part of the 24 hours the baby will have quite few feeds in just a few hours(making up for the feeds he missed while asleep).
I know that Gina says she is 100% for breastfeeding but in fact the advice she gives often conflicts with successful breastfeeding. She also suggests a lot of pumping - this can easily lead to breastfeeding problems before six weeks - and is usually hard work making the whole experience much more tiring than necessary.
One of the ways I copied when my babies were little was to breastfeed lying down. Once they were asleep I would roll away from them and put pillows around to make sure they didn't fall off the bed. Because I wasn't moving them once they'd fallen asleep they tended to sleep for longer. If I fell asleep too then I decided that my priority was to get more sleep that day but if I was awake when the baby slept I was allowed to get up and play on the computer!
Are you able to comfortably breastfeed lying down? If not, practice in the middle of your double bed with lots of pillows until you are confident.
Best wishes,
SARAH
Please do not allow Gina Ford to educate you about breastfeeding. Her book is about schedules and not about breastfeeding. So whenever there is a conflict between keeping the baby on a schedule and keeping the baby breastfeeding Gina will go with the schedules and I will go with the breastfeeding.
It is really very normal for a baby of 11 weeks to ask for milk every two hours while awake. I would expect your baby to have between 8 and 12 feeds every 24 hours. These will not be regular but rather part of the 24 hours will be regular, part of the 24 hours the baby will have a longer sleep (maybe even 5 or 6 hours) and part of the 24 hours the baby will have quite few feeds in just a few hours(making up for the feeds he missed while asleep).
I know that Gina says she is 100% for breastfeeding but in fact the advice she gives often conflicts with successful breastfeeding. She also suggests a lot of pumping - this can easily lead to breastfeeding problems before six weeks - and is usually hard work making the whole experience much more tiring than necessary.
One of the ways I copied when my babies were little was to breastfeed lying down. Once they were asleep I would roll away from them and put pillows around to make sure they didn't fall off the bed. Because I wasn't moving them once they'd fallen asleep they tended to sleep for longer. If I fell asleep too then I decided that my priority was to get more sleep that day but if I was awake when the baby slept I was allowed to get up and play on the computer!
Are you able to comfortably breastfeed lying down? If not, practice in the middle of your double bed with lots of pillows until you are confident.
Best wishes,
SARAH
I thought I've replied to this thread but don't see it here. The "post quick reply" function doesn't seem to work.. Anyway, thanks Dink and Sarah for your suggestions.
Sarah, I've started breastfeeding lying down and baby takes it very well, in fact, I think that's the best position for him!
Sarah, I've started breastfeeding lying down and baby takes it very well, in fact, I think that's the best position for him!