Self-Settling
Above all else, your best line of defence against the 2 hourly wake is to encourage your baby to self-settle at the start of naps and at bedtime. Once they are doing this consistently at the start of sleep, resettling during the night should naturally follow suit.
On average, most exclusively breastfed babies will feed about every 2 to 4 hours. Some babies may feed as often as every hour at times, often called cluster feeding. Or may have a longer sleep interval of 4 to 5 hours. How often your baby feeds might change depending on the time of day.
Developmental changes such as learning to roll over, crawl, toddle, teething, or a growth spurt can all affect night waking and this can continue for quite some time in cycles. Babies may become aware of needing to urinate or poo or may have a wet or dirty nappy causing them to wake. Hunger.
At 3 months, a baby averages a total of 5 hours of sleep during daytime naps and 10 hours at night, usually with an interruption or two. Most babies this age sleep "through the night," meaning a 5-6 hour stretch. But every baby is different, so don't be surprised if your baby sleeps more or less than others.
Also keeping your baby consistently feeding every 3 hours by day (without ever napping more than 2 hours) will help them sleep longer stretches at night. Here's how often you can expect your baby to eat at night during the 0 - 2 month age timeframe: Breastfed Babies - 3 to 5 feedings per night.
How to stop breastfeeding to sleep. Try introducing new sleep associations or a new bed time routine. Replacing breastfeeding with a bath, warm drink, reading a story or rocking your baby to sleep takes more effort, and bed time may take longer that way than by breastfeeding, but it works for some families.
Second Night Syndrome
Generally occurs about 24 hours after birth for almost every baby. Your baby will want to be on the breast constantly but quickly fall asleep. If you put him down, he will probably wake up. If you put him back to breast, he will feed for a short time and fall asleep.
Newborns who sleep for longer stretches should be awakened to feed. Wake your baby every 3–4 hours to eat until he or she shows good weight gain, which usually happens within the first couple of weeks. After that, it's OK to let your baby sleep for longer periods of time at night.
Most newborns need eight to 12 feedings a day — about one feeding every two to three hours. While waking up a sleeping baby might seem like a bad idea, frequent feedings early on are important for a couple of reasons: Crying is a late sign of hunger.
It's very normal and nothing to be concerned about. Your baby may want to cluster feed during the day or night (or a bit of both). Your baby may cluster feed for a few days when they are going through a growth spurt. You can cluster feed formula milk, but it's important not to overfeed your baby.
"Our study found that although it is true that bottle-fed babies wake less often at night and sleep for longer stretches than babies who are nursing, there are no differences in total amount of sleep. And more importantly, six months later there are no differences in sleep skills.
Sleep experts agree that adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night to function properly. Newborns, however, sleep about 16-20 hours in a 24-hour cycle, but this sleep is disrupted with waking every 20 minutes to few hours - making it virtually impossible for a new mother to get those 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
'” Newborn babies are not biologically designed to sleep through the night. They are designed to breastfeed. Breastfed babies need to nurse at night. The ease of digestibility of breast milk ensures optimal growth and immune development when the baby is nursed frequently.
Breastfeeding your child to sleep and for comfort is not a bad thing to do– in fact, it's normal, healthy, and developmentally appropriate. Most babies nurse to sleep and wake 1-3 times during the night for the first year or so.
Babies cluster feed for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is for comfort. But often it is because they are growing and they need more milk.
Don't let your baby fall asleep nursing
If he starts to drift off and he still has more to eat, try to keep him awake. You can tickle him, change positions, talk to him, anything to keep him awake while he eats.
Myth: Babies who have been breastfed are clingy.
All babies are different. Some are clingy and some are not, no matter how they are fed. Breastfeeding provides not only the best nutrition for infants, but is also important for their developing brain.
If your baby seems to be getting enough milk, but continues to suck for an hour or more, your little one might be nursing for comfort rather than for nourishment. This is called non-nutritive sucking or pacifying.
Eating is essential for their growth and development, and they will get plenty of sleep throughout the day. Breastfed babies may wake up more frequently to eat than formula-fed babies as they can digest the breast milk quicker and may not take in as much at a feeding session as they would from a bottle.
A study in 2017 found that three-month-old babies fed breast milk during the first few months of their life slept more during the night than their formula-fed counterparts.