3 Month Sleeping Less.

He's growing, and his habits will change. Once you get used to a routine he's set for himself, he could just up and change it one day. It was like that constantly with my son. He's 23 months old (2 August 11th) and through out the first year maybe year and a half, he would start doing something different once I got used to the routine we had going.

I agree with the other moms on here. Definitely hold off on jar food for a while longer (probably six months). You may be able to start cereal around 4 months, so check with your ped on that. It is true that a baby's digestive system is just not ready for food at 3 1/2 months. 6 hours is really good for a baby his age. I love the dr. sears website that was suggested earlier. Good luck with that sweet little one!

Is he on cereal yet? If not try giving him cereal with his formula before bed.
ABOUT ME: I work at home mom of three wonderful kids 8,5 and 3. Ive never been happier.

Hi A.,
Definitely follow the link on Liev's post... that's a GREAT site for questions like this.

My son did a similar thing, and I was so frustrated (after bragging that he was sleeping through the night) to have him go back to waking at night! :) I wanted to start feeding him more right away... and thought about the rice cereal thing, but in the end followed the dr's recommendation not to start until 5 months at least... I did go ahead and start at 5 months instead of 6, because I have a BIG boy and he was showing all of the signs that he was ready for food. The one thing it didn't do? Make him sleep longer at night! :) So now I'm still down on sleep, but up on dishes! The moral of my story? Don't rush! Enjoy every late night excuse to cuddle, because soon you'll be forced to actually leave him in his bed at night! :D Good luck!
-H

ONLY 6 hrs!?? Count your blessings. At such a young age sleeping six hrs is a blessing. I wouldn't give solids yet, a little early yet. My one year old still wakes up to nurse. Could be teething, try tylenol. could be a growth spurt and just needing a little extra milk right now. This won't be the last time baby gets out of your schedule.

Browse http://askdrsears.com/html/7/T070100.asp

This should help.

I would have been more worried that he wasn't eating enough when sleeping 8 hours! You are so lucky! It may not feel like it, but a 3 1/2 month old sleeping 6 hours sounds like a dream come true to me. My first son only slept an hour and a half at that age. My second one slept longer than that but not 6 hrs! You must only be getting up once at night, right? You honestly can't ask for more than that at this age.

Also, hold off on that jar food. I have read that if you introduce certain foods to early, you can casue them to have food allergies later. Just a thought. Plain rice cereal should be OK, but I woudn't do any more than that at this point. It probably won't make him sleep longer anyway.

An infant doesn't need any nutrition other than breast milk or formula for the first 6 months. The fat content of these liquids is 50% - no other food item comes close to providing that, and the fat is necessary for energy and for baby's developing brain.

As your infant nears 4 months, he becomes more social, so he is more likely to wake up more often or to try staying awake longer in order to spend more time with you. However, according to what I have learned in "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" (Marc Weissbluth) and "Baby 411" (Denise Fields), an infant is capable of going without eating for 6 hours straight at 4 months, 9 hours at 5 months, and 12 hours at 6 months. They will wake up more frequently during the night if "trained" to - i.e., if you respond every time, and if you are playful with them.

Sleep is controlled by signals from the brain and has no relation to hunger signals, according to Weissbluth. His study included observations of infants with feeding tubes who were constantly receiving food. Adding cereals to the formula or jarred foods will take up space that formula would, and will provide fewer calories to your baby. Furthermore, infants are not really able to eat solid foods until closer to six months, because their digestive tracts haven't developed enough, and they need to develop better control of head and facial muscles.

I highly recommend the two above books - they have been very helpful with my two boys, age 23 months and 5 months.

A.,

Hi! Consider yourself lucky that your son sleeps six hours consecutively. My son is almost nine months and just starting sleeping through the night. He started waking again while he was teething, but seems to be back to normal now. Their sleep patterns change so much, just when you start to get used to a schedule, BAM! it changes.
He could be going through a growth spurt, which is common around 4 months. I asked my doctor if I should be feeding him at night when he was 6 months and she said "Medically he doesn't need to eat at night at 6 months." But you know, if he seems like he is hungry, who am I to deny him food.
As far as adding cereal to his bottle, I would wait to introduce him to solids. I have also read that putting cereal in a bottle could risk choking, since it is thicker than they are used to.
Try feeding him more often throughout the day, tanking him up they call it. Hopefully that will help.
Also don't let the books tell you how much sleep your baby needs. You will be able to tell if they aren't getting enough sleep, he'll be cranky.
I hope this will help you...don't worry it will get better.
Good luck,
S.

I understand your frustration, but please don't rush into solid foods! A 3 month-old is not physically ready to digest food. 6 hours a night is normal for that age. As they grow, they're sleep needs change from time to time. The best thing you can do is wake up, feed baby in a dark room, and go back to sleep. The baby is most likely waking because she needs to eat. One thing you can try that worked for us was to put baby down early (around 7) and then wake her for to nurse right before we went to bed. This seemed to help us get through until early morning, when she would eat and go back to sleep.
Please do some reading or talk to your doctor before you start feeding your infant solids (the digestive system is not developed enough) - 3 months is very early and 6 hours is actually normal at that age. 6 hours is actually considered sleeping through the night (LOL!).
Try a great book called BABY 411 - I wore mine out with questions like this. Even my pediatrician likes that book! It has wonderful sections on eating, sleeping, and common illnesses for babies.
Good luck!!!!

In my experience it's totally normal he's sleeping 6 1/2 hours at night between feedings. My twins (now 15 months) went 6 hours between their night time feedings (midnight until 6 am) around 4 months and were still eating every 3 hours the rest of the day. They didn't drop their last night feeding until 6 and 7 months.

I would talk to your pediatrician before feeding them jarred food. Mine told me to start cereal around 4 months and jarred food around 5 months.

Good Luck!

It is very normal for your child to wake up at night after only 6 hours. Consider your self lucky that he slept for 8 hours before. As far as giving him jarred food, don't. Their little digestive systems cannot handle anything other than formula until at least 4 months of age. I didn't give my daughter any jarred food or cereal until she was 6 months of age.

I suggest adding 1 tablespoon of rice cereal to his last bottle.... he is so close to being able to go ahead and start over the counter sweet potato jars as well. If he will take some at 4 months, i definitely suggest giving it them to him at his last meal of the night. I agree with your instinct that he is not getting enough to eat. you could also stop the length of his daytime naps by about 15-20 minutes consistently, and he will get tired a little earlier.... my biggest question too, is what time of the night is he going to bed? and what time is he waking up? and whe he does wake up, do you feed him his bottle/breast right away, and how long after that does he stay awake. The answers to these questions could bring some enlightenment, and new ideas/thoughts to me, and then i could possibly relay some more ideas. but trust me , she's so close to starting solids that getting a little rice cereal in her bottle at night is not going to hurt her.
I hope you all start getting more sleep very soon!

good luck,
K.

Hi mama!
I've found that our babies tend to do less sleeping when they're working on a new skill. Starting with rolling over, then crawling, walking, talking, etc. It's like their brains keep working on the skill through the night allowing for less sleep. Have you ever tried to learn something new and find yourself laying in bed at night thinking about it?
Do you think this could be the case?
3 1/2 months, six hours is a great amount of time to sleep! Watch for baby's cues. See what she's doing and what she might be telling you she needs. Does she need reassurance that you are still there? Does she just need some cuddles? Babies also go through growth spurts that up their caloric needs, which should only be met with breastmilk or formula at this age.
You're doing a great job, mama! Keep up the great work.

Also, I wanted to address Rebecca's post. Breastmilk only has a fat content of 4.2%, and a protein content of 0.9%. Breastmilk is very different from formula, which in turn makes for very different sleep habits in breastfed vs formula fed babies. Because of the higher fat content in formula, ff babies are much liklier to sleep for longer stretches. The make up of breastmilk is intended for mothers and babies to be in close contact throughout the night. Human babies were meant to be continuous feeders, rather than spaced feeders. But because of the altered content of formula, we've gotten into the mindset that human babies are spaced feeders.