4mth old waking frequently at night - why???

[booboobunny]

can anyone advise what's going on? my nearly 4 month old boy has started waking frequently in the niht having previosuly been a pretty good sleeper. we'd only had a handful of nights where he didn't wake at all, but he was really only waking once or twice. for the last week he's been up to about 7-10, all after 2.30ish. he still oes down well at 7 generally waking only once before 2.30ish, except when i give him his 11 o'clock feed. i am knackered and confused. any ideas what's going on and how i stop it continuing or becoming a habit?

[MrsBadger]

not a clue but very common for sleep to go haywire at 4-6m

is he hungry when he wakes? could just be having a growth spurt and need the extra milk.

[theUrbanDryad]

you could be describing my ds, who was a fab sleeper till he was 17 weeks then turned into demon baby at night! we just went with it, i've always nursed him to sleep, and we ended up co-sleeping as it was the only way we'd get any sleep!

i'm afraid babies wake at night, and it could be for any number of reasons; teeth, wind, hunger, thirst or just a desire for company. IME it tends to be boys who do this, although i'm sure a chorus of mums of bad sleeping girls will prove me wrong!

just go with it for now, do whatever you need to do to get him back to sleep and bear with it. this too shall pass.

[MrsBadger]

Dryad, DD was exactly the same (17wk madness) and we are coping with it the same way...

[booboobunny]

no def girls too. i have one of those. sadly the co-sleeping option is out as i have 20 motnh old girl who still comes in the bed most nights. too dangerous to have er and him in the same bed i think.

he's def not hungry. he will often go back off if i give him his dummy and reswaddle, but not always. i have givven him an extra blanket in case he's cold and tried dentinox teething gel. i think tis coincides with him finding his voice, but nowhere does it say this wakes babies up.

with a 20 month old who has 4 molars coming through i am just whacked. i really need to figure out what's going on and fix it. ccan't leave him to cry. too horrid and live mid-terrace!

[theUrbanDryad]

actually, the one thing that did help for a bit was a dummy. i know not everyone likes them, but ds went through a phase of quite liking them. might help your ds bunny...

[theUrbanDryad]

bunny, have you tried a sidecar arrangement like this?

[booboobunny]

sidecar arrangement looks lovely but we don't havve the room for it as my daughter is in a travel cot in our room. there just isn't the space.
he does use a dummy as i find they give babies a lot of comfort. i have no problem with them, but when it falls out, or he needs it and he's swaddled there's little chane of him being able to self-soothe or replace it!!
seriously tempted to figure out how we could have him in our room/bed safely, but i really can't think of any way it would work....

[theUrbanDryad]

i always thought if i got pg again, we would have the new baby in a sidecar cot (that one is from Ikea with the side taken off!) and have ds between us or next to dh. do you have a king size bed or mattress? we put the mattress on the floor so there was less chance of ds hurting himself by falling out of bed. if you don't want to sleep on the floor, put bed rails on dh's side, and let your dd sleep with him. failing that, kick dh out of bed for a bit and just have the kids in with you?

[Hillbilly]

DS almost 4 months and feeding evry 2 hrs during the night. Most people seem to recommend co sleeping. I am trying the No Cry Sleep Solution but it seems more like the No Sleep only Cry Solution at the moment!

Bear with it - it will pass.

[pelafina]

Message withdrawn

[Stefka]

My DS is doing the exact same thing! Was sleeping well although taking an age to get to sleep but always did about 8 hours. Now he's up in the night again.

I am not able to co sleep - I tried but I just can't relax. Am also trying stuff from the no cry sleep solution. Only on day two of that though so can't say if it is going to work or not.

[booboobunny]

have to say i tried the no cry solution stuff on dd and got nowhere. although she was a bit special in her desire not to sleep. still the same unfortunately but now at least i can run her into te ground during the day!! don't have high hopes of it working on ds as a result. suggested to hubbo about him sleeping elsewhere and he was delighted!!! so i don't tink i'm goin to pursue it. hahaha.
ds is down now for the night but is unsettled and has already needed me to go in twice. as hubbo wryly observed, he'll soon be at te point where he wakes up before he even goes to sleep. i cn hardly wait for tonight....off to bed v. soon

[Nessamommy]

If it makes you feel better...my 4month old did the exact same thing! He did it for about 2 weeks and stopped, however we left him more if he was fussing and he started to put himself to sleep.

[Nismy]

My 4 month old DS also just started sleeping deadfully after having been a good sleeper before. If I leave him to fuss it results in 2-4 hours of hysterics (and sometimes tis happens even if I don't leave him to fuss - just for teh extra fun!). DH and I are both knackered and co-sleeping not an option for us (although I do occasionally kick DH out to the spare bed and cuddle up with my screaming little DS as this is slightly less exhausting. Keep telling myself - this is just a phase (please let it just be a phase!).

[Nismy]

My 4 month old DS also just started sleeping deadfully after having been a good sleeper before. If I leave him to fuss it results in 2-4 hours of hysterics (and sometimes tis happens even if I don't leave him to fuss - just for teh extra fun!). DH and I are both knackered and co-sleeping not an option for us (although I do occasionally kick DH out to the spare bed and cuddle up with my screaming little DS as this is slightly less exhausting. Keep telling myself - this is just a phase (please let it just be a phase!).

[Nismy]

oops sorry double post - it's the sleep deprivation