Is it me or does every other 4 month old in the world sleep a zillion times better than mine?

[Ab31]

My 4.5 month old ds was, once upon a time, a twice a night waker. Quick feeds, back to sleep. Lovely. Now... he's waking every 2 hours. I don't know if he's really hungry or not but I end up feeding him every time (don't want to wake dc1 etc etc) and he falls asleep feeding but is really hard to put down afterwards so for all my best intentions when I go to bed, by morning he's always in bed with me.
The worst thing is every other baby of the same age I know/meet seems to be sleeping through the night. Can it be true??? Or am I distorting the truth in a haze of exhaustion?!

[verylittlecarrot]

My 18 month old often sleeps like yours. HTH!

I co-sleep as a chosen strategy.

[verylittlecarrot]

P.S. Yours is normal, and other people fib sometimes. You are not alone and things will improve, eventually. I sympathise though!

[Moulesfrites]

exact same happened to me at 4 months. things better now at 7 mo but still not as good as they were before the dreaded regression hit!

[bumbums]

I think that 4mths is when all babies go through a sleep regression phase. Do u remember if dc1 did? Carry on as you are and in a few weeks things will hopefully be better.
Mine slept well till 4mths and then didn't sleep through till 8-9mths. But that was just mine. I found once solids were established things improved, however that could have been a co-insidence. But would not wean early as I personally don't think there little bodies can cope with food till 6mths.
Hang in there. You're most definately not alone!

[JoanPlaysTheAccordion]

Definitely not true that every other baby of that age is a brilliant sleeper! Dd3 is nearly 5 months and has just come out of the other side of a massive growth spurt. Like your ds, she was doing great, up once or twice, but quick to feed and easy to settle. Then, she became a feeding monster, day and night which went on, on and off for weeks (but felt like years). I dealt with it like you, feeding in the night and taking her into bed - it was the only way to stay sane, especially with older children and it being the summer hols. Then, all of a sudden last week, she calmed right down and is back to how she was before. Am hoping for a bit of calm for a few weeks til she starts to need solids!

Anyway, long winded way of saying I hear ya, I felt similar, but it it came to an end for us - hope it does for you too soon.

[rubybambini]

I'm convinced there's so much rhetoric about the phrase 'sleeping through the night'.

When a friend tells me that their baby sleeps through the night, I've started to ask - is that every night? And the answer most always comes back well, last night was a bit wonky, s/he woke at 2am and last week we had a bit of a glitch when she woke up a few times etc etc.

So yes, in a sample of 100, there must be some babies that consistently, Every Single Night sleep from 7pm to 7am, but I bet you most (like mine) have their ups and downs just like we as adults do.

In an average week, my DD (4.5 months) will sleep probably twice from 7pm to 7am (with a dream feed), one night might wake at 4.30 or 5.30am then 7.30am, and otherwise wake at 3.30am and 7.30am. Occasionally she'll do something really annoying like last night and wake at 1am, 3am, 5am - which she has never ever done before. If anyone asked, I'd say she slept through the night in general - but the reality is different when I actually stop to think about it.

And that's the truth =)

[toolittletime89]

Nope my DS is the same age and she just flipped out at 4m!
She too had been sleepin 7-7 with one feed for weeks, now she up anythin from 1-4 times!! Daytime sleep gone bad again too and i had only just got the hang of three good naps!
I think its the other way round, i think its rare for bubs sleep through from 6months and even rarer for them before that age!
Don't worry about people and their miracle sleeping babies, they are prob glossing things over anyway!

[RitaMorgan]

Loads of babies start waking lots around four months - combination of a growth spurt and big developmental leaps. My ds slept 8 hours til 18 weeks, then was awful for a while. Didn't start going through without night feeds til 8 or 9 months.

[lynniep]

Mine were both bl**dy awful sleepers. I feel bad for you I really do. It will get better. If you're lucky it will be soon. Don't worry about him ending up in bed with you. DS2 usually ends up with me (hes 21 months now). His sleep (finally) is better - he stopped frequent wakings about 6 months ago and rarely wakes more than once or twice now, but he always wakes around 4.30 and I normally end up giving him milk and bringing him in with me as I know he'll probably nod off again for a couple of hours. anything to get more sleep!

[Ab31]

Mumsnetter's are just brilliant at putting things in perspective!
Thank you all!