4 Month Old Sleep

[Bayoubaby]

Hi everyone,
My DD is 4 months old. I've recently started getting her nap in her bouncy chair using a dummy. I have to bounce her but she goes off now quite well. However, whatever I do, her naps are only around 30 minutes. I put her down for one every 90 mins or so. Are naps of this length normal or should they be longer? Also, can I ask about bedtimes at this age. She usually goes down for the night at around 7 - 7:30 then is awake Avery 2.5-3 hours for a feed. Is there any way to increase the length between the wakes for instanse more feeds through the day or do anything with naps or is this just the norm? She used to only wake once or twice though the night but now it's around 4-5 times. And finally, is there anyway to help encourage self soothing? My DD always needs help to go back to sleep and that's fine for now but just wondering if there's anything I can do to start setting this up for the future. Thank you x

[FATEdestiny]

30-45 minute daytime naps are developmentally normal. The bouncer offers you a great way to extend baby's nap - if you stay near baby while sleeping, you should notice a "tell" that baby is about to wake up. Before waking, baby will move from a deep sleep into a light sleep. It is possible for baby to go from this light sleep phase into the deep sleep of a second sleep cycle without waking. That needs you to spot the small change in baby's demenor when stirring but not waking. Mine used to svrunch get face up.

If you start bouncing at this phase, you can start teaching baby to move into a second fleet cycle without waking. The more often you do this, the more baby learns to link sleep cycles and soon baby won't need that help to go from one cycle into the next.

As for night times, having an alternate way to settle baby to sleep that isn't feeding is useful.

I would do dummy inserts and hand on baby's chest. Maybe tap dummy to get baby sucking. I would always try to settle baby without feeding initially, only feeding if dummy won't do.

You could then ensure baby feeds more in the day, so less is needed at night. So making feeds bigger (feed, wind, feed again and avoid distractions) and more frequent should mean more daytime calories so fewer calories needed at night.

[Bayoubaby]

Thank you so much!