he's gone from sleeping though to feeding every 1 1/2 hours! stop me from going to formula!

[Heathcliffscathy]

ds is 15 wks told today. he has been sleeping from 7 til 7 for ages (since maybe 9 weeks) with one feed in the middle and sometimes none!

suddenly this week he has started feeding pretty much non-stop in the night, and still feeding normally during the day (4-5 big feeds).

is this the famous 4 month sleep regression/growth spurt? what is this? when will it stop???

he is a big baby, reckon he must weigh around 17-18lb now and is in 6-12 month clothes (he was big on all his scans and weighed 8lb 6oz at birth at 37 weeks).

he is exclusively breastfed on demand.

HELP! i can feel myself reaching for the formula next time I go to the supermarket!!!

Yes classic growth spurt, when my DS did it lasted for a week, and took afew more days to settl back into a good sleeping pattern/. Hang in there. Do not go to the dark side!

I'm not sure formula will make a huge difference but I have no experience. What happens if you try and it doesn't? Or you try and it coincides with him sleeping better anyway?

Give it a week, cosleep to make life easier if you can and take it from there?

Unfortunately things like teething, developmental leaps, illness, learning new tricks can all cause more night wakings!

Dark side??? Jeez louise.
However do agree with Igglybuff - formula unlikely to make a huge difference if you are intorducing it to try and help sleeping.

Aaaahhh 14-16 weeks I remember that! I personally don't think formula will get you any more sleep it's a growth spurt. Persevere and he should return to his normal sleeping pattern shortly.

DD did the exact same thing, shes 19 weeks now and its just started to sort itself out with her only waking once or twice.
Formula is unlikely to make any difference, other than you'll have to make it in the middle of the night so will probably be getting less sleep!

We went through this last week and it nearly killed me, it took three nights of 2-3 hour waking and then another 3 nights of waking every hour, but now he's back to only one waking a night. DS is 17 weeks now.

It should get easier, with DS he just stopped. I did consider formula, but at the third waking, who can really be bothered to get up and make a bottle of formula.

Growth spurt. Nightmare, but it does pass! The way I figured it was much easier to just plonk DS on the breast than faff around making a bottle.

This Too Shall Pass!

pommedeterre I was just joking

classic. and it never stops. they start crawling and that wakes them up. they start standing and that wakes them up. they start walking and that wakes them up. they have jabs, get ill, start teething and that wakes them up. then they become cheeky toddlers who want some water in the night so that wakes them up. then they might have nightmares that wake them up. then you will lie awake waiting for them to come in at night when they are teenagers. it never stops. sleeping through is a total red herring. in between all those times incidentally, they probably will sleep.

sorry thats probably not very helpful but i am totally over trying to get him to sleep through.

tbh i am grateful for bfing as a way of getting my ds back to sleep pronto. some of my ff friends have to listen to their dcs wail for hours in a cc fashion and are up for much longer when things go tits up. bfing is exceptionally convenient in the night i find. also when travelling it is a great way to calm them down/cheer them up etc etc

your choice of course. i'm sure some will say the formula will make them sleep longer.

Yep, it's probably the 4 month sleep regression - their brains are really busy working on a huge developmental spurt which happens at around 19 weeks.

There is a great book explaining it called The Wonder Weeks by two scientists who researched all the developmental spurts up to 13 months.

They say "Your baby may not settle down well at night now. It may be more difficult to get her to bed in the evenings, or she may lie awake at night. She may want a night feeding again, or she may even demand to be fed several times a night. She may also wake up much earlier in the morning."

They also say: "The fussy period preceding the developmental spurt will often last 5 weeks, although it may be as short as 1 week or as long as 6."

There?s useful information on the sleep regression here, here, here and here.

I just fed every time DS woke up and he went back to less frequent waking with no effort from me.

Sympathies, though - we're in the second half of the 9 month sleep regression and I'm so grateful to have bf to help him go off without having to let DS cry like Ruby says. I find co-sleeping even if only temporarily helps - your sleep cycles synchronise with your LO's then, so at least you're never woken out of a deep sleep. :)

Yes, happened to DS2 at 16 weeks (had slept through EVERY night since 8 weeks), he didn't sleep through for one single night after 16 until he was weaned onto both food and formula at 6 months.

We had always feed at 10-11pm so sleeping through was 11pm -7am.

FWIW tried giving bottle of formula at 11pm but he only drank a couple of oz and he still didn't sleep through, also tried giving expressed milk top up at 11pm again didn't sleep through.

Everyone on here said growth spurt, and yes it did settle to one middle of the night feeding (ie at 10pm and 3am) rather than 2 hourly) but he was just too big and too hungry just on breastmilk to sleep all night after 16 weeks.

Went back to work at 25 weeks, introduced solids and formula and he went back to sleeping all night immediately (although still feeding at 10pm at 7 months). For me I prefered 2 months of broken sleep than early weaning om solids and formula.

Last night both DD (7) - nightmare and DS (4)- needed wee up in night, its right it never stops.

I have the wonder weeks book as recommended by Angel - it helped stopped me going insane, well partly, as I could look out for developmental changes so could see a cause (sometimes).

DD is doing this at 3 months as we speak, have taken to settling her in her moses basket for her 'long sleep', (7ish till midnight) then co-sleeping from there. She isn't just feeding, she is chatty/unsettled and co-sleeping keeps her quieter and more contented.

I hate to be a dissenting voice, but we're now at 5 months and no sign of the "4 month sleep regression" finishing. We went from minimum 6 hours to 9 hours at night to waking 2-3 hourly. I'm not sure if it's reverse cycling or what, but I'm also contemplating going to the dark side! The other thing I'm thinking of is introducing baby rice...

/ducks from flaming!

But I hope it's a short lived thing for you!

Ah, but do you have the new edition, Iggly? It includes two more spurts up to age 2. Unfortunately I bought the old one just before finding out about the new one.

(And no, I wasn't surprised. :))

Trillian I am in the same boat, DS is 21 weeks old slept through 11pm-7am til he was about 15 weeks, hasnt slept through since... wakes several times but as we co-sleep I open my eyes long enough to latch him and thats it. Let me know how baby rice goes....

It's lasted for about 5 weeks and counting for us, with peaks and troughs. But DD properly slept through last night for the first time ever (10 til 7:30 ) so I'm hopeful... She's nearly 21 weeks.

Wow! That's great news gaelicsheep! My DD is 22 weeks so I'm still not sure if there's any hope for us now!

Going to wait until 23 weeks before the baby rice trial virgo1979, but will keep you posted!

Angel I bought the old one a year ago - and have been tempted by the new one (I signed up to the email updates so they tried to tempt me that way). I think I will resist and try and persuade my local library to buy it instead

ok so maybe out of the woods (til the new woods arrive?) as he did 7pm til midnight and then til 7am last night! huzzah

Iggly, I bought mine after the library didn't want to get it for me - only to find they had bought it after all. Mind, Christmas is coming up...

Glad to hear of progress with some of the babies. I'm very jealous - I thought a 4-hour stretch from my 10 m.o. was a good night's sleep!

Just to add that I dont think formula works to make them sleep longer - I am (almost) EBF but have been a bit disorganised re expressing a couple of times so have had to give formula (it was organic so "dark side lite" )for the 10pm feed when I've had a babysitter. Hasnt made any difference to what time he wakes up after that which is almost like clockwork.

I know it's hardly a controlled experiment, and I do have friends who reckon the formula at 10pm thing works, but I wouldnt bank on it.

My friend is ff and had this problem so I can't see it making a difference.

Ds has never slept through...I consider my self lucky. You don't know what you got till it's gone!

At least he falls back off to sleeep almost as soon as I've latched him on. I've never had to get out of bed for him and I don't look at the clock which i really think affects how tired you feel!

I give a formula feed at 7pm it doesn't make DD go to sleep longer but it does make her settle more quickly and sleep sounder.

I also tried to give formula when she woke at 1/2ish to see if she would sleep better for the second stage of the night. It didn't help at all so we're back to BF for night wakings.