Almost 4 month old waking every 1.5 - 2 hrs to breastfeed at night

[An89]

Almost 3.5 month old waking every 1.5 - 2 hrs to breastfeed at night .... is this normal???
Everyone is making me feel that this is super abnormal and by 3.5 months they should be sleeping 6 hours straight. Please advise. Feel like I'm doing a rubbish job :(

Baby also takes 2 hours to settle to bed

I have one the same age who's exactly the same so solidarity! My first did this too, can't remember when it stops...

Completely and utterly normal I’m afraid!! Babies that young do not sleep through the night!
Ignore everyone’s nonsense and just focus on getting as much rest for you and your baby. If you’re not already, look into cosleeping (lullaby trust) and just lean into it. You can’t fight, baby’s will sleep better in time.
Also look up Lynsey Hookway for some realistic information on baby sleep! She’s great!
Good luck - it’s tough but does get easier!

6h straight counts as "sleeping through the night" which about half of babies do by 6 months.
My daughter was more like 2 when she reliably did 6h stretches! She has silent reflux and allergies and it has meant she has had quite poor quality sleep.
I did notice a huge improvement in my sleep when she started to do a couple of 3-4h sleep cycles in the night.
I would say most nights I don't sleep 6h completely undisturbed! I wake up most nights even if it's just a minute whilst I roll over and decide if I do need that wee or a sip of water. The difference between me and a baby is I can roll over and get myself back to sleep and I don't need to eat overnight!

I want to thank you all for your reassurance, it has been so helpful to read all your messages and made me realise I need to stop paying attention to people who are making me feel bad for my babies sleep patterns!!

Yeah my baby was the same, I was a broken woman for a few months. It was actually easier with a newborn who napped more in the day.

Everyone was telling me that by 3 months everything will be easier and baby will sleep. I think everyone just bloody forgets the bad parts. Because in my mum& baby coffee group, only ONE baby slept through the night at 3 months, all the other ones also said they woke every few hours.

Super normal !! Trust yourself , you know what your baby needs and it will change so often so don’t worry, waking up this often will pass.

I have a 4 month old who wakes in the night to breastfeed - no idea how many times or when as I don’t count or check the time 😂 Absolutely normal as far as I know!

We cosleep and I don’t feel tired during the day luckily. She also goes to bed when I do. Path of least resistance!

Thank you so much, any advice on cosleeping? As baby is now also waking several times a night to soothe and won't go back down in cot!

Go on lullaby trust website and look up sage sleep 7 to ensure you’re doing it safely. Also follow cosleepy and happycosleeper on instagram for hints and tips.
As long as you’re sober and sleeping in an appropriate bed, you’ll be fine.. I’ve co slept with my toddler (she now sleeps with my partner) and now I’m trying to manage cosleeping with twins (full term/healthy weight) so if you have any specific questions I’m happy to help xx

Sounds a bit like the four month sleep regression.

Hi thank you so much. Would really appreciate your help, so I've tried the side curl bf / cosleeping position but it sounds strange Im struggling to be on my side and also get my baby on the side to bf from me, also worried what if I fall asleep bf and he pushes into my breast / top and then can't breathe.

Also is there anyway to do this position with a duvet?

I think it's pretty normal. Cosleeping saved me as baby would feed while I was half asleep and dozing.

Re: duvet, you should only have that over your legs up to your waist. You have to wear layers like hoodies etc and heat your bedroom well as you can't have a duvet anywhere near a small baby.

You won't roll onto your baby if you're on your side. Your arm would stop you. If baby struggles to latch when side lying if they're not used to it, I used to roll a muslin up and put that under my breast to help her get a better angle for the latch, but I think that was more when she was really teeny.

The benefit of the side lying position is you CAN fall asleep safely whereas you're in danger of falling asleep unsafely if you are sitting up feeding baby and knackered etc.

If I didn't fall asleep feeding, I sometimes used to slide baby up a little higher so that their head would be about level with my head at the top of the bed. Only once they were asleep, of course. They'd stay asleep much longer than in a cot as they can smell you and are comforted by your presence. You can then have the duvet a little higher but still well away from baby's head of course.

Follow all the usual safe cosleeping advice like making sure there are no gaps etc they could slip into. That's the biggest risk. I used to have the cosleeping crib next to baby as a safe type of bed guard.