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4 month old's night wakings have increased

4 replies

lefloose · 13/02/2013 09:42

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone had any advice. My baby has just turned 4 months old and has been a good sleeper until now - going usually 7pm to 7am with a dream feed and one or two night feeds.
For the last week or so she's been fussier at feeds (they are shorter during the day) and has been waking more during the night. Often she is waking before the 11pm dreamfeed, so I am BF-ing her at around 10ish, then another few times after that.

She naps well - generally one 30 mins one in the morning, around 2 hours in the afternoon and then another 30 mins in the late afternoon. She goes down well at naps and we don't leave her awake for more than 2 hours. She also goes down well at night.

When she wakes at night, I do a 'pause' but if she doesn't settle, I BF her. Often she drinks for only a short time then comfort sucks. I let her do this for a little bit, then take her off. She usually then goes back to sleep in her cot ok, but will wake 2-3 hours later to repeat the process.

I'm not sure if I'm creating a bad behaviour by letting her eat and comfort suck so frequently. I've read about 4 month sleep regression theories, but I don't want to create a behaviour during this time I can't fix.

Any suggestions? I'm ok with pausing in responding up to proper crying, but won't leave her to cry for long periods. I don't know if this is just a phase she'll adjust out of or if I should be doing something to help.

Thanks.

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
mummy2benji · 13/02/2013 15:59

At 4 months they have a bit of a growth spurt, so a change in feeding pattern can be due to hunger, or else she might be starting with teething. Sometimes after a few days or a week they settle again. It won't be too long now until you can start weaning and offering a bit of baby rice, and that may well help settle down the night-time feeding. Sounds like what you're doing is sensible, not feeding her instantly but equally not leaving her to cry as she is too small for that. Hope it gets a bit easier soon.

SquidgersMummy · 13/02/2013 17:29

Notorious 4 mth sleep regression. Fingers crossed it won't last long. Then there's one a 6 mths.....9mths..... My DD woke every 90 mins for 2 weeks then it was all fine again..till 6 mths. We've just started baby led weaning. Everyone said weaning and baby rice would help but it really doesn't make any diff so don't rush to wean before you're both ready. Early nights, flask of tea and biscuits in the bedroom helped. X

scratchandsniff · 13/02/2013 18:38

I'm currently going through exactly the same thing. DS was 16 weeks yesterday. It's very hard to take after a period of him sleeping through. I'm taking the same approach of you, feeding if I think he's genuinely hungry, which to be honest I think he is most times. If I know he can't possibly be hungry I try leaving him and thankfully after a bit of a grizzle he has been going back to sleep. My Mum keeps telling me 'he needs a bottle', but we've been giving him one bottle of formula around 10/10.30 and it makes no difference. I'm waiting for her to tell me he needs solids next.

Really hoping it doesn't last too much longer.

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lefloose · 13/02/2013 19:53

Thanks everyone. We had a weigh in this morning and she's also falling off her weight percentile, so I'm not going to worry about it as a sleep issue at the moment and just focus on feeding her up - the weight suggests she is genuinely hungry.

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