4 month old frequent wakes

[RosaM12]

My four month old baby is exclusively breastfed and has never been a great sleeper. He has never slept for longer for 3-4 hours at night. But, I know that can be pretty normal so just been going with it!
Recently, his sleep is as followed:
Bedtime- 8:30pm where he will fall asleep independently, then wakes around midnight (on a good day), then again at 3:00. But then he will pretty much wake up every hour until 7/8am where we get up.
When he wakes, he doesn’t really cry just throws his head around, mouth open wanting to be fed back to sleep.
so what I’m wondering is:
-has anyone had any experience of stopping feeding their baby back to sleep during the night? And did it make a difference to their frequent wakes?
-are there any other tips or tricks to get him sleeping for longer? The room is black and we have white noise on already
-could it be something to do with his daytime naps? They can vary but he tends to have between 3-4 hours across the day and has his last one about 1hr and 30 mins before bed which is usually about half an hour

Thank you!

He’s still pretty young to expect him to sleep through the night. I honestly think the best thing to do at this age is just go with the flow(hate that expression), try not to stress about it and wait for things to change. Which they will-I promise.

This sounds very normal for four months.

Are you wanting to stop feeding at night completely, or just feeding to sleep? Because I wouldn't cut night feeds at this age. And stopping feeding to sleep might just make it harder for you.

It's so hard when you're in the thick of it. I remember the desperate 3am googling for the magic sleep solution, but It's usually just a matter of waiting it out unfortunately.

I started sending my partner to deal with wakes before a certain point in the night eg I didn't breastfeed before 2am and then fed again 5am, then 6.30/7am, but that's a lot easier once the baby is in their own room (for us, just after 5 months, we were definitely waking the baby up & making it worse). It's hard to cut night feeds if you are EBF - I gave a bottle of formula as the last feed of the night, and we still had night wakes for feeds at decreasing intervals. I think at 4 months it's just a bit too soon unless you want to pump a bottle of milk or give formula (I was absolutely not willing to pump as well as BFing!).

It's never very comforting to be told "oh just wait x weeks/months" by someone who is out the other side, so I apologise!

just on those hourly wakes really. Say he’s done a 3/4 hour stretch, I’m sure he is hungry for a feed but I was wondering if those hourly wakes are just for comfort and will he always want feeding back to sleep, and not be able to fall asleep independently. It’s a mindfield!!

We had a similar phase of hourly wakes and I did feel like I was losing my mind. You could try sending your partner(?) in for the hourly wakes? See if some rocking or patting will send him back off?

I stopped feeding to sleep at 12 months though and it took less than two days. Just to reassure you that it's not forever! It was a much easier transition than I expected.

At this age he can’t form habits so he won’t always be feeding to sleep. Both mine stopped feeding to sleep by themselves as they got older.

Co sleeping for those morning wakes might help you a bit. At least then you don’t actually have to wake up properly and he can just latch to feed when he wants.

This is a phase and it will pass.

Sounds normal. You just have to ride it out.