sudden change in Sleep pattern advise needed!!!

[HBelfy]

Hi

I have a 4.5 month old who has always slept well through the night going off a 7 waking at 4.30/5ish for a quick feed then off to sleep again until 6.30/7.
In the last few weeks she has now started waking at 3 and will not go back to sleep after feed.
She has been on bottles throughout the day now for a month with me still BF at her 4.30/5 to get her back off. However over the last week I have been using a bottle so i have stopped bfing altogether.
I started only making up a small amount of formula as I dont want her to get used to a big feed at 3! but the last few nights she has seemed hungry after this so now I have been giving her more!
I ensure she feeds every 3 hours during the day so I know she is getting enough then.
Does anyone have any advise as Iam now starting my day from 3am which I am really struggling with!!

Thank you

I think feeding every three hours at 4.5 months is not right.

She should be going four hourly between feeds by now, which means she'll take a little bit more at each feed and then drop the one in the night.

I would try and drag her daytime feeds to 4 hourly and see how you get on.

There's no 'should' about how often babies need to feed - they feed as much as they need to!

I'd guess it's developmental and to do with the 4 month sleep regression, which goes with a growth spurt. It's associated with a big developmental spurt around 19 weeks (adjusted for whether your baby was born early or late).

More info here, here and here.

Have you tried bringing her in with you at 3am? My 2.5month yr old sometimes won't settle after a feed at that sort of time, so I clear space for her at the side of our bed and lay her down, more often than not she goes to sleep happily and even if she stays awake for a while she is happy and quiet so I can drift off again.

I agree with Believe - offer an extra oz at each feed. Offer water (or diluted formula) at 3am so that by 7am she has an appitite to take more at the beginning of the day. All her calories should be consumed btween 7am and 7pm + a dreamfeed. You may have a few disturbed nights but she will stop waking for water. If you offer nice warm milk and a cuddle at 3am, she will keep waking...!

I disagree. I'm not suggesting that in anyway you stop her feeding if she's hungry. I'm just saying that by 4.5 months feeds should be routined enough that she's getting enough during the day to sleep through the night - the best way of achieving this is to lengthen the times between feeds so that she is able to take a little more at each one.

Growth spurts never affected my lo sleeping through the night because he was always getting what he needed during the day.

Thank you all for your replies as this is my first its all a learning curve I think I will try feeding her every 4 hours now and see if that will help.

Lots of babies do still need night feeds much later than 4.5 months. BelieveInLife is obviously lucky in that way - some babies get it sooner. My 9.5 month old still needs night feeds and the medical advice is that you can't be confident that a baby is physiologically able to go all night without feeding until 6 months (which is why sleep training is not recommended until a minimum of 6 months).

My 5 month old still has a night feed around 2 am. I've tried desperately to feed as much as poss during the day, but unfortunately he's a 3 hourly feeder as well I'm afraid. My health visitor has said that the waking in the night is usual around 4-6 months as their sleep pattern changes - their deep sleep becomes deeper apparently, but the light sleep lighter!!!! We are experiencing much the same thing with waking in the night. Just perservere I suppose!!