16 week old wide awake at 4.30am

[ac1974]

Having slept through till 6-7am (with a DF at 11pm) for about a week, now suddenly my DS is wide awake at about 4.30-5am.

He's not crying at first so I am not sure if he's hungry - but trying to pat him to settle him hasn't worked, and it has gradually built to a cry and I have ended up feeding him, up to an hour after he first woke. He's eventually settled again for a very short sleep around 6.30 and then awake again just after 7.

16 week growth spurt perhaps? He had been screaming during a couple of daytime feeds and his cheeks have started to go a bit red, so also thinking teething.

I just wish I could do something to get us back to those amazing 6.30 starts - I never thought I'd think 6.30 was such a luxurious lie in!

How warm is your house? DD was waking up and refusing to go back to sleep then building up to a cry and squeal and we eventually realised that she was cold - turned the heating on low last night and she was fine.

Funny you should say that - could definitely be a factor, it's pretty chilly with lots of outside walls. Just need to try to heat his room gently without heating the rest of the house all night - we had a scary gas bill last year - and that was pre baby when I was at work all day!

I don't have any advice, only sympathy. My 17wk old has started doing the same thing. We were lulled into a false sense of security and then out of the blue awake (and I mean really awake) at 5am each morning. I was not impressed!

It's the 4 month sleep regression - babies' 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."

The good news is that it passes on its own.

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

Angel, thats really interesting, thanks

That is interesting. Ds2 is 17 weeks and we have been having same sort of problems. I did put it down to a developmental spurt but only because i remembered dd and ds1 doing the same sort of thing and suddenly developing a bunch of new skills shortly after. I remember at just over a year dd doing this and i said to her dad bet she starts walking soon and she did withing days.

Glad it was interesting.

Yep, Ineed there's a developmental spurt at 55 weeks too.

I'd be tearing my hair out if I didn't know about this stuff (we're in the middle of the 9 month regression). But each time it calms down again after the spurt. :)

First chance i've had to have a look at The wonder weeks, really want to read that now looks so interesting, thanks Angel