Normal sleep for a 4 month old?

[wobblyknicks]

DD is now 4 and a half months old and in the past week she's been much more whigey and hard to settle than usual. How much sleep should she typically have in the day+night? The last couple of days she's slept loads in the day but been impossible to settle at night, and today she's had hardly any day sleep, just a couple of teeny naps and she went straight off for the night. So need advice about how much to let her sleep in the day, in case she won't sleep at night.

So you're still up too?

I think about 13-16 hours of sleep in total is recommended for babies and toddlers.

Ds has a morning nap a couple of hours after he's woken up. If I left him he'd sleep for a couple of hours but then not sleep in the afternoon and be totally exhausted and sometimes overtired by 7pm bedtime. If I wake him (v gently and slowly) after about 3/4 hour then he'll usually sleep at about 12:30 - 2:30 too. When he was your dd's age he would sometimes appreciate another short nap (maybe 1/2 hour) at around 4pm which would be enough to see him through to bedtime. So probably about 2-3 hours during the day would be reasonable? And try to keep her awake after 5pm if you want her to be tired enough later in the evening for bedtime. If she seems really grumpy by late afternoon but just won't sleep, you could still take her somewhere quiet with no distractions or soothing music for a bit of chill out time and just have a quiet cuddle. Even if she won't sleep, the peace can sometimes calm them down enough to get them through to dinner/bath etc.

If ds was overtired during the day, he would sometimes take a little while to settle at night - maybe 10 mins of complaining. If I knew he was knackered and I could hear significant pauses between cries, I'd leave him and he would get the hint after a while and drop off. My mum calls it "getting beyond themselves" when babies are just saying "enough is enough and I want to sleep now but I'm too tired to manage it!!"

Now ds is older (14 mths) I bung him in his cot whenver I see him rubbing his eyes or pulling his ears and he drops off almost instantly. He still gets 2 naps a day, but I think he'll drop the morning one pretty soon.

Flippin eck I really must go to bed meself!! Witter witter witter....I could do with 2 naps a day come to think of it!

I'm still up, you in bed now?

Thanks for the advice, I'll have to see how dd goes with it all!

My lovely dd is now 4 months and, after a week of good long night sleeps (i.e. 8 hour stretch from 8pm) has taken to waking three times a night - at about 10.30pm, 1am and 4am. She is breast fed with addition of small amounts of solids over the last fortnight. Doesn't sleep more than 3-4 hours in total during the day and I'm exhausted, more so than when she was tiny because at least then I had the chance of a couple of naps during the day. No such luck now.

My main query is when will the nightwaking end. Should I feed her at night (I do if there's been a decent i.e. 3 hour gap since the last waking. She settles quickly enough and the actual feed doesn't take long, but I'm starting to feel really worn down and fractious.

Was 6 pounds 10 ounces at birth and is now (at 18 weeks) 15 pounds 6 ounces.

Any advice or reassurance? Please tell me it will get better - and whether it will get better on it's own or whether I should be doing something dynamic to buck the trend! Don't feel very dynamic now - just tearful!

It gets better. I just can't tell you when that will be. Could be that the solids if the sleep changes coincides. Could be teething, could be anything really. Beating yourself up and being disappointed will just make you more tired.

Thanks. DH just trying to get DS to sleep upstairs - the magic boob failing tonight. You could be right about teething, tho as my mother tells me my first tooth cut at 19 weeks following v. runny nose and much pacing of the floor

We shall see.........

Has she cut down on her daytime milk since you started solids? Hard to say with you bf, I know... There's more calories in milk than in rice etc, but the solids can fill her tummy so she can't take in enough milk to keep her going through the night. Gina Ford says give solids after a full milk feed so she only has exactly what she needs, maybe this would work for you if you're not doing it already. Worked for us btw.

Can you choose one of the feeds - I'd say the 4am one as it is defo the most disruptive to your sleep - and give a bottle of cooled boiled water. I did this with both my children and after a couple of nights of wailing in disappointment soon realised that all that was on offer was water and that it wasn't worth waking for.

IME mucking around with their sleeping during the day was not a good idea. Read somewhere that a sleepy baby during the day lead to a calm sleepy baby during the night. Defo true with mine when they were little. Then again maybe the rose tinted specs are out

Try not to worry too much, she is still very little.

As for getting some sleep yourself you need to call in the calvery - get yourself some help from any one who can help and go to bed. This works best if they take her out, otherwise the temptation is to sit and chat, make tea, do the washing etc.

She will benefit from a good walk in her pram and whoever volunteers (with their arm twisted up their back if necessary) will also benefit from the exercise. In the meantime you will benefit from some much needed sleep!