My baby is an early bird

[Hev78]

Hi all. I need advice. My daughter's sleep has suddenly changed. Since 6 weeks she was sleeping from 1900-0700 with us waking her at 2200 for a nappy change and feed...lucky me..except the last 4 mornings she has started waking at 4am!! Still not bad but is killing me after such a great start.
I have tried moving her night feed to 2230 and have also changed her to the hungry baby formula...none of which has helped. My friend suggested moving her bedtime by 30mins to 1hr but she is so grumpy and tired by 1800 if I leave her routine any later I'm worried she'll get over tired. She's 14 weeks now. With the clocks going back my 4am will turn into a 3am start...yikes! As you can no doubt tell this is my first baby and I feel totally clueless :o( Any advice would be very gratefully received xx

I think you were just incredibly lucky to have a sleepy baby!! Their sleep patterns change massively as they grow and there's not a lot you can do to influence that. She may be growing and is hungry - have you tried feeding her?
Don't mess with her bedtime, it's not fair on her and will only create overtiredness problems. Just keep sticking to the basics of good practice ie letting her self settle if she will, feeding when she wakes to rule out hunger, make sure she's not too cold/warm and she will start to sleep longer eventually.

You kind of have to have no expectations with a small baby because they like to change the rules just as you've got used to them!

Oh and I wouldn't bother with hungry baby formula at 14 weeks unless she's totally insatiable on normal milk. It's just full of artificial fillers.

Welcome to the start of the four month sleep regression! The emergency exits are...oh. There aren't any.

Mine was a brilliant sleeper until about the same age, then it all went out the window. Nothing you can do but ride it out, unfortunately.

Definitely no hungry baby milk. Her sleep's going to pot because she's entering a phase of massive growth and development. Hungry baby milk will just give her the feeling of fullness without providing the extra calories she's going to need.

Treat all 4 AM wakings as night wakings - don't turn on the lights, no eye contact, shhh/pat/hug/kiss whatever and put her back down into the cot. Repeat as necessary and for however many nights it takes.