4mo now waking from 2am every hour

[Cakeandbiscuits]

This is my first post on here...I am not sure where else to turn...

My 4mo was sleeping well up to the 3 month mark (from 11.30pm to 6.30am) only waking a couple of times for 2mins until I gave her her dummy. My DH and I wanted to introduce more of a routine and reclaim our evenings, so started putting her to bed at 7.30pm, waking her at 11.30pm for nappy change and feed and then hoping she would sleep through to 6am. No such luck. The first two weeks of trying this routine, dd woke up again at 4am, 5am and 6am, when I always settled her with a dummy, before feeding her eventually at 6.30/7am. However after about 2 weeks of this continued pattern and dd continuing to wake from 4am every 45mins, I decided to feed her earlier at 10.30pm, having read that earlier bedtime means she should sleep longer. But this has made things worse.

I am now feeding her at 7.00pm then 10.30pm but she is now waking at 2am and then every 1-2 hours until waking at 7.15am for a feed. Last night I fed her again at 4.30am as I couldn't settle her after trying for 30 mins and then she slept from 5am to 7.15am. However, the last thing I want to do is introduce an additional feed at 4am as she hasn't been feeding at this time since about 6 weeks.

Any advice please? She is exclusively breastfed, and sometimes I express a bottle for her 10.30pm feed to measure how much milk she is getting, but this makes no difference to her night wakings.

I was considering introducing formula for her last feed at 10.30pm but don't want to move to formula just to benefit myself/improve my sleep when breastfeeding seems to working well for her in terms of growth/developmebt. Do you think this could help?

Current routine;
7am wake and feed
9-10am nap
11am feed
12.15-2.15 nap
3pm feed
4.30-5pm nap if she falls asleep - I don't encourage a sleep there
6.45pm bath
7pm feed
7.15pm bed
10.30pm feed

My daughter is happy and energetic all day but does get cranky at around 5pm until bedtime, so sometimes I give her a small feed then.

Thank you all for any help and advice you can offer

A dazed and confused mum x

It's the 4 month sleep regression.
It will pass but what you don't want to do is creat bad habits that will be long-lasting (feeding/rocking to sleep, co-sleeping etc)

I would say not to introduce any additional feeds and do shush pat for night wakings. Your routine looks good

Thanks for the reassurance....I thought it was but 2am just seemed extra early.

I just put dd down for her nap and she screamed the house down after sleeping one hour. Normally she would wake twice in 2.5 hours but settle with her dummy, but not this time. It is a repeat of what happened at 4am just night - normally she would be soothed with dummy but just kept screaming and spitting it out.

I have taken her downstairs and she has stopped crying by amusing herself chewing on some plastic links. I can't figure out what was wrong this time????

Any other ideas?

Thank you

It's all part of the regression. I wouldn't take her downstairs if she screams during her nap, I'd settle her back

That's the problem, she wouldn't settle!

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Just an observation really:

My DD (5 months) could not go from 2.15pm to 7.15pm on only half hour sleep. You say you don't even try to encourage this sleep, whereas I would be encouraging at two naps of at around 45 minutes in that time.

Your mornings and lunchtime look very similar to mine, we usually get two 1 1/2 hour sleeps though, to your 2 hour and 1 hour. But that is neither here nor there.

My DD woke at 2.00pm today, she's been fed and is currently playing on the floor but is getting grumbly. She's tired. I'll be on the school run at 3.15 and she'll fall asleep until somewhere around 4pm, give or take. Then she usually has another nap somewhere around 5.00 for 45 mins ish. Her bedtime is between 7.00-8.00, depending on when she's tired.

So all my waffling aside - good sleep promotes better sleep, more sleep promotes even more sleep - and all that.

Can't believe I'm offering advice because my 4 month old is far from a model sleeper (though did a random ok night last night) but why don't you make that 5 PM feed an always thing rather than a sometimes thing. My breastfed dd is also knackered and grumbly in the late evening and still does a mini cluster feed. So feed her up well from afternoon on and see if that helps?

Totally normal. Nearly all of them do it especially if they are breastfed. I know this is not what you want to hear, but there isn't much you can do about it. Feed in the dark when she wakes and pop her back in her cot/ Moses basket. If she won't settle, it's probably exhaustion and you can try and cuddle back to sleep. When my son was in this stage I bought him a sleepy head to sleep in and that did help a little as I think he felt more secure. It will pass. My son was sleeping much better by 6 months.

Hi...again im not sure I'm anywhere near an expert on this but my dd did exactly the same thing at around 4 months. Except she was worse as she woke every hour on the hour from 7pm-4am and then would refuse to go back to sleep. What worked for us is encouraging more naps and longer naps as she was very poor at taking naps. I agree that 2-7 is a long stretch with no nap at that age. The other thing which may or may not be relevant to you is toughening up a bit and doing shush pat to sleep rather than feeding/rocking to sleep. She got the message literally after one night and has now done 3 nights of settling herself to sleep and sleeping for 5 hours plus at a time...this was unheard of since before the regression. I was very anti sleep training before as I did not want to let her cry. But it was literally one night of intermittent crying and the result has been a happier baby and happier parents. My dd is almost 7mo and I wish I had tried it sooner.

Oh I bought a toddle pod too (similar to sleepy head but not recommended for overnight use) and it worked an absolute treat!

Thank you fate, green and primrose - all very helpful. I will try more napping in the afternoon as you are right, a 5 hour stretch is way too long. I will also be ripping up the Gina Ford book as this is what she advocates at 4-5 months. My poor little baby

You have all reassured me that with a bit more napping and continued patience things may improve! Thanks again x

Thanks kangaroo! She has a sleepyhead since birth and I really think it was they key to an initial successful 3 months of sleeping!

I will try more napping and see how it goes.

I tried a bit of cc but she wakes herself up so much that she struggled to get back to sleep. Maybe I should persist though. First I will persevere with no feeding between 11pm and 6.30am and more day naps and see what improvements we get x

Kangaroo - just looked up shush pat...I am going to try this. Thanks!

Great! Hope it works for you! I used a combination of the instructions in the No Cry Sleep Solution book, advice from other mumsnetters and guidance from my sister in law but essentially it's all about not picking them up unless you need to feed/change them. Sounds so simple and actually...it is that simple! You do have to stray strong though. Trust your instincts and you can't go far wrong!