Help me with DDs poor sleeping/napping habits

[Lou2711]

DD is 4 months and I'm aware this is sleep regression age but it seems like it's been over 6 weeks. She usually wakes 3/4 times in the night. She has never slept over 3.5 hours. But currently she is waking between every 1-2 hours. She is a big baby with a healthy appetite so I began to wean her on baby rice in the evening hoping it would help (we are breastfeeding). A couple of times this has cut her waking to 1-2 in the night. However she's gone back to normal. Expressing milk is really difficult as I never get enough out to fill her so DP can't help there, he often gets up with her to let me have another couple of hours sleep. Also with naps, she finds it really difficult to sleep more than 30-40 mins. I've tried wake to sleep but she is such a light sleeper this just wakes her up, yet she still is tired after her nap. She has a dummy sometimes for sleep (she doesn't always want it) and likes to listen to womb sounds Can anyone help/advise me?

Would you consider having one formula feed at night? Then maybe your DP could do for eg the first night waking, and it gives you a longer stretch of sleep - the constantly broken sleep is a killer!

If you really don't want to use formula then are you expressing in the morning? - I found that the only way to get a decent amount off was to feed on one side then express on the other in the morning - though if you're constantly feeding during the night this may not be the same for you.

30-40 min naps are pretty normal at this age I'd say (based on DD2 anyway!) how many is she having? I think DD was still having 4-5 a day at that stage.

Do you feed to sleep? If so it could be that your DD is waking and using you to settle rather than needing the milk - does she have a good feed every time?

I began to wean her on baby rice in the evening hoping it would help (we are breastfeeding)

At 4 months old, it's formula milk you want to give her if she needs extra calories, not solids. Baby milk is more calorie dense than anything else you could offer, if you think her issues are hunger related. They may well not be though.

To get more calories into baby, consider calorie intake over 24h, not just at bedtime and night time. More frequent daytime feeds (2 hourly or more frequent from 7am to 11pm) will calorie-load through the daytime.