4 1/2 month old still up every two hours

[holdontotheaffirmative]

Is this standard behaviour? He's exclusively breast fed and is a big baby. If it's normal for them to wake this frequently, I can suck it up but if it's not, I'd like to try and address it (somehow!)

Normal is a hard word in relation to babies as the span of normal is so different. He's up because he is feeding? If he's hungry, despite feeding well/actively/taking enough (don't know how you are feeding) then yes it's normal.
My dd2 is 4.5 months old and up about that amount - she's breastfed/cosleeping so I don't really count when/how she wakes but it's quite frequent. Occasionally she does a 3 or 4 hour stretch at the beginning of the night. I know it'll change and I'm fine with it.

Don't know how I missed the exclusively breast fed statement - sorry!

Is he waking enough to feed well overnight? That would be my only checkpoint to make sure he's not hungry because he's too sleepy to take a bigger feed. Is he feeding regularly during the day? Can he go for longer stretches in the day? (If so perhaps make an effort to tank him up more in the day/evening and make sure there isn't another reason for him waking)

Yes! DD2 woke once a night from 8 weeks until she was 13 weeks and then it was 4/5 times for a few weeks. Last night she only woke up once so I've been lumpy and leaking all day. They go through a big developmental growth spurt around 13-17 weeks.

My DD is 5 months and exactly the same (above the 91st centile!!). She's even worse now she's started teething and wanting mummy every 45min-1.5 hours. It's a pain and I can't imagine saying this at 3 am when all I want to do is sleep, but it's just what babies do. She'll change eventually.

Pretty normal. Maybe sleep regression, a bit of teething.

Hearyoume I'm so glad to read your post as that would fit completely with what I've been going through with my 15 week old DD at the moment too. She is also far too interested in what is going on around her to feed properly during the day too, so at the moment we get some long night feeds....would be great to get back to one night feed- until the next "phase" starts that is!

OP if you don't already play white noise could you try playing this overnight? I've found it does help my DD sleep longer between feeds. He might just be stirring as he enters the light sleep stages a cycle causing him to want a feed to get back to sleep. I just use an app on my phone or Spotify on loop mode.

The wonderweeks app is helpful for anybody who wants more info on the growth spurts

DS is the same. He's 4 months today and teething his back molars. Most if the time he's up every hour unless I could sleep in the nursing chair in his room with him on my chest.
Before he was teething he was up every 2-3 hours. From what I've read there are various growth spurts and changes happening at this age. I hope it gets better for you xxx

Totally normal. Are you co-sleeping? I don't think I would have survived the first year if I hadn't.

Thanks for all the replies- they're reassuring, if not a little depressing . Notwithoutmymerkle, yes, he stays awake long enough to have a decent feed and feeds quite a lot during the day, too so I suspect he's just a hungry baby. He's 20 weeks old and, baring the odd horrendous night, has been pretty consistent with his timings for a while so I don't think I can put the 2 hr stints down to a regression. Fingers crossed he learns to love his sleep more soon!

Cel982, no, we're not exactly co-sleeping. He's usually very awake around 4/5 and I pull him in with me at that point because it feels like he'll never go to sleep if I don't! I think that's the only thing keeping me sane! Did your dc outgrow it in time?

My baby is 20 weeks too. She's averaging every 2 hours sometimes 3 if I'm lucky.

Eleanoreofcastile, sorry you're in the same boat! Yes, I rely heavily on white noise, too. Sleep baby is a god send, isn't it!? The lack of sleep is frustrating, especially when all my friends' babies seem to sleep for at least 5 hours at a time but I'm sure we'll get there and eventually. Sending lots of positive sleep vibes to you and your dc

Strawberryshortcake32- oh no, poor you. Back molars must be so painful for your little one. I hope you're managing to keep sane and catch some zzzzs during the day.

Kmxxx14, yes, when the little guy is feeling generous he can go up to 3 hours, too but it tends to be at the start of the night before I go to bed. I need to get better at going to bed at the same time as him. Fingers crossed you get a good night tonight

Thank you, same to you! I've tried to do a dream feed every night when I go to bed at 10pm and that stretches her so I get 2 solid hours before I need to feed her again. I was going to bed at 11 then getting woke up 40-90 mins later and it felt terrible. I think I must have been in the deepest stage of sleep as I could barely keep awake. With a dream feed she tends to give me 2-2.5 hours so I feel refreshed when she first wakes up (as refreshed as possible with 2 hours anyway!). I can't feed lying down it just feels so uncomfortable and like I'm stuck in one position so I always sit up to feed!

She got a lot better around 7-8 months, OP. Didn't actually sleep through the night until she was 3, but it's more much bearable when they start doing long stretches. Hang in there!

At 4.5 months my baby was exactly the same. I was so tired I thought I was going mad

He is now 7.5 months and things are a bit better (although still not perfect!) I tried everything I could bare to (short of leaving him to cry for prolonged periods) and to be honest none of it really made any difference!

In the end I stopped trying to do all the things I felt I was supposed to do and just did what I thought best. I cuddle him now until he's very drowsy and then put him down rather than trying to get him to sleep in the cot (and spending at least half an hour trying to soothe a crying baby!) at night when he wakes I feed him back to sleep. I did work hard on his daytime naps because he often seemed tired in the day. These have really improved now and he is doing 2 long naps in his cot everyday.

He will now do a couple of longer stretches most nights, last night he did midnight till 5.30 which is a new record! I do wonder if part of the issue in our case was overtiredness? Just something to think about!

I feel your pain! It does improve, just do what you need to do to get through it! Good luck!