4 month waking

[Sami3]

Hi all. Just after some advise on what you would do. My little girl is 4 minths old sleeps from about 8pm until 7am each night. Started sleeping through very early on. She drinks around 7oz every feed sometimes will take some and then an hr later take the rest. Very happy and healthy. My question is for the last month or so drom about 2am she has started waking through the night, waking i mean more a stir you stick her dummy back in and she is asleep again. It then happens around every hr or so until she wakes, in which 99% of the time within 15mins crys for a bottle and drinks the whole thing, like she has never been fes before. I have tryed giving her a dream bottle when she 1st does it and takes about an oz if lucky but then still wakes. She doesnt always take a whole bottle at bedtime. Im wondering if to change her bedtime bottle to hungry baby so it lasts her a little more.
I think she is hungry around that time but is so tired she physically isnt waking for it.

Sorry if it doesnt make sense, i tend to go a bit, haha.

Around that time they go through a huge growth spurt and sleep regression - they start sleeping more like adults do - and they're learning so much and doing so much in the day so they tend to go through quite a restless phase and are hungrier than usual. My daughter went through a phase of waking every 45 mins during the regression 😬 I was so tired I was hallucinating. But it has now passed and she wakes once or twice instead. Sorry I don't have advice for you but just wanted to say it will pass x

I assume you are bottle feeding Sami?

The wake up would be most easily be solved by giving s night feed as soon as waking, then back to sleep.

I appreciate that after several weeks of not needing a night feed that you are reluctant to reintroduce. So would I. These night wakes are telling you that more calories are needed though

I'm not sure if the value of hungry milk, that's just thicker consustancy. I don't believe it has more calories per oz.

More milk is needed to get more calories into baby. The way to do that is either more bottles per day or more milk per bottle. The volume of milk taken per feed is self-limiting. I assume you always offer bottles with more in than baby will drink (you should do this)? So offering more makes no real difference to how much is drank - that is limited by stomach size.

The way to get more calories into baby is to offer feeds more frequently. For example I'd you feed every 3h through the daytime (7am 10am 1pm 4pm 7pm = 5 bottles per day) then feed every 2h instead (7am 9am 11am 1pm 3pm 5pm 7pm). That gives 7 bottles per day. Even if only 6oz is drank in each of those (42oz) it's significantly more than five 7oz bottles (35oz)

Could be regression, I used to find DS's sleep went haywire a couple of weeks before learning something new - sitting, crawling etc. Maybe she's figuring something out and about to learn to sit or something? If it is regression it usually makes sense with hindsight but not at the time you have to deal with extra night wakings!