4m old wide awake 4am

[isthisnamegone]

Hi there,
Wondering on some advice for 4m old baby who is wide awake and chatty at 4am waiting for his bottle, then sleeps very lightly until about 6.30am. I often have to start his musical toy to get him back to sleep and do this a couple of times between 4-6.30am.

He naps 9am for 45 mins, 11.30 - 2pm and a catnap around 4.30pm 15-30 mins.
Normally he has a bottle of 120-150ml at 4/5am which puts him off a morning feed, he may have a 50ml top up at 7.30am, takes 100-150ml at 11am, same at 2.30pm, around 50ml at 5pm and then 150-180ml at 6.15pm, bedtime 6.45pm and 150ml dream feed at 10pm.

Sleeps that long stretch until 4am or 5am but is then very light sleeper. He self settles by sucking his thumb, I have a musical toy which plays a few lullabies and he settles for every nap with this. It works to get him back to sleep if he wakes randomly before 4am.

Is he sleeping too long over lunch? He is a very alert baby! Also been rolling the last couple of weeks.

As with my other two children at this age (17 weeks) I will be adding some baby rice at 11am feed in the next week.

Thanks!

Four month sleep regression. Their sleep patterns change at this point, for most babies anyway - you’re not doing anything wrong, you just need to ride it out! We found adding in white noise at this point really helpful along with blackout blinds and putting more of a sleep routine in place (sleeping bags on for every sleep, a projector etc).

Can I ask why the baby rice? It’s really not recommended these days, it has no nutritional value and can cause tummy problems that will only make matters worse. There’s concerns about the level of arsenic in rice for babies, and it’s recommended now they don’t have anything besides breast milk or formula until six months so it’s generally not recommended unless they are suffering badly with reflux. Its also a choking risk if you put it in a bottle.

It’s a developmental sleep issue rather than a hunger issue so it would be unlikely to make a difference to the sleep anyway. There’s a study on this here :)
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2672785/

Hi, thank you for the reply and for this advice on baby rice, I will read up on that research. In New Zealand our public service for families and babies recommends introducing solids between 4-6m, My first two took solids at 17w very happily so I feel confident that my 3rd will, although, they’re all different!!

It’s so confusing isn’t it, I wish there was standard advice across the board! Definitely worth reading up on the latest research and deciding for yourself (although not easily done when you’re sleep deprived!). I think the point I was trying to make was that I wouldn’t introduce solids to try and improve sleep at this stage as it’s unlikely to make a difference since it’s most likely developmental rather than hunger. The four month sleep regression was an absolute killer for us so I feel your pain but it will get better