Waking every 2 hours

[elle92]

Hi all my little man is currently 4 months old and waking every 2 hours (almost to the minute!) during the night. This has been going on for several weeks now. Can babies get the 4 month sleep regression early?! Or is is likely to get even worse!
Wondering if anyone had any tips to try and improve this? He is a breast fed baby and feeds back to sleep, if I dont feed him back to sleep he wont go back to sleep so not sure what to do

It could be the 4 month sleep regression. I remember my DD, now 10.5 months doing something similar around that age...although it wasn't every 2 hours ..more 3/4 hours.

What are the day naps like out of interest?

Hang in there! It is so rough. It a lot of us mums in the same boat.

X

Very hit and miss! Somedays he naps great and other days not at all x

What stretch of hours was he doing before this was happening?

You've probably done all this but this is the check list I do:
White noise
Black out blinds
Room temp check
Sleeping bag. Blanket - off on
No naps: early bedtime...wind down earlier
Naps: keep to same bedtime.....
Bedtime routine: bath boob bed

I also feed to sleep and I found that if I did extra feeds or made sure my DD was fed a lot between say 4pm and 7pm ... she went down easier and for longer....

Hope this helps

Hang in there. I'm currently dealing with a teething nightmare! X

Thank you! He’s never been a great sleeper but he has gone 4 hours before so I know he can do it! Tried all of those things, not sure if maybe teething or too young? He’s drooling a lot, appears to be trying to bite on everything and crying at the breast as though it hurts? X

Sounds very much like teething. Baby Panadol will help over anything else. I've never had any success with teething gels that you rub on the gums. During the day I found they are distracted a lot so are happier...it's worse at night so that's when I give the Panadol. Lots of cuddles and boob also helps too. DD likes to chew on my finger - helps to relieve some of the pressure.
Sophie Giraffe after its been in the fridge to cool also seems to help.

Cold cloths also good.

Can you see any teeth coming through? Usually two bottom ones first followed by two top ones.

Hang in there it does get easier!!!

Babies wake frequently to feed. Helps prevent SIDS.
Very normal.
As a society we need to stop expecting babies to fit around us, especially at such a young age.

It'll get better as he gets older. Try and stay sane and look after yourself

Patricksrum it is totally normal that a young baby wakes so much, I agree - but for Elle92 it's obviously taking its toll. Supportive messages and shared experiences are more helpful than snippy comments.

@londonmummy2019
I disagree. It's better to find out now that you cannot train a baby to fit in with your lifestyle.
That's why all you ever hear is "look forward to not getting any sleep"
Self-explanatory really.

I hate it when 'it's entirely normal' is trotted out on these threads. It might be normal (although normal is a spectrum for sleep with babies at this age - normal can also be sleeping 9+ hour stretches) but that doesn't make it easier to deal with. It's like saying 'it's normal' is some magic bullet that suddenly makes chronic sleep deprivation, which can at its worse be incredibly dangerous, go away. My DD is the same age and waking every two hours night in night out for weeks would have me on my knees.

Is your LO breastfed to sleep at bedtime as well as night wakes? My DD was feeding to sleep but over the course of about 10 days we managed to disassociate feed and sleep so now she has her last feed no later than 6ish and is in bed asleep by 7. It's helped to break the association of food and sleep so she can put herself back to sleep better when she wakes in the night and doesn't need to be sucking or feeding to do so. There's a thread on here about self-settling and the Lucy Wolfe approach that might be worth a read - four months is a little on the young side for the stay and support method, but there's some preparatory stuff you can do just now.

@Celebelly What was the expectation? It's what babies do, it's tiring, it's a commitment.
Not the end of the world.

It's normal but so, so tough. We just had to ride it out and eventually at around 7/8 months things got a hell of a lot easier and we started getting a really good stretch and down to 1/2 wakings.

In the middle of the night I am very much "do whatever it takes to get everyone back to sleep the fastest'. So boob 😂

You clearly know nothing about the effects of long-term sleep deprivation on the body and on the mind.

Knowing that you're going to be tired isn't the same as actually experiencing certain levels of tiredness that you've never experienced for an extended period of time. I'm fortunate as my daughter has slept like a dream since birth so all I've had to deal with is the odd 'bad' night where she might wake up every three hours, but conversely I know someone whose baby woke up every 45 mins for weeks on end. For her, it was nearly the end of the world, as you put it, or at least the end of her life, as she had a horrendous breakdown due to horrific sleep deprivation. So flippant remarks like yours are incredibly ill educated.

Watching this thread as my DD is the same but more like every hour She'll sleep for about 2.5-3 hours when she 1st goes down then from around 11.30pm until 4am she wakes pretty much hourly then she'll have another 2.5-3 hour stint from 4am. She's 5 and a half months and has been like this since just before 4 months. It's hard going! @FiresideTreats did it just gradually get better or was there anything that triggered an improvement?

You clearly know nothing about the effects of long-term sleep deprivation on the body and on the mind.

You're right, I know nothing.
Single parent of a 11 mo with no help at all, wakes during the night every 30 min - 2 hours and has done since birth. In and out of hospital with them.
But yeah I know nothing.

Regardless of the effects, what can you do?
Nothing.
You just get on with it.

I agree with other posters here with regard to "You adapt to your baby's schedule rather than trying to get the baby to fit around yours".

I was in this situation for 14 months. Surrounded by people who's children napped in the day AND slept through the night. Was there a correlation between the fact I was the only mother Breastfeeding? Who knows? But what I can say is that yes, I was exhausted and if it wasn't for Mumsnet I wouldn't have known as I didn't have that support and knowledge around me.

It is really tough and exhausting, most days I would threaten to move on to formula as I was convinced it would make a difference.

I didn't for personal reasons and decided that for me, it was worth persevering and that i would be more upset if switching didn't make a difference and I lost the opportunity to feed in the way I had chosen.

Up until 14 months my baby slept 2 x 20min naps through the day and woke every 2 / 3 hours on average over night. I also went back to work fulltime at 9 months so it was a struggle to say the least.

I must stress I put this on myself and there is no medal for doing so. I honestly thought I would never have a 5 hour sleep stretch ever again (the thought of 8 hours was too far fetched and beyond unrealistic).

What changed at 14 months was her time spent walking increased and I stopped breastfeeding. Again, cannot confirm correlation.

Since then from 14 - 18 months she slept though 12 hours a night with a 1 hour nap in the afternoon. From 18months - onwards she gave up on the 1 hour nap but still sleeps for 12 hours a night.

What I am trying to say is I have been there, it's not nice and it might not improve anytime soon but please know there are many of us who have been there and we will continue to be there for you if you need us.

I think honesty is key here and hearing that your situation is somewhat normal can only be a comfort in a time of great stress and change.

Mumsnet is a great comfort to a lot of us, I think it's worth remembering that.
Patricksrum your situation must have been really hard - and probably still is. Single mums you have my utmost admiration...I couldn't do this without the support of my hubby. I think if we can share some positive experiences - it helps so much when you sitting in the dark in the nursery at 3am cuddling your little one and feeling like you're the only person awake at this time....

My DS hadn't slept more than 4 hours in one go since birth. He's six months. The norm for him is waking 2-3 hours. Sometimes it can be every 45 minutes. I'm back at work full time. To say it's tough is an understatement.

I'm trying the Jo Frost Controlled Timed Crying Technique to mixed success. In also trying to reduce the number of times he wakes for a feed by reducing each feed by one minute every night, except the 4am (last) feed.

It's hard going. I've just been up with him for over an hour as he just wouldn't settle. Some nights though it'll be 3 routine wakings and I can get some sleep in a row. He does nap well in the day but I'm at work then!

I think find a technique or two that sound doable for you. Every baby is different so different things work. I can only add that in my limited experience, formula-fed babies tend to sleep better. We're weaning now so I'm reluctant to try formula, but if you need the rest then it's perhaps worth trying? But it's a very personal thing, I know.

Good luck. I hope you find solace in the thought that not everyone has these magical sleeping babies!

@londonmummy2019 Thank you!

There's a great Facebook page called Gro Brain which is really helpful in learning to adapt to baby.