Baby is a night owl

[May28]

Hi,

I'd love to get some advice as I'm not sure if this is normal.

My EBF 4.5 month old has never slept longer than a 3h stretch at night. She's been waking every 2-3h at night to feed/comfort and during the day she only catnaps 3x for around 35-40 mins (a little bit longer if we contact nap). I keep hearing from mums that have DC same age as mine that their babies do 5-6h stretches or even sleep through the night! I don't expect a 4.5 month old to sleep through the night but I'd love to know when I can expect longer stretches of sleep (for her and myself 🥲) Does it get better once you start solids at 6 months or am I doing something completely wrong?

Anyone?

My son is 5 months and luckily sleeps from 10pm - 9am (only the past 1.5months, before this was an absolute nightmare). We keep his naps short so he only naps for 30 minutes, and in between naps we make sure to keep him occupied as possible with tummy time/ songs/ sensory play/ going for walks so he can look at the trees. He only started sleeping great when we started getting him out regularly for fresh air. Another thing we do is we give him an extra oz before bed, and this seems to have really helped. We also have him on a routine, so he will have a bottle at 9:30/12:30/3:30/6:30/9:00.

If you are breastfeeding I imagine this would be more difficult to track of course.

Many people suggested a bath before bed, but I found that it just made him more unsettled, he really hates having a bath. It works for some people though!

When he naps in the day we make sure the room has natural daylight and background noise. When it comes to his bedtime I turn the lights off, put on a night light and some quiet peaceful music or rain sounds.

I don’t know if anyone else would recommend doing this, but it works for us and he is very happy and healthy

I really hope it gets better for you and your little one soon

Hi! I vaguely followed the Charmian Meade method (didn't invoke any crying: just lots of winding, and big meals). That said, no idea if it made s distance or if I was just lucky and got dealt a good sleeper.

3 hour stretches is really rough, no wonder you're finding it hard.