4 month old waking up more in the night

[Wigeon]

My 18 week old had got into a pattern of going to (deep) sleep around 9:30pm, waking up around 4am for a feed and going back to sleep until 8am / 9am. But for the last two weeks she's been waking up beween two and three times a night, and although we've tried just settling her, she always takes a good feed each time. (I'm breast-feeding).

She usually then goes back to sleep but sometimes has stayed awake (and happy) for quite a while (last night fed at 9:30am midnight, 4am and then was awake and perky from 4:30am to 6sm). I am completely knackered - had thought it was a growth spurt but it's been going on a fortnight now. As she's only a week over the minimum age for introduction of solids, I had been thinking it can't be time for weaning (had assumed when she was born I'd breast-feed exclusively until 6 months).

She usually has at least two naps in the daytime - about 45mins in the morning and a longer one in the afternoon.

I'm not desperate for her to sleep through (although that would be nice!) as one night feed was manageable.

Help! Any advice on how we can get a bit more sleep would be gratefully received!

Hi everyone,
I'm very new to this board but have been havng the same issues with my 5 months old for the last 3 weeks.
From 8 weeks he was sleeping 11 hours a night (in bed at 8pm, we did a dreamfeed at 10ish then he would sleep til 7am) and it was heaven! Now he can be up 10 times a night, not hungry or cold or wet just cries until I pick him up. Once I'm holding him he's fine and will sleep but as soon as back in the cot it's screaming again!
His naps during the day have also got harder, he will alst 30 minutes max then cry, again will sleep if I pick him up.
I am exhausted and no idea what to do!

I too am fantastically relieved that this sleeplessness is a common 4 month problem, although a bit concerned about the lack of posts relating how things got better... My dd is 19 weeks and has been sleeping badly for the last week or so - waking up sometimes every hour. I thought it was down to our lack of bedtime routine and failure to teach her to 'self settle'. She sleeps in our bed as never got on with moses basket - she yells and yells when put down on her own but previously settled pretty quickly and slept well when next to me. This was fine as long as she did settle but now is getting rather exhausting. She'll often settle when we first go to bed, and have been trying to do this at about 7pm, but then wakes up within the hour after which it's really hard to get her to settle again. I can't keep bf'ing all night and if I stop and leave her in bed she gets really upset so I usually end up getting her up again to sit with us which I'm sure can't be good in the long term. When she gets bored and cries we go back to bed and start the whole thing again. Anyone any good advice to share?

OK girls, here I am again! Just to let you know, I'm probably on my way to being a success story (hoping it lasts). My boy is now 20 weeks, & in the last week we've made a huge effort to change his sleep patterns (he was waking every 1-2 hours & this was EXHAUSTING for us). What we've done- basically loosely following a Gina Ford routine, with no crying involved- has already got him down to waking once every night for a feed (), plus some nights we had stretches of 6 hours sleep. We're now getting regular stretches of 5 hours sleep, which is great, he's never ever gone that long. So here's what we've done. It may sound a bit regimented, but it's worked, and it doesn't involve any crying. Also, my milk supply during the day has increased!

1. we've stuck firmly to a 7-7 routine, and tried to keep to regular naps in the day, about 2 hours after he wakes put him down for a nap

2. we've replaced the 10-11 pm feed with a bottle of formula, & at that time I've expressed, emptying both breasts.

3. we've also replaced the middle of the night feed with a bottle of expressed milk, meaning that we can control / see what he's eating

4. giving a bottle in the night has meant I have a HUGE amount of milk for the 7 am feed. I wake up, express & empty totally one breast at 6.45 (so that my supply in the morning doesn't fall), then feed my boy at 7. He's already getting a much bigger amount of milk at that feed, meaning he can stretch his feeds a bit in the day.

5. because he's not getting breastfeeding at night (for now) he's actually breastfeeding MUCH more in the day. I take the opportunity to bf him as much as I can in the day, usually every 2 hours of so.

6. Finally (and this trick has worked very well, although it sounds strange!) we do what is called a split feed. When he wakes around 10 pm for his feed, we turn on the lights completely, give him some formula from his bottle(usually he only takes a small amount). Then we keep him up about half an hour, one hour tops. Then we turn down the lights again, & feed him the rest of his bottle so we're sure he takes a full feed. This trick not only ensures he takes the full bottle, but also means he has his 'broken' sleep at that time in the night, & has the longer stretch of sleep later on, meaning we can sleep undisturbed between 11-12 and 5 or 6 am.

Hope some or all of this helps those of you who are breastfeeding. I'm sure some of these tips may help some of those who are bottle-feeding too!

Oh and another piece of advice. I really don't think weaning early is the answer to the problem, unless you're absolutely positive that it's solids your baby needs & not extra milk. In the case of our boy I finally realized he was not getting enough milk in individual feeds so I've managed to boost my milk supply with this plan, & have been guiding him to eating larger milk feeds so that he can then sleep more soundly & for longer stretches.

As I've said, we've already seen real results, so hopefully this may be of use to someone else...

Right I've only scanned through but I noticed that no-one has posted this link - wakeful 4 month old

It does pass, ladies!!!

Agree with those who say don't be tempted to wean early. This link tells you why - Why delay solids

Hope this helps.
Sympathise, I have a craptastic sleeper and 'tis grim!!

Hello again - sorry to hear other people are also having problems - just wanted to say that we've had a few much better nights recently! Hope this is reassuring to those who are still having problems. Some nights, my DD (now 6 months) has been sleeping for 5, 6 or even 7 hour stretches (from 7pm) - horray!

I don't know whether it's reassuring or not to know that we haven't particularly changed anything, so I'm wondering if actually there was nothing we could do to make her sleep - she just needed to grow up a little bit. For what it's worth: we have a bedtime routine, she doesn't go longer than 3 hours between breast-feeds during the day, I try to feed her more frequently before bedtime (say 4:30pm to 7pm), she's in her own room with more blankets than before. Although we've been doing that for weeks and only just seen an improvement in her sleep!

Happy Christmas everyone and here's hoping our babies let us rest a bit!

Hi, i just wanted 2 join the club! ds is 19wks and has slept through since 10 weeks. we had just got him going 7-7 occasionally waking once 4 his dummy. now, its all change!!! he has now started waking around 3-4am. i've reintroduced the dream feed at 10pm 2 c if that helps. he's not bothered about feeding in the early hours, just wants 2 play. last night i took him downstairs, played 4 20mins, he wore himself out then slep till 6:45

As far as feeding is concerned, I think you will know your own baby's needs best. My two certainly did need solids early. It was my HV who suggested I put them onto solids when it became apparent that they physically could not consume the amount of milk they needed. To begin with, HV suggested a top up of formula milk, but that wasn't enough so they were on solids very early. (12 weeks and 9 weeks). But we did not experience the sleep problems with either of them that some of you have. Also, going onto solids early did not do either of them any harm They are now teenagers. eldest has just been unconditionally accepted for uni next September and youngest studying for A Levels and doing well so far.

10 years later I'm reading your thread as my baby is 4 months and seems to be more hungry and wakening more.

I didn't even realise how old this thread was!! My 4 month old is exactly th same.... I'm totally shattered!!!