4 month old baby started waking every 1-2 hours at night - any advice?!

[Sarahmum]

At 15 weeks my DS was sleeping well, just waking for one feed at around 4 am. In the past two weeks he has started waking almost hourly. For example, last night it was midnight, 1.30, 2.30, 3.45, 5.30 & 6.30. He settles after a feed, but it is driving me crazy! Has anyone else experienced this? He is breastfed, but I give him formula before bedtime and also give him a "dreamfeed" when I go to bed at about 11.30. Any ideas/advice would be appreciated!

I have just been going through this with DD. From 6-12 weeks she woke once or twice and settled back easily. Then a growth spurt coincided with the heatwave and she began waking every 2 hours or less - I kept thinking she's go back to normal, then four weeks later we'd got to a point where she wouldn't sleep unless she was lying on one of us. Nightmare. I've been doing the Baby Whisperer Pick Up/Put Down for two weeks now, and it's working really well. It's hard work and a bit draining at first, but it seemed the only logical solution to me - I couldn't leave her to cry and she needed to be taught to self-settle again. I'm also using for naps, and it's really started to have an effect in the past few days.

I gather that some babies have a pretty fearsome growth spurt at 4 months also, so this may be what your DS is going through. I friend of mine has just experienced this with her DD - it lasted about 10 days, and now she is back to normal, only waking once.

Hope that helps a bit.

Sorry, just to clarify, I mean that if you think that your baby's waking is now habit, not hunger, then PU/PD is a great method. I must admit that I will feed up to twice (so maybe 11.00 and 3.00), but if she wakes any more than that then as far as I'm concerned she needs to learn to self-settle again, so I don't feed her, just pick her up and put her down as soon as she stops crying, as many times as it takes to get her to fall back to sleep. It took up to 20 minutes at first but now often only two or three pick ups, if at all - so it does work!

Is he still in your room? The advice is to keep them there for six months but ime (3 babies) some children get to 4 or 5 months and then will always wake if in the room with you. Moving him out may help because as he rouses and doesn't hear you there's no incentive for him to wake properly. Equally it could be a growth spurt and will settle.

Agree with NorthernLurker - we moved DD into her own room at 3 1/2 months as I felt we were disturbing each other. Also, she was really growing out of her crib, and seems much more comfortable in the cot, which wouldn't have fitted easily in our room.

Hi Daisy! We're going through this too this week (16 weeks). Up four times on Friday night. Where in the Baby Whisperer book is PU/PD?

Hi Powdoc. There's a whole chapter in The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems, rather than Secrets of - don't know if that's the one you've got. You can borrow my copy if you like - I won't be around Tues, but you're welcome to pop over. I'm in Lee. Let me know and I'll email my address to you...

xx

Perhaps he no longer needs a dreamfeed and it is upsetting his digestive system?

Thanks Daisy. Grrr, why isn't it all in one book? I think my neighbour has that one, so I'll see if I can borrow it. If not, I might take you up on your very kind offer.

May not be around Tuesday either - 16 week jabs in the morning, yuck.

Sorry OP, hijack over!