nearly 5 month old waking every 2 hours

[lydiathetattooedlady]

ds has never been a great sleeper, he has bed and bath routine which he loves and is in bed by 6.30/7. i dont push the time on him he is ready for bed. he then wakes every 2 hours to feed. (up until a fortnight or so ago it was every hour!) i always try to settle him first but it becomes clear very soon that he is hungry. we also have a 2.9 dd who is not the worlds greatest sleeper. So am i putting him to bed too early? i've tried offering feeds more frequently during the day but he wont take if he's not hungry! A friend suggested that maybe he sleeps too much during the day? he usually is up at 6.30/7 has 1 1/2-2 hour nap 9.30-11.30 then another 1-1 1/2 hr nap 12.30 ish and a cat nap of about 45 min at 3.30/4. It's been suggested to give him formula at bed time which i tied and for first night or so seemed to make him go longer in early stages of evening but he now wont take more than 2/3oz. it doesnt help that other people and their babies i've met are all either sleeping through or only waking once/twice a night! can anyone offer any suggestions/help? im not suggesting at all i want him to be sleeping through (although that would be nice!) but any tips on how to make him go longer between feeds at night would be great!

www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/4mo-sleep.html

I think you hit the nail on the head with you have a 2.9 yo dd who isn't a good sleeper either. IMO your child will either be a natural GF baby who does everything by the clock, self-settles and sleeps through early, or you don't. People can be v. smug when their children naturally sleep well, the implication being that you've done something wrong if your child doesn't magically sleep through the night the first time you let him whimper for 30 seconds.

Do what you have to to survive and look at the progress your DS has made: he's no waking up half as often. You've just a few more months to go to have the huge 4 month & 6 month growth spurts behind you.

There's research on developmental leaps which help explain changes in behaviour of babies at key stages. During these times, babies need more food and more attention from mum. I got a book called "the wonder weeks" which explains them and the new skills baby is learning. It's worth reading - whilst it doesn't give you tips on how to change things it does give you hope that it's just a phase plus tells you what new things baby is trying to do!

thank you for responses, i do believe it's getting me down so much because the people i know in RL are so smug about their babies sleeping through, or at least for long periods of time, and i do feel like im failing somewhere. DD is a bad sleeper on and off now as she says she'a having bad dreams, but by ds's age she was sleeping through. i think im starting to panic as i have to return to work end of feb, which is a while off but worried how i'll cope working and being up all hours!
i shall just keep telling myself it wont be forever!