4 Months Old - new sleeping habbits

[Notchalk]

Has anyone else's baby completely changed sleeping habbits at 4 months of age, or is it just me? DS used to sleep a good 6 hour then 3.5 hour stretch over night.... he now wakes at LEAST every hour. We have tried cosleeping, which worked a bit the first night, but not last night. He has a dummy which he needs to get to sleep with, but when cosleeping he just used me (like he's meant to). Any ideas? I NEED SLEEP!

Ta :)

Jo

[MonMic]

Hiya,

Sounds similar to what our dd did at about 5 months, she went from sleeping really well and only waking about once a night to waking every 2 hours for a feed, but basically she was just using me to suckle and get back to sleep. At the time I read that this is common at about that age.

It sounds like yours is doing a similar thing and if you have been using a dummy then once that falls out they can't get back to sleep.

I lasted about 3 weeks and then nearly went burko, I don't know if it is your thing but we did the controlled crying and it worked really well only took about 2-3 nights and then she was sleeping through! and only waking for a feed at about 5am.

? have you been feeding him to sleep, i.e he falls asleep on the breast and then you put him back to bed? That was a bad habit that we got into.

I noticed that there is a no-cry method thread on this site also which may have some answers, but basically your bub needs to learn how to got back to sleep
himself.

I would get rid of the dummy and try a method for bubs to learn how to self settle.

It will be a bit hard at first, but hey you are getting up every hour now so it won't be that much worse, but you will really be better off in the long run once he learns how to get to sleep himself.

Good luck
Monica

[miss_moe]

my DD has been through the exact same thing. But we are at the tail end of it with her 5months now

DD went from sleeping between 7-9 hours straight a night then @4months went to waking every 2hours or more during the night for 2 weeks, then 3 times a night, then two, then last night once (now she is 5months).

I think it is very much a stage. And this is in no way an offence to the previous poster (we all feel comfortable with different strategies) but I would go a different route. And go with the flow. During this time your bub is suddenly more aware of their environment, themselves and who their caregiver is, they are hitting new milestones and probably too aware of the day events to feed alot.

So just IMHO I think if you can bare with it, be there for food and/or comfort for you bub. As I am pretty sure you'll come out the other side fine. Try to get some kips in during the day. I ended up rocking and feeding DD to sleep for about 3 weeks and now we are back into the swing of things and she is fine back in the cot.

I just want to add that my understanding of controlled crying is that it isn't suggested until they are at least 6months.

So there you go 2 differing sides to the same issue. But all I can suggest is do what you are comfortable with and what you think is in the best interest for you and your little one.

All the best and *good sleeps*

:)

[JanetF]

Babies change so fast! I have coslept from day 1 and it's been wonderful in our family - no crying, no problem sleeping except for illness, teething or growth spurts but even then minimal. As soon as you catch up with this habit, bubs will have a new one. Try to relax and have a nanna nap with bubs in the day, and cosleeping will keep them nice and close at night so if they're wakeful you don't have to get up. Babies are supposed to wake several times a night, it's normal and healthy. All we can do is set our lives up to support this in the best way possible and by cosleeping, or sidecaring or having the bassinet in your room, you'll help this. Some cosleeping mamas wake to feed more often but they get lots more sleep than mamas who sleep away from their babies. Sleeping through is only defined as 5 hours, so you'll have times when bubs does this and times when they don't. It's as much about our perceptions of whether or not that's normal as it is about how we cope with it. Babies waking is normal :D
Hugs and sleepy vibes coming your way!
:)

[Notchalk]

Thanks for your advice guys. Last night we went back to the cot in our room idea. It worked fairly well - he only woke 3 hourly which felt like heaven! Much better than hourly. I think we're over whatever was going on, I hope. I slept a lot better too, as I'm a light sleeper, and although I loved the idea of cosleeping, I wasn't getting a lot of sleep myself. At least the weather is getting warmer, so actually getting up out of bed won't be so bad soon :)

I don't go for the whole controlled crying thing - I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Nothing against those who do, but it's not for me. Who knows, I might re-evaluate that at a later date for whatever reason, but for now, I'm happy to just ride it out. (ok, I'm happy NOW that it seems to be improving ;)).

Thanks again,

Jo

P.S. JanetF are you the same as the JanetF on Ozmidwifery? I'm JoFromOz ;)

[MonMic]

Hey Jo,

Thats great that you found something to help your DS with sleeping.

In the end its all a matter of trial and error, and not doing anything you don't feel comfortable with no matter who suggests it.

Here's to sleeping more!

Take care
Monica

[JanetF]

Hi Jo, yes it's me *waves*