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4 month old boy sleeping patterns
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15-05-2011 8:43pm#1Hi
My son is 4 months old and recently we have knocked out the 4am feed , he was being fed every 4 hours so we would feed him at say 6pm and put him down at 8pm and he'd sleep till we woke him at 11-11.30pm to fed him.
Then he would sleep on till 5.30 - 6 , however over the past 4 or 5 days we have kept up this routine and he is waking up now at 4am and my partner has to sooth him with the pacifier till he nods off again an hour later.
Any ideas as to why is he is waking up earlier than usual ? ( i must state we only recently had him sleeping to 6am for 10 days ) so we though he was in a routine but seemly he isn't
we started him on solids 4 days ago , so any ideas would be really helpful to keep him asleep. we have been watching his sleep during the day and he doesn't sleep loads , its pretty strict , so in the hope he'll sleep at night and wee need our sleep too 0
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'From' 4 months is ok to start introducing solids. Baby rice and veggie puree's etc... How much are you feeding him? 2-3 spoonfuls is more than enough and ony really once a day to begin with. Of course, he may not be ready for solids and this could be the cause of the upset. Maybe try a few days without the solids again and see how that works for you.
If he needs to sleep in the day, let him! At such a young age babies need lots of sleep for growth and brain development. It doesn't mean that he won't sleep at night, in fact, he'll pobably sleep better at night.
At 4 months, a babies routine is open to change at any time. Just because you had a routine going for 10 days doesn't mean that you should get too comfortable with it! His routine will change 100 times before he is 1 and it'll have your head wrecked! Especially once the teething pains kick in (which could be starting now btw!)
I'm afraid you're just going to have to work with the little fella and eventually he will get into a routine that sticks and you will start being able to sleep all night - Just don't expect it any time soon! Until then, enjoy the exhaustion and count your blessings on the nights that he does sleep through.
Hope this helps 0 -
Eircom_Sucks wrote: »we started him on solids 4 days ago , so any ideas would be really helpful to keep him asleep. we have been watching his sleep during the day and he doesn't sleep loads , its pretty strict , so in the hope he'll sleep at night and wee need our sleep too
Sleep breeds sleep in small children, shorter naps isn't necessarily going to mean a longer sleep at night. My guy is 4 months too, he has a 1 hour nap in the morning, 1-2 hours after lunch and 1 hour in the afternoon. Goes to bed around 9 and sleeps through until 7.30ish. He gets 2 solid meals a day, baby rice + fruit in the am and veg puree for dinner - although Crazy cat lady there's no way 2-3 spoons would satify my fella, he shouts if the spoon doesn't go into his mouth fast enough.0 -
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my little man is like a bag of cats at 7ish when he is tired , so we take him in , change his nappy and dress him for bed and we put him in his crib with his teddy bear giraffe ( ethan ) and he nods off , we dont need to sway him or cuddle till he falls asleep 0
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You should google "four month sleep regression" It happens a lot with babies at this age because they're going through so many developmental changes. Learning to roll over, sit up etc. Very often it has little or nothing to do with what they are eating/drinking. The good news is that it's a phase and it will pass
Edited to add: there's a really good post about this on rollercoaster .....
Has your baby been "sleeping through" (defined as 4-5 hours in a stretch - not the 12 hours some people think) for some time, but now seems to have stopped?
Is he or she between 15 and 20 weeks and is suddenly waking up a lot overnight?
Confused as to why your "good sleeper" is no more?
You, my friend, are going through the FOUR MONTH SLEEP REGRESSION (or rather, your baby is... which means you are also not getting the same sleep!).
I often see posts about this, with mothers worried about what's happened to their "good sleeper" and lots of well-meaning responses that "he's hungry" and so now's the "time to introduce solids" or "change his formula."
Unfortunately, these are not usually the solution and parents end up more frustrated as to why their child is not sleeping as well as they had been. It's important to remember that there is actually little association between solids and sleep, so the early introduction of solids won't actually help your baby sleep better (and can cause some digestive issues later on).
Rest assured that this is only a phase, and understanding what your baby is going through, and knowing that it will end, helps enormously in terms of riding it out.
Basically, babies go through what some researchers have called "Wonder Weeks" in addition to growth spurts. These Wonder Weeks are intellectual developmental stages where babies are learning to process a whole lot of new information that they are suddenly become aware of. It's confusing, it's challenging and it freaks them out a little, and as their brains are on overdrive trying to makes sense of it all, they become a little clingier and a little fussier (some more than others), and their sleep is disrupted.
It's like if you suddenly woke up on an alien planet - all the information your senses are receiving is strange and confusing, you're not sure what any of it means or how to process it. You don't know how to behave and this zero gravity thing has you completely stumped as to how to walk around! It will take time for you to work through it all and eventually make sense and learn the skills you need to survive, but until then, you probably just need lots of reassurance from your loved ones to let you know you're OK.
There is a particularly nasty one at 19 weeks (give or take - and measured from EDD not birth date), which is otherwise known as the four month sleep regression. It usually starts a few weeks earlier - around 16 weeks and ends around 20 weeks - just in time for the cycle to start up again for the Week 26 wonder week (nowhere near as bad!). It IS a natural development stage and it IS something that will pass. The good thing is that at the end of it, they have new skills - and each wonder week is different in terms of what new skills your baby learns.
In terms of helping your baby through a wonder week, the easiest thing is to be as responsive as possible. They are looking for reassurance that all is right with the world - even though it's confusing them - and the only people who can provide that reassurance are their caregivers. Taking your baby into bed with you (particularly if you breastfeed) is an easy way to help you both get more sleep - the reassurance is there as soon as your baby wakes up. Fear not, this doesn't create any "rods for backs" (have you ever seen a 15 year old needing to sleep with their mother?), and is just a tool to get through an otherwise trying few weeks.
Anyway, I thought I'd just offer the above information as a way of helping you understand what your baby might be going through at this critical juncture. For more information, have a look at www.thewonderweeks.com or google "four month sleep regression".
Just remember: It really is perfectly normal. It's an expected developmental stage. Solids or changing formula won't change anything or fix it and, most importantly, IT WILL PASS.0 -
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