4 month old multiple night feedings

[grahame]

our four month old has never been a great sleeper, he wakes often (probably 4 times from 6:30 pm - 6 am). we've tried everything from swaddles to pacifiers to the bottle over the breast but nothing seems to work. sometimes he goes down quickly after he feeds, but sometimes he cries and requires help winding down and get back to sleep, at which point an hour has passed from when he first woke up to when he finallyg gets back to sleep. during the day he is breast fed often -- every 2.5 to 3 hours, with the occasional bottle of formulat (6 oz) when his father is feeding him. he takes naps during the day, but doesn't always make it to 4-6 hours of naps, probably closer to 3-4 hours a day. our son is still extremely happy during the day, though does often get cranky toward the end of the day around 5pm, but i know that the sleep deprivatoin has to be impacting him (there are dark circles under his eyes).  plus, the current situation of getting up every 2-3 hours (sometimes every 1.5 hoursi really taking a toll on me and my husband. any suggestions for consolidating his sleep better??? i'm getting desperate....

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

Hello, I'm sorry your post has not been noticed sooner  :oops:  . How are you getting on? Congratulations on your little boy.

Do you have access to Tracy's book? In it, she suggests that the best thing to do is to teach your little one to go to sleep independently. This means that the eventual goal is to place him in his cot awake, and he will fall asleep himself. (Note that I say eventual goal - it takes a lot of hard work before you can get there).

Have you tried pat/sshh? 4 months is a bit young to be trying pu/pd, so you might like to try that first.

If you need an explaination on how this works, please let us know, we'll be happy to provide one. Please let us know how you are getting on.