Spirited- 4am Play time?

[NoSleepBaby]

Not sure if this is just because of growth spurt or what (he turns 5 months on Nov 7)

a couple days ago, 4 am waking, only wanted to play, wasn't interested in eating. Tried everything to get him to go back to sleep but he was so wide awake. Plopped him into the exersaucer and he played wildly for 15mins and then fell asleep

Last night- woke at 4am, was "talking" non-stop, wide awake.  Ate 4.5oz, did not want to go back to bed.  Brought him to my bed, he rolled over on his side and scratched at daddys face for an hour before falling asleep

His schdule

0700- wake up
0700 eat
830/9 nap
1000- wake up
1000 eat
1200 nap
100 wake
1 eat
300 nap
4 eat
6/615 cat nap
630/645 start bedtime routine
700 eat
730 falls asleep
1000/1030 dream feed

[Stace]

Hay there,

May be nothing to do with his night wakings but have you thought about moving him onto a 3.5/4 hour E.A.S.Y?

From what I understand, he should ideally be moving towards a 4 hour routine now. It might be worth slowly changing him to the 4 hour (change by 15 mins per week until at the 4 hours?) as I've heard others say that they get a better night out of their LO if their on the age appropriate routine?

Hopefully someone will come along that know's more than me but that's what jumped out at me.

Best of luck.

Stace x

[NoSleepBaby]

We just started this routine as he would only eat 4.5 oz so I started with 3 hour with hopes to move to 3.5 hour soon

He has been napping since 9am, so he has been asleep for 2 hours already!  Do you think it would be easy or wise to start him on 4 hour today since it has been 4 hours since he had his morning bottle?  I am going to wake him now since I dont want him sleeping longer than 2 hours for his first nap or he wont nap rest of day.  Maybe he is just letting me know he is ready to move to 4 hour?  I dont know.. we just dont like 4 am play times..lol

[Bryony]

No, I don't like 4am playtimes either 

I agree with Stace, I would definitely try and move him to a 4 hourly EASY. And sounds like today might be the day! 

Bryony

[NoSleepBaby]

Tried the 4 hour.. went great this morning.  He happily waited 4 hours to feed, however, his afternoon nap (1pm) only lasted 45mins. 

Here is is schedule thus far for today: Highlighted is what I am concerned with

Should I maybe do 3.5 hour for a few days/week instead?

700 wake and eat 4.5oz
700-900 talked with mommy and daddy til daddy left for work, "helped" mommy get candy baskets together, some floor time
900- nap (put self to sleep...)
1100 woke and eat 4.5oz
1130- left for walk to grocery store to check out costumes people were wearing and to show his off (small town thing)
1230 (wanted to eat again) 2 oz
1pm- fell asleep on own- without paci for first time
145- woke
300- eat 4.5oz
its 343pm and he just fell asleep for his 3rd nap

[NoSleepBaby]

ugh.. he tried to sneak in another 45 min nap.  He woke up at 430 when put down at 345.  Just dont know why he is doing 45mins now especially when he had a good 2 hour nap this morning

Thankfully I was able to get him to go back to sleep this time.. but not sure how long he will be out for the count this go around


Update

Up already!! Screaming too boot. Not even a full hour of sleep.  I am going back to 3 Hour E.A.S.Y, it was working for us and he hadn't cried in days

[Deb_in_oz]

Hi there

just wanted to pop in and say that 4am playtime wakings are very common in the 4 mo old baby. i don't rmemeber the reasoning, but i do know that Liv went through it (alex did not) and i read about it somewhere in BW back then (2 1/2 yrs ago almost exactly) and there was a time when there would be 4am posts on the boards all the time.



it is a phase and will pass - average time takes 2 weeks. Please do not go in to him and do not put him in a play space etc - if he is playing and happy do not interefere (just in this one case of 4 mo olds - trust me) but ride it out. if there is crying involved then you aattend to the child as normal to rule out hunger / wet nappy etc but as long as no crying or calling for you, then you just leave him be. i know it is hard, but it does stop.  some nights it can be for 20 min and others longer (the longest i remember anyone mentioning was 2 hours!!!) but they all stop and usually within 2 weeks.

as far as the day routine impacting, it generally has no impact on this 4 am thing that JUST HAPPENS due to the age and not the routine. i swear it is so funny because i just mentioned the 4 mo play time thing to aleesa (aly mac) yesterday and said we used to get lots of those posts and here you are today - if you do a search i imagine you would find a lot of threads covering this from 2005-2006!

about the routine - that is a separate issue that is being worked through on the general sleep board as he is spirited and her lo is not ready for 4 hrs yet.

leavign now

[NoSleepBaby]

wow.. normal huh?  Well, I guess that is good to know.. although 2 weeks seems like such a long time..lol

He doesnt cry at the 4am playtime, just wants to play when mommy and daddy want to sleep.  I am worried about it affecting the rest of the routine.. and also mommy's sleep

I really appreciate all your advice and support Deb.. I have been meaning to return your PM but forget to keep going back to my inbox

[Deb_in_oz]

no worries - and you may find it stops in a few days, i just have always heard it ends within 2 weeks and i found that to be true for Liv as well.  my point is mostly that you can't make them stop playing BUT you shoudl not encourage it by taking him out to the exersaucer and enabling it iykwim. no involvement from you guys and just ride it out.  if he is extra tired from it he will add to his naps most likely, but it is not that your day is causing him to play (if he was 9 mo old and doing this i would question the routine more but since it has traditionally been a 4am at 4mo old "phase" it sounds like a classic scenario to me...

[Layla]

We also had the 4am "want to play" period with both girls. Lots of cooing & making noises.... so Deb's suggestion to let him be is what mine would be as well

I would still try to aim for the 3.5/4hr EASY but rather than let his sleep 2hrs in the morning you could try to cut the morning nap to 1.75 hrs so that the afternoon nap is longer....

hth
Layla

[mumofiz]

Hello,

no advice I'm afraid - just wanted to say I'm right there with you! My dd is nearly 5 months and has been waking between 3.30 & 4, as it's her feed time I feed her but she stays awake and goes back down awake. Some mornings it's taken til 6ish for her to go back to sleep    I do just put her down and leave her, she usually plays and chats quietly for a while then starts to mantra cry (still leave her) then proper cry so I go to her and do the shhh thing. This morning she played quietly and then just fell asleep (wahey), mind you woke up again at 5.30    Sometimes I can go back to sleep while she plays, sometimes her play is too noisy - so it's a very boring 8.30pm bedtime for me at the moment to help me cope. Hadn't heard that it was a 2 week thing, if that's the case we must be nearly through it by now - although we have many other nw and nap issues to deal with. Hope your little man gives you some peaceful nights soon.

 

[weeza]

Hi there, We've been having similar 4am wake times with Alex, who turns 4 month next week, but rather than cooing and playing it's been outright shouting!  Seems to be better in last couple of nights since we've been working on extending naps and generally getting him to sleep more in the day. In our case I think it started about a week and a half ago, when he suddenly wanted to feed all night - obviously a growth spurt but I'm new to BW so didn't know to "tank up" in the day with cluster feeds and DF. After a few days of both of these techniques our lo seems to be getting back on track. Phew!
I found so much useful info in this interview with Tracy and now go back to it every day for help with all these issues, which we're still working on. I really recommend you read it.
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=451.0
Here's to a good night's sleep sometime soon!

[skatty]

Just want to say I remember this! I think they are developing lots of new sounds and find the quiet of the night a great time to practise and listen to themselves, it was annoying but also passed quickly 

[lilmonkey]

Yup!  I remember dd going through this.  DS is currently doing the same thing.  LIke Deb says, just let them be and it will pass.  Of course it's hard to fall back asleep with all the noise he makes.  I guess this is where the nights gets interesting as they start to practice their new skills in the middle of the night.   

[NoSleepBaby]

Thanks girls

He did it again last night at 4am on the dot.  I tried leaving him alone but DH just had to go pick him up after me repeatedly telling him to leave him be.  He says "He is just 4 months old, damn!!"  He thinks I am being mean about leaving him alone to fuss and make noise at 4am.  This BW is never going to work if he doesnt start supporting me...ugh, men