Please help! 4 month old waking up at night again!!!

[ishtaresp]

Hi,

My 4 month baby has been  on 4h EASY for about a month now. It was all going great, with him sleeping 8 to 10 straight hours every night and feeding very well. Unfortunately, about 10/12 days ago he suddenly started loosing interest in eating (i have tried breastfeeding, giving him a bottle of formula and also a bottle of my milk and nothing works) and waking up hungry  at about 3 am. He isn't even interested in taking the dreamfeed, i actually have the feeling i'm disturbing his sleep rather than helping him sleep through the night.
When i feed him at about 3 am, he eats really well, in fact it's the time when he eats better and more.
I don't know what to do, i know that unless i feed him at 3 am he will not go back to sleep and will cry like crazy and i hate not feeding him when he's hungry but on the other hand i am worried he's getting into the habit of being fed in the middle of the night.

Please, if you have any tips on what to do i'd really appreciate them!!!!!

[Bryony]

Wow he sounds like he was doing great!

A couple of thoughts /questions:

- can he get to sleep on his own for naps and bedtime or does he need some help from you / dummy/ etc?

- do you want to post your routine in case there is anything there that might need a tweak?

- have you tried dropping the DF to see if that helps?

Hopefully we can work it out and get your good sleeper back! In the meantime it sounds like he needs that 3am feed....

Bryony x

[AppleJacksMommy]

Oh my Heavens....I have the SAME EXACT problem with my 4 month old except that I hadn't transitioned him to the 4h EASY yet. Just today I was thinking of introducing a formula feed. Up to this point he has been EBF and I'm thinking maybe he'd be more interested in something more filling? I just don't know? This is our 5th day of NW. When I read what you wrote I felt as though I must have typed it and just forgot that I did! Crazy!

I will be interested to see your routine and what results come up!

[trypsmommy]

I'm no expert but I read that it's common for LO's to nurse better at night b/c there are no distractions and it's dark and they are usually really relaxed but I'm having problems of multiple nw's so...I'm not much help!

[AppleJacksMommy]

I posted my issues under the EASY forum and have come to the conclusion that I am going to transition to the 3.5 hour EASY to see if this helps my DS. It seems he's snacking during the day because with 3 h feeds he's just not fully hungry so he's making up for it at night. It makes sense. So starting today I'm going to the 3.5 and see what happens!

I do agree with the less distractions though. Once they see how much stuff is in the world, they are very easily distracted!

[Lex444]

I've read that this is a classic four-month-old problem - the bubbas, they get distracted in the daytime because there's so much developmental stuff going on.

Wish I could be of help, but my baby is starting to be the same, he's a couple of weeks shy of four months.

I'm just feeding him at the 3am, feeling glad he's at least eating, and considering transitioning to a 3.5 hour EASY although I'm not sure he can quite stick the increased A times yet. Someone suggested a colourful cloth on the shoulder above the breast you feed from, so they have something to look at instead of staring around the room.

My best suggestion for this - probably very un-BW - is, this too shall pass....

[AppleJacksMommy]

Well, it's a  good feeling to know that it's documented this happens at this age. I started with the 3.5-4 h transition yesterday and he did wake again last night but I think that's to be expected maybe for a couple more days til we are in our groove. Today started well though, woke at 6 and ate very well. Then nap at 7:35 and slept til 10! When we woke, he was content in crib watch mobile and then we had diaper change. He wasn't fussing but was sucking on his hands. It was 10:20 before he started eating so that was great! I read somewhere else on this site that sometimes there's a 3 hour cycle once during the day too.

Like you say, I'm just glad he's eating and a good eater too, regardless of the time 
There could be a lot worse things wrong! And this too shall pass and then another trouble will come along to replace it 

[Lex444]

How's this going, btw, ladies???

[fiona1274]

We've got this did you ladies ride through this or are you still up through the night?

[Lex444]

Heya, my baby is now 17 weeks and we got over it.

Suddenly went from the two or three night wakings a night, back to one for ten days. That feed also seemed to creep out later and later over those ten days, from 3am to 4am to finally 5.30am! I thought we'd cracked it.

I have no idea why. I've been trying the 3.5 hour EASY but I was doing that for more than a week before he went back to one waking.

However, he got a cold yesterday and last night he had two wakings again. Sigh. I think it's two steps forward, one back for us.

 

[campbellchick]

Lex444 I feel the same as you - two steps forward, sometimes more than one backwards.  My 4.5month dd just starts sleeping through or only waking once (she went through the same thing as above at 4 months too - I think it was a growth spurt) and something will happen like her getting wind from me eating too much dairy or she will get a cold (which she has atm), then we are back to multiple night wakings again.  It is so disheartening and exhausting... 

[myajazmum]

hi there

same thing happening here. DS turns 4mo today, 2 dats ago he started feeding more at night. during the day he is ok with 3.5hr easy but night time he woke up every 3 hrs.. not good.. but he's not taking much tho/? hoping this GS will pass...... soon...

will moving him to 4hr easy help?

[Bryony]

Myajazmum - moving to 4 hourly EASY will help only if it's due to hunger. Waking every 3 hours (ie every two sleep cycles) can also be due to a prop or OT.  If you want to start a new thread it may be easier to help you out!  Also to do 4 hourly EASY your LO needs to be able to do 2hrs A time

xx