How to help a 4 month old sleep longer than 3 hour stretches at night?

[taralynna]

We started our 4 month old on EASY a week ago and his day time sleep really improved (two 2 hour naps, and a 40 minute cat nap).

We were hoping that he would start sleeping longer through the night on EASY; however, he continues to wake every 3 hours and needs the shh-pat to fall asleep.

Any tips on how to help him sleep longer? We tried to do the W2S, but a lot of times he wakes up before it's even our turn to wake him up. It seems like he's waking at the end of the 3 hour sleep cycle, and can't fall back asleep.

My husband wants to try and let him CIO but I'm not super on board with that. I haven't had a stretch of sleep longer than 4 hours basically since he was born.

Any tips???

Thanks so much!!!

[taralynna]

We started out with a 4 hour EASY last Tuesday but after the first few days, we've been going more by reading his cues & not strictly by the clock. The past few nights have been all over the map so our wake up time, which was initially 8am has moved to 8:30 then to 9am. Here is what the past few days have looked like:

Tuesday:
E 8:30am
A 9
S 10:30
E 12:45pm
A 1:15
S 2:30
E 4:40
A 5:15
S 6:30 catnap
E 7:20
A 7:50 Bath
E 8:40
S 9:30
Night wakings: 11:40, 4am (babbled 30 mins then began to cry, shh pat him back to sleep), 6:30 (BF that time)
Yesterday (Wed):

E 9
A 9:30
S 11 - 12:35
A 12:35 pm
E 1 pm
A 1:30
S 3
E 4:35
A 5
S 6:30
E 7
A 7:30 Bath
E 8:35
A 9:15
S 9:30pm
Night Wakings 1:40am, 2:15am, 3:20, 3:40 (went out too fast after 3:20 waking), 6am (BF him that time)

Today:

E 9am
A 9:30am
S 10:50am (woke at 11:25 and shh pat back to sleep
E 12:35
A 1:15
S 2:30 (woke at 3:10 & 3:50 and shh pat back to sleep
E 4
A 4:40
S 5:45 (fell asleep in carrier while out for a walk then put in bed when arrived home, babbled for 15 mins)
E 6:20...

Wondering if I should feed him in the middle of the night when he wakes? Tried dreamfeed w/o success.

[taralynna]

Hi JAY3! Thanks for the reply.

We have been doing the EASY now for almost 2 weeks, but it doesn't seem to be helping with the NW. I wonder if, rather than being on a 4 hour EASY, he should be on a 3 hour EASY? We previously tried a 3 1/2 EASY as well, but that didn't seem to help either.

Our LO is still really struggling with sleeping at night. Last night he woke up after 3 hours, took about 30 minutes of shh-pat to fall back asleep, then woke up after another 2 1/2 hours, and after that, woke up every hour subsequently. I eventually just got up and started the day at 7:00am.

We follow the EASY quite strictly (more as the "schedule" vs. "routine"), just so we can get it established. We have also tried to extend the last A time, following his cues, just to make sure that he's accumulated enough tiredness. It hasn't really changed his sleeping patterns at night though.

We tried to do the W2S, but sometimes he wakes up after 2 hours, rather than 3 ... so it doesn't really seem to be "habitual" per se ()

I know that this isn't supposed to work overnight, but I think I expected things to change at least a bit. I don't see how he could sleep longer than 3 hours? Is it just a developmental thing that we'll have to endure, or is there something else that we could be doing?

Any help and insight will help!! Thanks so much!

[Ima shel Alon]

You did say it yourself - we need to remind ourselves our LO's didn't read BW
My LO is younger than yours, so maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that he is going to bed fairly late. I know my LO sleeps better if he is not OT from his day (which seems you are all right with), but I also need to put him in good time to bed in the evening.
Maybe other moms to older kids can say what they think about that.

[taralynna]

"My LO is younger than yours, so maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that he is going to bed fairly late. I know my LO sleeps better if he is not OT from his day (which seems you are all right with), but I also need to put him in good time to bed in the evening. "


We are starting to wonder if that may be the case? We figured because he woke up later, that he could sleep later (ex: be on a 12 hour cycle from 9am - 9pm vs. 7am - 7pm.) Usually he doesn't show the tired signs until a bit later at night though ... like he can have a longer A time during that last stretch. One time last week, we tried putting him to sleep at 6:50pm, but he woke up every hour subsequent until around midnight, at which time he slept a 3 hour stretch, and woke up again after that.

Last night he slept from 9:40pm - 1am, woke at 2:40, woke at 4:00, woke at 6:30, and again at 8:30. We'll try and put him to sleep earlier today and see what happens? We're really at a loss of what to do.

Do babies this age still need several night time feeds? We cluster feed right before we put him in bed. Is that maybe part of the problem perhaps?

Any other hypotheses???

[taralynna]

Hugs

How is ever thing going?

Jane

Well, not any better. We have tried everything in the book ... some days (like last night) he woke every two hours. The night before he slept 4 hours, 3 hours, 3 hours, then 2 hours. It's totally random.

He mastered the roll 3 days ago too, and that threw off his napping schedule too. He's no longer doing the two hour stretches that he was doing. We were hoping that would tire him out for night, but no such luck.

Maybe he is just hungry at night??? I don't know if you have any advice or insight? Would love to hear it!

[Ima shel Alon]

Developement, such as rolling, can often make them be even more awake, I think Tracey talks about it in the first book.
I am also sending hugs, there will be an end to it all,
Noa.

[annette.xx]

thankyou for this thread!! exact same issues...

i did easy from the start and since going to 4 hrs i have at least 3 - 4 NW - problem for me is that he just wont go to sleep after the EW so im in a complete mess!!!

im beggining to wonder if my issue is too much day sleep cos the better the days naps the worse the nightsleep...its driving me absolutely nuts now!!!

im on hols sat and im now dreading it completely cos im thinking its just going to be a complete nightmare!!!

Annette.xx

[Ima shel Alon]

Hi Annette,
Would you consider to post a new post? I think you will get more answers from people if you were to write your specific story, and I also suggest that you write your EASY down that people can have a look and see if he is getting too much sleep during the day.
Did you change from 3h to 4h in one go or gradually?

And at the same breath - taralynna, how are things going?