4 month waking more often

[sjroe86]

Hello,

My 4 month old baby hashas started waking more frequently during the night and is no longer able to sleep longer than 3 hours without waking for a feed. His first sleep on a night used to be the longest around 4 to 5 hours. He is breastfed. We had problems with snacking to the point he was feeding every hour during the day. We came across the easy routine which we started about a month ago and his feeding has improved. An example of his daily routine from yesterday is:
7am feed and dressed
8.30 sleep (in cot)
9.10 feed
11.00 sleep (in pram)
12.30 feed
2.00 sleep (in pram)
3.30 feed
4.30 sleep (in cot)
5.10 feed
6.30 sleep (in pram)
7.30 feed
8.00 bath
8.30 feed
9.30 feed
10.00 sleep
During the night he then woke at 1am, 4am, 5.30am and then 7am for feeds. I have tried settling him with dummy without picking him up each time first. After each feed during the night he usually goes straight back to sleep no problem.
Another problem we have is the only way he will have a long nap during the day is when we are out in the pram. His naps in his cot only last 40 mins. I have tried settling before he wakes properly but have not yet managed to extend his nap.

Any advice on how to improve his sleeping would be greatly appreciated please!

Thanks

Sarah

[LovelyLilyandJack]

How long has it been going on?  There's quite a big growth spurt at 4 months.  Could it be that?

[sjroe86]

It's been going on for about 3 weeks now. At first I thought it was the hot weather but still the same now it's cooler  :-(

[Pualani8]

Same thing here!  My DS is 4 months next week and it's been getting worse and worse for the past 3 weeks =(  We used to get 7 hour stretches and now we get 3 if we're lucky. 

[Layla]

Hi Sarah and welcome to the BW!

I think you might need to look at stretching your A times to 2 hrs so that some of those naps are consolidated into 3 naps (2 x 1.5hrs and 1 catnap) as I think he may be having too many sleeps during the day, which is probably also affecting his night sleeps as his bedtime is quiet late. We usually work on a 12 hr day 

I would try and aim for something like this:
7am - wake and feed
9-10.30 - sleep
10.30 - awake and feed
12.30-2 - sleep
2 - awake and feed
4-4.45 - sleep (catnap, so just a short sleep is needed here)
5pm - feed
6pm - bath and bedtime routine
7pm - bed

Start by adding around 15 mins to his A time every 3-4 days and you might find that he will sleep longer in the cot when you stretch his A time. Try to do the morning and afternoon nap in the cot. Its ok to do the last nap/catnap in the pram because this pram is usually short and will disappear anyway by around 6/7 months. I would use the shh/pat method to settle him past 45mins if he's up earlier from his nap and if you can't settle within say 20 mins or so, then you could give him a little more A time and keep him up until the next nap is due but offer the nap a little earlier (so say around 30 mins earlier). That way you are more of less in line with when he would have his next nap and the whole day is not thrown off. The E's I did 3.5hrs apart as if he is a breastfed baby, he might not be able to stretch the full 4 hrs (my DD, who is also 4 mo can't). But definitely bring bedtime to an earlier hour and 10pm is quiet late in my opinion as most babies do 11-12hrs at night.

Let me know what you think

[sjroe86]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply. Over the past few days I have been increasing his A time which has gone ok. However still struggling with his naps, have not managed to extend any yet. I have not come across the shh pat method before and have been struggling when I've tried it. To get my baby to sleep he has a dummy and I stroke his nose, I do this until he is nearly asleep then put him down in his cot. I then stroke his nose in his cot until he is asleep. When he wakes after 45mins I have tried both my usual method and the shh pat. Which way would you recommend I persevere with?

I am gradually moving his bedtime forward, it is 9 now. He is still getting up at 7 in the morning which is good. However still feeding 3 times during the night with first sleep being 3 hours  :-(.

Sarah  :-)

[Layla]

I think stroking his nose to sleep might become a habit but you could probably gradually wean that habit... perhaps you could stroke his nose until he is almost asleep and see if he can put himself to sleep on his own rather than doing it until he is fast asleep. Because then when he wakes 45mins into the nap, he is expecting the same thing to get back to sleep. It really is up to you because when you do the shh/pat, there may be some crying involved (or more than some) but this is how I taught my DD to put herself to sleep and it took us around 2 weeks of sleep training. Keep working on an earlier bedtime... glad he's still waking up at 7. Is he still taking 5 naps or have you been able to eliminate one and bring it down to 4? By 4 months, if he has 2 good naps and 1 catnap, that is a good routine to stick to. Could you post what his last couple of days have been like?

[sjroe86]

I have been reducing stroking his nose which has been going well, don't think he needed it as much as I thought. No improvement yet though on naps. The past 2 days gave been as follows:

Day 1
7am awake & feed
8.30 sleep (in cot)
9.10 tried to settle back to sleep
9.30 feed
11.15 sleep (in cot)
12.00 tried to settle back to sleep
12.20 feed
2.00 sleep (in pram)
3.30 feed
5.15 sleep (in cot)
5.45 feed
7.00 bath
8.00 feed
9.00 sleep
Woke up at 12, 3am and 5.30am for feeds

7am awake and feed
8.45 sleep (in car)
9.45 feed
11.30 sleep (in cot)
12.15 tried to settle
12.30 feed
2.15 sleep (in cot)
2.45 tried to settle
3.00 feed
4.45 sleep (in car)
5.45 feed
7.00 bath
8.00 feed
9.15 sleep
Woke at 12.30 and 3am for feed. Then woke at 5.30, settled and slept til 7am without .feed.

For the past 2 days he has had 4 naps during the day but if all of his naps were in the cot he would likely need 5.

[Layla]

I would still work on an even earlier bedtime as 9pm is still too late and he is probably overtired because he is not getting the rest he needs at night. If you can try and extend his A time to 2 hrs, he might sleep past the 45min mark for naps. If his last naps ends at 5:45pm, he should really be in bed for the night at 7.30pm depending on how his day was overall in regards to naps. I would try and extend his A time every 3/4 days by 10/15 mins until you're around 2 hr mark. I really try and stay home for the morning and afternoon nap as I know if the nap is outside her room (car/pram), it is going to be a short nap. The last nap (catnap) is ok to have in the pram/car as it is usually a short nap and will be the first to disappear but I do think it is important for them to sleep in the cot in order to have a restorative nap, but that's just my opinion