4 month old early waking

[Han12345]

Hi everyone,

So my 4 months old has started waking at 5.15 and will just chat away but she’s so loud she wakes the whole house. I have tried putting her dummy back in but then she’s aware I’m there so starts looking for me. So I then tried feed her and she will fall asleep whilst feeding and be fast asleep when I’m winding her but I put her back in her cot and she’s awake chatting again. The only way I can get her to stay asleep is by having her in my arms but it’s not really helping.

I try my best with routine but I find it hard to work around my 3yo too. If we are not at home she has 30 min cat naps most the day.

I’ve tried doing some reading and I think I’m maybe not starting the day right. If I’m feeding her at 5 then trying to get her back to sleep I don’t then usually feed her till 8ish. I’m then trying to stretch her to 4 hourly feeds but sometimes she feeds 3 hours, it depends if she’s asleep over feed time.

She’s also waking earlier for her night feed. She used to be amazing - In bed by 6.30 and next feed around 3am (DF never works for her). Then sleep till 7ish but I know her vaccines and 4 months sleep regression seems to have thrown her.

So basically I feel I might be confusing her lots? Here’s how our routine is kind of going.

Awake: 5.15am (try to leave her but she gets very loud talking away)
E: 5.30 (try get her back to sleep)
S: 5.55-7 in arms possibly, might be able to get her back in her bed for a short time
A:

E: 8am
A: (work around 2 hour awake time from her last wake up but sometimes I can tell she’s grtting tired so will do 1.45hr
S: 9am - 10.30ish (unless we go out which it will be 30 mins, awake about 30/45mins then I might get her back to sleep)

E:11.30ish
A: 2 hours awake if she slept well in her first nap
S: 12.30 - 2ish

E: 3pm (I try to leave this as close to 3pm as I can because otherwise she’s starving by BT and isn’t happy)
A:
S: 4/4.30pm (for about 30mins)

BT: 6pm start - she’s usually making a big fuss by this point.
E: bottle (7oz) 
Asleep by about 6.30pm

Wake: 12.30am (can mostly smooth with a dummy)
Wake: 2ish - feed
Wake 5am (start all over again)

So having typed it out I feel it’s maybe very confusing for her. She’s usually such an easy baby though and I have concentrated mainly on awake times.

I don’t really mind the night wakings but don’t know what I can do about the early starts?

Thank you.

[Katet]

My thought is that a bedtime 6.30 to waking up at 5.15am is not outside normal with only one feed in that time.

I don't think the clock timings really confuse little ones, more the lack of consistency in rituals around sleep. 

Soy thought is that if you want a 6.30pm bedtime then 2 options try a feed at 12.30am rather than the dummy and see if changing that help bring a bit longer night otherwise you may need to accept that 10h 45 mins is a 'normal' night sleep for some babies who just never get to the magic 12 hours.
The fact she is talking rather than crying kind of indicates to me she just doesn't need to sleep longer

[Han12345]

Thank you for your reply.

You are right I don’t know why I keep trying to resettle the feed her at 12.30. There’s every chance she could be going through a growth spurt. I did what you said last night and she fed at 12.30 and then 4.30 but then went back to sleep till 6.30 so that was great. Thank you.

She talks every time she is in bed no matter what time. Haha. She will talk herself back to sleep after I have just fed her. She will spit the dummy out unless she’s in my arms. She used to suck her thumb but has stopped that now too. She just seems to talk herself to sleep 🙈

Thanks for your help. I’m hoping she will go back to sleeping longer but I know month 4 isn’t the best for sleep. X