Suddenly waking between 12 and 3 through the night???

[Ilse]

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My name is Ilse (pronounced Il-sa) mother of Elijah (4months) who is my first baby and we are from Perth, Australia. Over the last 3 weeks, Elijah has suddenly started waking every hour between 12am and 3am and then will sleep through till 6/6:30am. This behaviour however has coincided with him not needing to feed during the night. Elijah sleeps in our room, in his own cot and my husband and I suspect that his body clock is mimicking my husbands' who wakes between 12am - 3am to go to work. Elijah is easy to settle back to sleep and the last three nights we have made sure there are no interruptions to his sleep, but see not results yet. The past few weeks have been wrought with a growth spurt, me being sick and my mother looking after him, Elijah being sick, my brother in law passing away, my husband flying out of the country for nearly a week - so there have been a lot of variables. I'm just concerned as I'm not seeing any progress. His day routines are good:
7am wake and feed
9am - 45min nap
11am - feed
12am - sleep for 1.5 - 2hours
2:30pm - feed
4:30pm - little bit of rice cereal and nap
6pm - bath and feed
6:30 - sleep
10:30 - df
12-3 - all hell breaks loose!

Any ideas???
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[Katet]

Three things come to mind...
Did this happen after the cereal was introduced?? As at his age he doesn't need it & it may be causing an upset tummy. If yo feel you must give it to him, it would be far better to offer it straight after his 11am feed

Also sickness and family stress do upset the routine & it can take more than 3 days for things to get back to what they were.

Finally on what grounds do you make this statement....

This behaviour however has coincided with him not needing to feed during the night.

Was it because he gave up a night feed for a few nights, or because you felt he should not need the feed??

If you can answer those questions I might be able to give you a few suggestions.

[Ilse]

Thanks for your response Kate. Elijah's night wakings started a few weeks before I started him on cereal, of which he only has 1 teaspoon. I thought with his constant wakings, perhaps he was hungry. So I tried to feed him during at those waking times (hence the reason I started him on cereal) but he was only feeding for 1 - 5mins and going back to sleep and I figured mabye he isn't hungry. So I started pat/ssh him and he settles almost immediately and doesn't look for the feed until 6am so I feed him then.

[webfoot]

my last two babies are were/are very sensitive. If someone is making a fuss in the room they would/will wake up. So if I've read your post correctly your dh wakes up and dresses for work in the room your're in? Well.. I think you have your answer. Either keep it up long enough that your child will self soothe back to sleep or put him/her in a place where they wont' be awoken. Just my two cents.

I know with Evan that if I evade the sleepy window at 2am I'm going to have to work to put him back to bed. That's just how babies are, if you stimulate them too much they are ready to party when you aren't KWIM? So really I'm not sure what you're asking for. My advice would be you and baby sleep in a separate room so as not to be waken. If this isn't an  option I think if a night disturbance is a given then you just have to pu/pd to adjust baby to have thick skin.

[Ilse]

Thanks Tanya. Dh wakes and dresses elsewhere - and has been doing since lo was born. My confusion has therefore come about because it wasn't a problem before. Perhaps he is 'becoming' sensitive :? Well we are going to stick it out with no disturbances and see how he copes. However, I have read on the forums about 'wake to sleep', how does that work, as if I have no luck with the advice you and Kate have given, I'll give something else a try.