4 month old waking all night long

[bellmaine]

Help!  i have a 4 month old and she is starting to wake at 10 and 2 and 6.  I put her down around 6:30 or 7 and she wakes up every 3 hours.  When she does I try not to feed her but then she ends up eating 5 oz or so. Does anyone have any advice on what to do I am totally exhausted and losing my mind.Thank You

[Lªuren]

Hi bellmaine

It sound either like a growth spurt if she is hungry, if she is waking in pain it maybe that she is teething/wind.

If she is waking hungry is there any way you can increase her daily core hour intake so she doesn't wake for it in the night?

[bellmaine]

I think that is the problem too.  She seems to be a snacker during the  day.  I am trying to get her to eat one bottle at once but she takes soooo long.  Today her 2nd bottle which was 7 oz took her 1 hour to eat.  is that O.K?  Should I continue to try and feed her one bottle every 4 hours.  One other thing she just had her 4 month check up and she is a big girl 16 lbs and 13 oz.  I think I am going to try and give her cereal today.  What do you think?

[Lªuren]

Hiya
I would definitely persevere with feeding at "feed" times,  what size of teat do you use for her?  I found he was taking an hour to take 7oz a few weeks back and now he does great with the faster flow. Is she maybe getting frustrated with the bottle being slow?

I have been giving Calum baby rice and some light purees since he was 17 weeks, I just felt he needed more. I started Baby rice at night, it says a couple of teaspoons, however I always gave more than that. Also remember that formula has more calories than baby rice so it doesn't really fill her tum.

Certainly give baby rice for her age and weight, but look to also try and increase her formula. Calum can take anywhere between 10mins - 50mins to take a 8oz bottle     He only gets 4 a day and a watered formula at night if required.    He weighs 15lb 15oz, and is very long....

Another tip I give is to lay her on the floor if she starts to play around when eating or makes out she had had enough (but you know she hasn't!). I do this with Calum after he takes 4oz non-stop he plays and fusses at bit so I wind him and lie him on the floor for 5 - 10mins and come back to him and off we start again.

[Katrina02]

Hi Bellmaine,

I just read your post and find myself in the same boat.

My boy (who is 4 month on Valentines day) was sleeping through the night from 7:00pm until anywhere between 2 - 5:30am for some time then out of the blue 2 weeks ago started waking every 2 - 3 hours. 

Bed time is around 7:00pm - I feed him and 10 - 15 mins later get him ready for sleep - change nappy, rap him, sit quietly with him for a couple of minutes then lay him in his cot, put his dummy in then within 5 mins he is off to sleep.  The difference now is he wakes partially at 9:00pm (which we ignore and he goes back to sleep), he then wakes somewhere between 11:00pm and 1:00am - after the dummy is put back in he usually goes back to sleep waking again at 2:00am  then 4:00 / 5:00am at which time I give up and let him have a small feed.  If lucky he will then go back to sleep for 1 - 2 hours and will welcome the day with big smiles and giggles at around 6:00am.  Unfortunately mum is absolutely exhausted by then so does not fully appreciate the greeting.

Was just wondering if you (or anyone else) have found any miracle cures or can suggest something to help us both get some sleep through the night...

Note: am feeding him 140 - 180ml every 3 hours during the day and he has started having a small amount of rice cereal in the evening.

[Lªuren]

Katrina02
I went through this with Calum when he turned 4 months a few weeks back, it was an absolute nightmare and it lasted 2 weeks then suddenly stopped last week.  He was waking for no reason that I could see and he was only hungry at the usual time, all the rest of the times I re-settled him and he fell asleep.

He then started sleeping through the night for a week and for the past 3 nights he has taken to waking between 4 or 5am for a shout (he found his voice last weekend) I am now exhausted again.

Is your DS not ready to do the transition to 3  1/2 to 4 hrs between feeds?  Could it be teething keeping him up?

[bellmaine]

Well we had a little better of a night last night.  I put sher down a little late because my husband wanted to be here when I first gave her her rice cereal.  So we put her down around 8:00pm.  She woke up at 9:30pm and we didn't feed her it took us about 15 minutes to get her down.  Then my husband DF her at around 12:00am and she sleep till 6:30am.  I fed her she ate only around 5 1/2 oz and I put her down for her nap at 8:00am.  She woke at 8:40am (that 40 min mark)  I didn't pick her up just pat shush and she went back down.  I hope to get her on a 4 hour EASY and continue this.  Does this sound like I doing alright?  Or does anyone have any other suggestions>

[Lªuren]

Glad to hear things are a bit better, you can also put baby rice in her last bottle at night. However, I have tried this and could see no difference so I stopped.

If you do put some baby rice in her bottle you will need a teat with a bigger hole as the rice can sometimes clog it.

Is she still taking ages to take a bottle, Calum took 45 mins again this morning to take 8oz - I had to put him down for 5 -10mins in-between because he started playing and spitting it out.

I put Calum down for 2030 every night and he has started waking again at 0430 approx but he is not hungry 

[bellmaine]

I tried to stop feeding and putting her on the ground but she still won't finish her 6 oz bottle.  So far today she have only barely had 10 oz and let me remind you she is 17 pounds.  How many times a day should I give her cereal? 

[Lªuren]

at the start I only gave him it once at day, at his hungriest time - tea time.
Have you tried a faster flowing teat, is she just bored having to suck from the bottle?

[bellmaine]

I think I will try that today.  I have to go out and buy some.  Thank You I will let you know how it went