Please Help!!...4 month old night wakings & I'm at a loss of what to do!!!

[motherof3]

My dd is 4 months and was sleeping through the night until about 3 wks. ago  .  She now usually wakes b/w 4-5 am or around 1:30am. I usually hear her making noise so I go in her room and she is on her back playing with her toes  .  She has reflux, but I don't think that this is the issue b/c she seems happy, not in pain.  I roll her over, she sleeps on her stomach, and give her her thumb, she is a thumb sucker, and try to get her to go back to sleep.  This usually never works, so I try PU/PD a few times and then loose my patience and feed her.  She will take a whole bottle 6.5 oz and then goes back to sleep (sometimes after fussing a little bit).  I have stopped feeding her a whole bottle and now try to give her around 4 or 5 ozs.  I feel guilty not feeding her.  I'm at a loss of what to do.  During all this time I switched her from a 3hr. EASY to a 4hr. EASY and started giving her some rice cereal.  She gets 4 bottles of 6.5-7ozs each plus the rice cereal after her lunch and dinner bottle, so I think she is eating enough.  My questions are:

When she wakes up and I know she has rolled over, should I not go in until she starts to cry?
What do I do about feeding her? Should I stop or just start to decrease how much I am feeding her?
I don't know if I should try W2S?  Since she sometimes wakes at either 1:30am or sometimes  b/w 4-5am,  I don't know when to do W2S?
I don't DF b/c it always wakes her up and then she wets through her diaper.  I have tried changing her diaper and then doing a DF but since it wakes her up, I don't know if I should still do this or not?

I am at a loss, please help!!!

[Kimberly®]

OK
 When she wakes up don't go to her unless she fusses. All your doing is making her wake up more. Give her a chance to settle herself.
Try to avoid feeding. As above if she isn't crying leave her be. If she cries, try pat/shh, then PU/PD then if neither works feed.
w2s wont work at this stage because her wake times are not the same.
If the DF doesn't work then just don't do it.

HTH

[motherof3]

Karita-

Thanks for the help.  I will try this tonight.  I just get tired and I don't want her crying to wake up my other two girls so I give in and feed her.  I know that the PU/PD can work b/c I use it to extend usually one of her naps during the day. I will let you know how it goes.

[Kimberly®]

I completly understand, unfortunitly if you go in to early then they never really learn to settle themself. As I said only leave her if she is content or fusses a bit, give her a chance to settle. If she cries then deffinitly go to her.

[motherof3]

I was checking into what the recommend amount of formula is for her age and I think she might not be getting enough.  It is recom. that they get 2.5-2.7ozs. per pound.  Since I switched her to a 4hr. EASY she has been getting less b/c she went from 5 to 4 bottles.  She should be getting around 32 oz. a day and she now is just getting
26-28 ozs.  I know this is just an estimate and I have to judge it by her appetite.  But since she has been finishing all her bottles and tonight she took 8 oz. at bedtime, it might be a possibility.  Tomorrow, I'm going give her 4, 8 oz. bottles and try a DF tonight and see if this helps .

[LyndaManus]

Did the extra food help???  Just curious because my ds just turned 4 mths and has started doing the same thing.  I know ds is not hungry.  He will wake around 1:30 or 4:00 (sound familiar???).  He will talk to himself for about 5-10 min and then begin a mantra cry until I come in (will quickly turn to histarics if I don't).  I walk in, he smiles at me and continues cooing.  I try to leave and he starts crying again.  Not sure what to do.  Went on for 2 hours last night (ended up putting him in the swing). 

Hope the feeding helped you.  If not, just wanted to let yo know you aren't alone

[motherof3]

Update....Last night I feed her 8oz. at 7:30pm and then put her to bed.  I gave her a 4oz. DF at 10:45pm.  She did wake at 4:30am started to fuss so I went in and watched her b/c she wasn't really crying.  She fussed a couple more times, found her thumb and went back to sleep  .  She didn't get up until we woke her at 7am.  Maybe she needed more food.  So today I put 8oz. in her bottles.  At her 7:30am she took 7oz.  I will see what happens tonight after increasing her feeds during the day.  I think I will also continue the DF. 

[LyndaManus]

Congrats!  I hope it goes well!

[Kimberly®]

Andrea when you feed her start putting 8oz in each bottle ok when they go to a 4 hour routine they should take more at each feed. I'm glade to hear of your good news. Please keep us posted 

[motherof3]

We had another good night.  I did a DF at 10:30pm and she did wake up at 4:00am fussing and I went in and rolled her back on her stomach and she went back to sleep  .
I don't know if the increased formula during the day has made the difference or the DF, but I'm going to keep up with both of them.  Thanks for all of the advice. 

[Mummy Lou]

Hi,

This is exactly what my 4 month old is doing too.  He is 18 1/2 pounds, very large, and has stopped sleeping through the night like he used to.  I have tried, like you, to increase the feeds in the day, but struggle to get the extra ounces in him.  He is bottle and breast fed and typically has about 5 oz/15 mins each feed.  At the mid morning feed he has some baby rice and vegetable.  I feed him at 7, 11, 3, 5 and 7 with a DF at 11 (where he only takes 4oz at a push).  Tried PU/PD when he wakes at 4-5am but he cries hysterically and is very hungry.  (He only ever cries when hungry, so I know it's for real)

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to increase the oz at each feed in the day?

Thanks

[LyndaManus]

 
Exact situation as you except ds is EBF.  This might not work, but I am going to try it tonight.  I am going to insert another DF at 12:00 or 1 (current df is at 10 vs your 11, so if you choose to do this you would do it at 1 or 2).  If that makes him sleep through the rest of the night, I will continue for 3 to 4 days.  Then, I will move the feeding back 15 minutes and see if that works for 3 to 4 days, etc until I am not doing the feeding.

I don't think my DS needs more food.  Although he is waking at slightly different times, I think that it a habitual waking and he wants food but is not necessarily hungry (does that make any sense??? )

Don't know if it will work, but I will let you know how we do tomorrow. 

[Colin Macs Mom]

Mummy Lou and LyndaManus,

You can try clusterfeeding in the evening - not all LOs will take it, but it can't hurt to try! Another good trick is to mix formula or breastmilk in with the cereal or whatever other solids.

[motherof3]

Abby all of a sudden started taking more ozs. per bottle.  I don't know if it was a growth spurt or what...but one day she was taking 5-6ozs. per bottle and then within 7-10 days she was up two 7ozs. per feeding. 

Mummy Lou-

Does your ds finish all his feedings?  I just started adding a little extra formula to her bottles since she was finishing all of them previously, then there was extra if she wanted it.  I had read on another thread where someone mentioned about not doing a DF too late b/c it can interupt their sleep cycle.  You might want to try a DF b/w 10pm.-10:30pm. instead of 11pm.  Just a thought    I hope you find something that works  .

[LyndaManus]

I did the second df and that worked for me (last night at least ) - fyi!

I still don't really think he was hungry though.  He ate for less than 5 minutes but somehow I guess that was enough

[Mummy Lou]

Hi,

Thanks for all the help.  It just kind of worked itself out. He began taking 8oz at feeds, along with his two solids and cluster feeds early evening it seemed to work ok.  He was beginning to last most of the night with a wake up at 4am but only took 3 visits for him to go back to sleep.  Last night he slept all the way through (after the DF) and only woke once but put himself back to sleep again. 

I suppose it's just one of those phases that seems to have worked out ok.

Who knows??

 

[LyndaManus]

maybe it was a growth spurt or something - who knows.  Glad you both are able to sleep again!!!

[Colin Macs Mom]

That's great. LOs sure are funny things, eh?