sleep help for 4 1/2 month old??

Hi Sabrina

My DD has been in the same routine for a couple of months now and it has slowly changed over time but is still pretty much the same, it kinda goes like this:
7am Awake, Feed, Play
8.30 Bed
anywhere between 9.30 - 10.30 Awake, Feed (11am) Play
12.30 - 1pm Bed
anywhere between 2.30 - 3 Awake, Feed, Play
4.30ish short nap to get her through till 7pm when she goes to bed for the night

I have kinda followed the baby whisperer thing but also just done what has suited us.

My DD wakes during the night but its because the dummy has fallen out so we put it back in and she goes back to sleep. Can Taylah self settle? As it maybe that she is waking and needing help to get back to sleep and now associates been fed as her way of getting back to sleep during the night. have you tried the shhh/pat thing to get her back to sleep? If you check out the baby whisperer site it will probably give you ways of distinguishing between waking from hunger compared to waking to be comforted back to sleep. When my DD started sleeping through I knew then that she could and have not fed her during the night since. Other possibilities could be she is sleeping too much during the day or maybe ready for starting solids???

I hope I have not rambled on too much and there is something helpful amongst all my rambling!

She very good at self settling thats why im unsure if she is hungry or not.

She isnt drinking much during the day because she would rather play, and be nosy lol. I was putting that down to her age.

She has a good 2-3 hr sleep generally waking around 3-4pm. She wont however go down for a short nap after that she just hinks its bed time and will sleep till 10ish, sometimes if she doesnt wake by 10 i will dreamfeed before bed.

From 10pm onwards she will only wake for a quick 10min feed and rubs her eyes so i put her back to bed and she falls asleep within minutes.

Im just a bit confused lol.

Normally by 5pm she is exhasted so i will feed her but sometimes even then she isnt that interest and just wants to sleep.

Last night she was up 4 times grrrrrr

I might just persist tonight with her being tired and try get her bedtime back up to 7pm.

Thanks ladies

Sabrina,

There is a growth spurt at around 3 months and a HUGE one at 4 months (think I told you this in the "other" place), where babies who have previously been "sleeping through" might start waking for feeds; this is perfectly normal. If you are unsure if she is truly hungry or just wanting comfort then try and resettle first and see what happens. Personally I don't see the big deal about a baby, who relies on you for everything, needing comfort, whatever the time, even if they have never needed it at that time before

My "rules" during growth spurt time especially was IF I could get him to resettle without a feed and he woke less than an hour later then he was hungry and was fed accordingly, irregardless of whether he hadn't had a night feed in a while. During his 4 month spurt it just got easier to feed first and get us back to bed sooner as he was waking on average of every 90 minutes.

I know it can be frustrating when a baby who sleeps "well" stops, but it does end eventually; with Alex it was 3 weeks at 7 months, on and off for another 3 months and then consistently again when he was 13 months.

Alex has a "routine" as such, in that he usually fed/slept at the same times but it didn't come from a book, it was all led by him and he changed it when he needed to. I'm a big believer in feeding babies when they are hungry and putting them to bed when tired; not feeding them by the clock and waking when sleeping soundly because a book says it's time to or putting them to bed when they aren't tired because again the book says so. An overtired baby is a million times harder to settle than one who is allowed to sleep when they are actually tired....as I can well attest to. LOL When Alex needed his sleep clock "resetting", moving his bedtime FORWARD was the only thing that worked.

If you are happy to feed/comfort her in the night then do, if it feels right for you; in my experience they "grow out of it" when they don't need it anymore.........though I don't subscribe to the theory that once they have done without they have to forever more; means we aren't stressed out and tired because I could feed him and be back in bed in under 10 minutes or "fight" with him for hours because he "doesn't need it anymore because he hasn't for days/weeks/months". Make sense?

C

Thanks for that, it seems to be getting worse feeding every hour at night but for 10 min max, so im hoping its a growth spurt.

Taylah has been in a routine since 6 weeks but she put herself into that routine, i have never followed a book just her ques etc.

Now that its all changed its hit me hard lol.

I have been following ehr leads for tiredness also, as you said a overtired baby is a nightmare. It took me the first 6 weeks to figure that out.

I guess thats best just following her leads as to when she is hungry and tired, she has always gotten herself into her own routine when ready so im hoping this will happen again.

thanks for your help.