My son is 4 months old and seems to be having more and more trouble sleeping the older he gets! He didn't sleep well when he was brand new, of course, but by the time he was about 3 months old, he started to have his last nursing session around 8 pm and would sleep until about 2 am usually! I thought that was wonderful! He did that for a few weeks. Then he suddenly started to wake up earlier and earlier....1 am....midnight...11 pm....10 pm!! Now there's no long stretch of sleep at any point in a 24 hour day! HELP!
He is a big baby (19.4 lbs!), so I do believe that he could truly be hungry every 2-3 hours. Still, he wakes up even when not hungry. For example, last night he was up about every 45 minutes. I'm wondering if he's having trouble staying asleep through an entire sleep cycle. When I pick him up, he goes back to sleep, so it seems like he needs help putting himself back to sleep when he comes out of the deep part of a sleep cycle. It's very frustrating for all of us because he used to be able to sleep for a four or five hour stretch at night without making a peep!
I did see the Dr. for his 4 month check up last week, and he had a few ideas, but I still wanted to ask Moms if they have any thoughts / suggestions.
Any time a baby is learning something new, ie. rolling over, sitting up, pulling up, crawling, walking, eating solids and so forth, sleep generally gets interupted. They are working thru the new thing in their heads while they sleep and it is what wakes them up. Just know it won't last forever. Try anything get to sleep but just know it won't last too long and mean while you still need sleep.
Good luck,
L.
Co-sleeping improved my sleep tremendously. Firstly, it encouraged me to go to bed when I put my son to sleep; thereby helping me to get on his sleep cycle. Secondly, after nursing him to sleep, he frequently would wake up after 40 minutes or so and I would just quietly lie down next to him and nurse him back to sleep (which was no problem because I was right there next to him reading, etc.). If he were to wake in the night, I would simply do the same - usually falling asleep right alongside him. The other perk to co-sleeping is that you can put off his wake-up time by nursing him back to sleep in the morning.
The only catch is that I needed some space to accommodate the two of us, so my husband and I sleep in the same room, but on separate beds for the time being. Now, at 13 months he sometimes will wake up once during the night/early morning (which I prefer because night nursing is good for my milk supply), but often he will stay asleep the whole night.
You might want to add some cereal, just alittle bit to his milk before bed time........I had to about this age with my first son, he was big too.......he was hungry.......and I gave him alittle more milk too.......
Instead of picking him up, if he is lying on his tummy, then pat his butt and let him bounce just a little, that put my son back to sleep fast......if he is still on his back, then gently just bounce the mattress beside him.....
Another thing you might try is to put very soft music on in his room.....maybe a radio station that plays very soft calming music, or maybe a CD.......if you can find one that plays for a long time......put it on before you go to bed........
He's kind of young for teething, but you might check his gums too.....see if they are white........
I know how hard it is to go through the day without sleep, so hang in there.....and catch some sleep when you can.......
Good Luck and take care.
My son is 2, but we just got something that might help you. It is Homedics Lullaby machine. It is about $30, we got it on line. It has a timer, or you can just turn it on. It plays music and dispays a scene on the ceiling. My son likes it and will stay in bed all night because of it.
Do you have a paci for your little one? Maybe he just needs the soothing sucking?
Teething is also a possibility.
good luck
It could be a growth spurt. My son will be 5mo on the 15th and he did the same thing almost as soon as he turned 4mo. It should pass after a few days if it is one.
it might your lil one is just going thru a growth spurt and his brain is telling him he needs more food in order for him to grow.
Sleep is a habit. During growth spurts, they wake up at off times because they need to eat. After a couple of nights, though, it becomes a habit, and then they continue to wake at that time. Their bodies get use to getting calories then.
Their sleep changes at 12 weeks, by 16 weeks, they start to realize they can get you to come to them, etc. You have to start teaching them to self-sooth, or they will expect you to come whe ever they wake up during the night.
There are threeways to deal with this:(1) let them CIO, (2) go to them and comfort them, but don't nurse!, let them protest cry, but shh/pat them till they go back to sleep, (3) or, you could bring them to bed with you and do the really long road of not getting any real sleep for a very long time.
I did the nurse thing with my first daughter. I didn't get any sleep till she weaned. I have an 8 month old son. He was a great sleeper at the start (8 hours by 5 weeks), but things got really rough around 4 months. I decided to do the shh/pat thing with him, and by 6 months, he was back to 8-9 hours.
I was there with my son...trust me!
My son, who's 4 now, was NEVER a good sleeper...and still at 4 he wakes sometimes throughout the night...and we cosleep.
It's just part of their make-up. Four months is still a tiny infant as far as I'm concerned...he could be waking because he's hungry like you said...it could be night tremors...dreams....tummy aches...teething...it could be anything really.
He may simply want his mommy and to be soothed.
Either way, you're doing the right thing by responding and not ignoring him.
Continue to do what you're doing, he may fall back into a routine soon or it may take quite some time...it's all up to your son to tell you how he's going to sleep. It's up to you as his mother to tend to him when he needs you.
Perhaps cosleeping is your answer for right now until things can settle down. Or try cosleeping for the beginning of the night and then transferring him back into his crib once he has finally fallen asleep.
Just know that you are NOT alone...every mother has gone through sleep "problems" with their babies and this too shall pass.
Good luck....and keep a bottle (or boob) close in case he is hungry at night.
Just to let you know, my son is 9 months old and is still not sleeping well at night. Although, he does take two good naps during the day. The last two nights he was up every 1 1/2 to 2 hrs, but a few nights before that he slept from 7:30 to 3 am, woke to feed and went back to sleep until around 7 am. He has NEVER been consistent with his nighttime sleep and I have tried so many different things. I am at a loss too because my daughter has been a fantastic sleeper since she was about 10 months, she's now 2 1/2 and if she wakes in the middle of the night she puts herself back to sleep. I think that my son just needs to grow and mature a L. and eventually he will start to sleep. After he is 12 months and I know that he no longer needs my breast milk for nutrition (I know that he doesn't need to nurse at night now and it's just for comfort, but I do it anyway), I will do the CIO. I did it with my daughter and it took 3 nights and she was sleeping beautifully. When I do CIO, I don't leave my kids to cry and I never check on them. I go in every few minutes to let them know that I didn't abandon them but I don't pick them up. Not sure if it will work with him, but I'll keep trying to help him to sleep. I just wanted to let you know that others are in the same boat. I hope you find something that works.
I have coslept with all three of my children (my third is now 18 months old and still cosleeping with us) until they are sometime between 2 and 3 years, and have found it means I get more sleep than I would have otherwise. Yes, it usually means that the baby will go longer before sleeping through the night, but it also means that your sleep cycles synchronize, and if the baby wakes, you just have to roll over, latch him on, and then you both can drift back off. You don't wake up nearly as much as you would if you had to get up and get him and nurse then put him back in his own bed and go back to sleep. If you try this, do be careful though -- there are safety guidelines to cosleeping that you really need to know and follow for your baby's safety -- I just copied this list from the Mothering Magazine website -- you can find more info if you want to do this.
* Use a firm mattress. A soft mattress can result in infant suffocation.
* There should be no gaps between the mattress and the frame of the crib or bed. Infants and small children can become wedged in gaps and asphyxiate.
* Bedding should fit tightly around the mattress. Fitted sheets that become loose from a corner can cover and smother a baby.
* Avoid strings or ties on all nightclothes (both baby's and parents'). These pose a strangulation risk.
* Avoid soft bedding and other items, including comforters, pillows, featherbeds, stuffed animals, etc. Each of these poses a risk of suffocation.
* Keep baby's face uncovered to allow ventilation.
* Put baby on his or her back to sleep. Babies sleeping on their backs are less likely to become victims of SIDS.
* Adults should avoid smoking. Exposure to tobacco, both pre- and post-delivery, is associated with a higher risk of SIDS.
* Avoid overheating the room in which the baby sleeps and avoid overdressing the baby. Overheating is associated with an increased risk of SIDS.
The best advice anyone ever gave me as a mom was to read "On Becoming Babywise" by Gary Ezzo. A friend with the happiest, most well-rested children recommended the book (after I expressed my shock that she could put her baby down for a nap by... well... putting him down in his crib, closing the door, and walking away! And here I was rocking my baby, singing, nursing, doing all kinds of crazy stuff and it would take me an hour just to get her down in her crib and then she'd only sleep for 30 minutes... ugggggh!)
So anyway, she said that she had read Babywise and it worked GREAT for both of her kids, and most of the moms in her church had used it with great success as well. So I bought the book, read it in an afternoon, and implemented the advice in it. Long story long, it worked like a charm. I highly recommend it. It's a bit long to get into here, but check it out - I promise it'll work for you, too. You can probably get the book at the library if you don't want to buy it. It's a quick and easy read. Basically you need to implement a 4-hour eat-play-sleep cycle. The book guides you on how to do that. It's very supportive of breastfeeding and gives some great ideas on how to make sure your baby gets a big, full meal each time you feed him, so he will be able to go 4 hours in between feedings. It also guides you on what to do when your baby needs to eat more often (during growth spurts, for instance), how to adjust your schedule for that, and how to get back on schedule afterward. It really brought sanity back to my household. I used it from the start with my younger daughter and she was sleeping through the night at 4 weeks - fat and happy as she could be!
Good luck!!
