I have a 4 1/2 month old baby and I am wondering how to help him sleep better. He takes lots of cat naps during the day, but never sleeps for more than 30-45 min during the day. At night, he still wakes up about every 3 hours. Sometimes he'll go back to sleep for a little while if I give him the pacifier, but he still seems to wake up often to eat. We did cry it out with my first, but I can't remember when we started that with her. Any tips??
That sounds somewhat normal for that age. You could start trying to work on organizing his daytime sleeping into three naps - one around 9 or 10 in the morning, the next around noon or 1pm, and then a short nap around 4 or 5, with a bedtime between 6 and 8 pm. He may keep waking for the night feedings for the next couple of months. Hang in there - it gets better!!
Too early to let your baby cry it out. It is simply neglect to do so and can be damaging to your baby. The sleep patterns you describe are completely normal for this age. Please see Dr. Sears advice on sleep for infants at http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/sleep-problems/8-infant-.... Hope that helps. I know you are tired, but your baby needs your attention. Nurse Midwife Mom of 3
That sounds pretty normal to me. I adjusted and got used to getting up every three hours to feed my babies. When they got a little older, if I didn't respond immediately, they'd fuss themselves back to sleep within a minute or two. Now my 13 month old sleeps great through the night for the most part. She has for a couple months. But babies that age still need to eat at night, especially if they are breastfed. I don't know if that helps at all! "babysleepsite" is a great website for info. It might give you more of what you're looking for. You can look up your son's age and it'll give you some ideas.
I wouldn't do cry it out yet, if you're going to do that. Most proponents of that method say not until 6 months. We had great luck getting on a better, longer nap schedule during the day using a swing. I know that people say not to get into "bad" habits like that, but for us it worked really well. She napped in her swing, twice a day for about 2 hrs each time, until she was about 7 months old, and then with little trouble we switched to her crib at that point. I don't have any suggestions for the nighttime-at 4 1/2 months he still most likely needs to eat when he gets up. Good luck!
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I nursed my babies very often during the day so they'd sleep good at night. Then at night if they cried, I'd nurse them, then let them cry for 5-10 minutes, if they were still crying, nurse them then let them cry a little bit longer. If they woke up every 3 hours, I'd let them fuss just a bit before getting them. It really helped to get my kids sleeping 8-12 hours at that age. I hope that helps.
His nighttime schedule is totally normal! It's not easy, but he really does need to eat that often. Feed him until he's full. It won't be too long before he'll give you longer stretches.
We also used the swing for naps. I agree that many people believe baby needs to sleep in a crib and that napping in a swing is a bad habit, but I've found that the best place for baby to sleep is wherever baby gets some sleep. They don't really form habits this early in life. As soon as you find a routine that works, baby usually decides he/she is ready for a new routine.
Hang in there! This too shall pass.
Get the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Unfortunately, the cat nap thing I remember 3 out of my 4 kids doing that - and they grew out of it. Through the night, try this: if he's used to eating, then he's hungry at that time even if he doesn't need it. Feed him each time like you normally would, but pick the worst one and cut it down a tad. 1 ounce a night for a bottle or 1 - 2 min for nursing. Do that every night until the feeding is gone. It'll help his body get weaned off that feeding. He may cry after you lay him down, but you know he's dry, fed, and able to go back to sleep. Then you can cut down the next one - hopefully, you'll have more peaceful sleep in short order.
