Hi everyone,
My daughter is almost 5 months old. Since she was 3 months she had been sleeping through the night and only waking once between 1-3 am or sleeping entirely with no waking. It was heaven. But, in the past couple of weeks she has reverted back to waking every 3 hours and wanting to eat. We did the Ferber method (with timed checking in) with my son and he is a great sleeper. This to say I am not opposed to the CIO method.
However, my daughter seems genuinely hungry. But, why the sudden change?? Her weight is where is should be and when I feed her often at night her diaper is soaked which sounds like it is a sign of too much nighttime feeding. I estimate that she gets about 15-18 oz. breastmilk (with a little formula supplemented) during the day. I have this vague memory that our old pediatrician said that infants generally need about 21 oz. in 24 hours so I wonder if she is not getting enough during the day. Another culprit may be that she STILL wants to sleep long periods of time during the day. I have to wake her up from naps or she will sleep 3-4 hours. So, my questions are:
1) how do I know if it is hunger or just wanting to b'feed? and no, my husband cannot feed in the middle of the night.
2) have you found that you need to limit daytime sleep in an infant this young to help night time sleep?
3)Ferber and "healthy sleep habits..." say that 4 month olds are capable of sleeping through with only one feeding BUT how do you know the baby got enough to eat during the day to make it??
4) also, she always wants to be asleep by 6:30 or 7pm. so sleeping through meant she would sleep 12 hours until 7am. I have wondered about keeping her up till 8 but then she is overtired.
Thanks for any advice!
Thank you for all of the very thoughtful responses. I have identified, through your help, that my daughter is up so much at night because she isn't getting enough to eat during the day. It sounds like she fits the description of the "distractible baby". She only wants to eat 1-2 ounces at a time during the day. I am trying to feed her in a dim, quiet room with no distractions but she still pulls off after just a few minutes or eats 2 oz. out of a bottle. The sleep deprivation is killing me so i hope this situation rights itself. If anyone has had success with fixing this "reverse cycling" as it seems to be called, please let me know.
Five month olds can be started on rice cereal, that may help the hunger department - maybe for dinner along with her bottle or breast. She may be hungry - 5 month olds are truly becoming little people - rolling over, moving around...
Sleeping through the night is not 12 hours. It is 8 hours. No baby should be expected to go 12 hours with only one feeding. If your baby is hungry than she needs to be fed regardless of what charts say or how much she has already consumed for the day. Growth spurts as well as teething can easily disrupt sleep and change feeding habits.
She is more than likely going through a growth spurt. She may also be in the beginnings of teething.
This sounds like your daughter is going through a growing spurt. She needs to eat when she is hungry. Try to make sure she is really full and not just taking small amounts with lots of rest periods on the breast. Have you tried a pacifier to see if it is the suckling that she is enjoying?
If she needs long stretches of sleep right now during the day, let her sleep. This is when most of their growing happens. It may only take a week or 2 then you can start to adjust her sleeping pattern to match the rest of you. CIO is too early right now and would not help.
Every infant is different. Try not to compare her to your son. His tummy could have been larger and able to hold more milk than her. She may be an infant than can only handle small amounts.
I am sending you strength and some sleep..
Some babies do get a growth spurt at around 4ish months so she might really be hungry. I work for Early childhood Intervention and our nutritionist tells us that kiddos need a minimum of 24 oz of formula or breast milk in a 24 hr period, but no more than 48 oz. If it's higher or lower than that we need to call her in to make sure things are ok.
Also with my newest little bundle who is almost 4 mos I am finding that he isn't sleeping through the night b/c he's not getting enough sleep throughout the day. This is a new thing for our family. He is a very light sleeper and will only sleep for maybe 1 1/2 hours while he is at daycare from 8-4 b/c the other babies wake him up when they cry. So you're little one may or may not be getting the right amount of sleep and food.
hth
sounds like a growth spurt! Feed the sweet baby and put her back to bed. Repeat after me, "this too shall pass"!!!!
A) I think there is nothing wrong with a baby needing to eat in the middle of the night at this age. Breastfed babies, especially, still need to eat at night even at 6 and 7 months (and beyond sometimes). Though Ferber and Weissbluth say that 4 month olds are "capable" of sleeping with only one feeding, how do you know that YOUR 4 month old or 5 month old is? I say - Feed a hungry baby! Despite what Ferber and Weissbluth say, La Leche League International would disagree. If she is STTN without waking, then she's fine.
If she IS waking, she very likely IS hungry. Would it be the worst thing in the world to just nurse her? I say this because I think people think it is, not because you think this necessarily. My son nursed to sleep for many many months, and is a very healthy 4 year old who falls asleep just fine. Same for my 2 year old daughter. When they were babies, I nursed them and rocked them to sleep when they needed it, and yet they are still very healthy sleepers. I don't think nursing such a young baby in the middle of the night is going to be detrimental to her. Some would disagree. But I don't think STTN at this young age is going to determine how well she sleeps in the future. Babies still need parenting at night, and I think your daughter may just be telling you that. :)
B) Most professionals agree that Ferber's method is not appropriate younger than 6 months, so I don't think i would be ready to try that yet.
C) Solids to make a baby sleep longer are a myth. If she just won't nurse more during the day, then I would be ok with a nightly feeding if I were you. Introducing solids isn't going to help her, and many agree that it is too early to do so. She just needs to nurse more.
There is a school of thought that suggests that babies at about 4 months old start truly noticing the world around them. They become very social and don't want to "miss anything". They nurse a little less because they are so distractable, taking in less breastmilk in order to "take in" the world around them. So they start waking at night again to nurse in order to make up for it. My first two children were both like this! You could very well have one of these "wakeful 4 month olds" on your hands!!! Nothing wrong with it, but she may not be an all night sleeper for a while longer. It's ok if she's not. Breastfed babies especially do not STTN as early as FF babies do. Breastmilk is digested more quickly and with less waste, and they need to refill a little more often, even at 4 and 5 months!
ALso, if you choose to give her rice cereal this early, experts say you should NOT give it in a bottle. If she can't eat it off of a spoon, then she is not ready to eat.
D) Might be a growth spurt. The best advice for a growth spurt is NURSE through it!
E) It would be nice if you could delay her bedtime until 8, but it would probably have to be gradual, i.e, pushing it to 7:15 for a week, then 7:30 for a week, then 7:45 for a week, then finally 8 PM. That way she is just going a little past her bedtime.
F) I've always heard that STTN is a stretch of 5 hours or so. 12 hours is a lot to expect of a baby this age. 8 hours is sometimes too. But most baby people say that a stretch of 5 hours at one time is good at this age!
Good luck! SOunds like you have a very normal baby on your hands, but missing that sleep again is NOT fun! Remember, "this too shall pass"!
You don't mention feeding her cereal & I see another post that recommends it - I agree! Maybe she is hungry & needs more substance. They typically let you know when they're ready for cereal & it sounds like she's ready.
My suggestion, put some cereal (rice to begin, if you haven't introduced cereal yet) into her last bottle before bedtime (approimately a tablespoonful to begin) and my guess is you will have a snoozing baby.
Yes, at 4 months they should be sleeping through the night BUT no all babies do! If she is waking up crying and it is not due to be dirty, she probably really is needing to be fed! I would see if she fusses for 10 min. Or more and if so feed her. I let daughter sleep when she is tired and hardly ever wake her unless I have 2. She takes 3-4 hour naps and still sleeps through the night! At this age they are going through a bit of a growth sprut so her sleep patters are changing. If this really is a growth sprut, let her sleep when she is tried but not past 5pm. She is still young so if she wakes up at night, she probably is ready to eat!
Sounds like a growth spurt! My son was sleeping through the night when he turned 3 months and then recently he started to nurse again at 2am on the dot every night. I breastfeed exclusively and just started formula & cereal feeding. I feed him 2 a day a tbsp. of cereal after I breastfeed, he's opening his mouth & bringing the spoon to his mouth so I know he's hungry and will push away when he doesn't want anymore. I breastfeed through out the day and @ dinner time I feed him cereal again, breastfeed at least once & on his last feeding about 8:30pm I give him a 4oz bottle of formula and he is sleeping till 5 or 5:30, that's good enough for me. Talk to your pedi before deciding to start her on cereal. May start getting a little constipated but keep feeding her it till she gets comfortable with it. Best wishes to you & your baby girl. Also, my son sleeps from 4pm-6pm and is ready for bed at 8:30 or so, I let him sleep he's not as cranky and is content when he wakes up. I think babies just want to nurse for comfort at night, that's just my opinion because eventually as adults we do not eat throughout the night, unless you need a midnight snack (because the cake in the kitchen is too good to pass up) LOL Blessings! Hope this helps some.
Hi L.
It sounds like she is really hungry for something other than milk. Have you put her on cereals yet- I would try that with her nitetime feeding. And, yes, you can wake her during the day from naps if you think that is keeping her up at nite- and yes- you can keep her up later. I would try a nitetime feeding of cereal around 7 or 7 30 and then keep her up until 9 or so and see if that helps.
Also, at this age she could be starting to teeth a little which would upset her sleep pattern a little bit- but basically, it sounds like she is just ready to start on some foods.
good luck and blessings
