Night Time Sleeping

From my experience everychild is different. Both my girls started sleeping throught the night at 4 months old, as for my son he didn't start sleeping through the night til a year! It was rough but I got up with him everytime and tried rocking him to sleep and if that didn't work I gave him a bottle. I can't stand letting babies cry for hours at a time as I am sure it would be hard for you.

Hi D.,
I had alot of trouble with my son this way too. He didn't sleep through the night for most of his first year. I got alot of "advice" on how to fix the problem. Mostly people telling me to let him scream which I couldn't do. So I talked to the pediatrician. She let me know that all children are different. My son was premature and then just smaller than average babies. So he really did need to wake up and eat frequently through the night. She said in most cases when the child gets between 12 and 15 lbs he will start to sleep better and he did. I don't know how big your baby is but maybe that will help you.
Good luck.

Remember, you asked for the advice here so it's no longer unsolicited! :) And this is just my opinion and my advice, take what you will...you have to do what's most comfortable for you!

Anyway, at 4 months old, he should really be sleeping through the night...maybe waking up for one feeding at that, just make sure he's eating enough during the day so he doesn't need the nighttime feedings. I don't think he should be crying for hours, if he wakes up, you should definately go in there so let him know you're there, but maybe try to cut out the feedings. Does he put himself back to sleep with the feeding? Maybe instead of milk/formula, offer him water or a binky...then when he realizes that he's not going to get what he wants, he may stop waking up. It is ok for him to cry a littlewhile, after you comfort him a bit...but I wouldn't let him get too worked up about it...I know I used to swaddle Erika and rock her to sleep for a little while, and even let her sleep in her swing alot because that's how she was comfortable and would sleep.

Whatever you decide will be fine, and he'll eventually figure out how to sleep through the night...but if you can stop feeding him, he'll stop having reasons to wake up and that may help him adjust.

This seems to be a popular question lately. Whenever my babies wake up at inopportune times, I just look up at heaven and say, "Are you joking? Hey, I need some divine help here a little! Could you send Sandman to my house tonight?" But, nope - He stays mute on the subject. Actually, the only bible verse I found on sleep is: The sleep of the Saints is sweet. So, I pray that, and claim it, for my kids and family every time I remember it.

Anyhoo, it's 9:26pm so I should get off to bed. I just put the babies to bed about 10 minutes ago. My 15 mo old has been waking up for the day regularly at 4:30-5am so, I've been trying to -stretch- out the day, delay naps, and bed time to push her back onto a later morning wake up schedule. So far, it hasn't worked... it's just made for long days over the past week and a half.

We can try all kinds of things that can work for a time and then all of a sudden due to teething, sickness, -a full moon, everything unravels. Time does take care of this problem no matter how unsuccessful we are at dealing with it. If you'd like to hear some more lame suggestions of mine other than, "deal with it for a time", just click on my name to read my post just prior to this one, it's on the same subject and how I'm really not much of a help to anyone on it.

All I know for sure is, they (most of them/us) do grow out of it and learn how to calm and settle themselves eventually. So, sorry, my attitude on the subject today is simply - you won't die of lack of sleep. And things might just not change for a while. There is worst that you could be going through.

Sleep is a big issue; I completely understand. I haven't had a full nights sleep in a long time. And how I cope to stay alive through it is this: I try to keep up on good nutrition (it's the first thing to slide when we are tired and we can get into a caffeen/sugar cycle that will make us crazy), and I try to sleep whenever the babies are sleeping (I let the house get messy, the flowers die, laundry piles up, and I miss the Dr. Phil show but, I nap in the afternoon when they take a nap whenever I feel like I'm "hitting the wall"). The end result is that I don't turn mean... I just live a little silly and I try extra hard to focus when I'm driving. So, that's it. That's all I've got. You might not sleep, but try to take care of yourself in every other way so, you only live half way insanely.

yes it is normal one of mine was like that for the first year.

Honey, my son woke up every hour and a half at night. When I was worried about extra sleep I put him in bed with me. That way, I'd wake up to him before he got himself completely awake, and just roll over and nurse him. When I did that he would only stay up about 5 min.

But Don't get yourself all worried, every child is different, there is no right way or wrong way when it comes to their habits. If you don't want to hear your child cry then go get him and cuddle him. They're only that small once and believe me you'll never get the cuddling stage again. If he's crying, he's either hungry or needs you. You have to remember he went 9 months without ever leaving you and he had his own little feeding times in there. It's going to take him a while to get on the schedule you want him to be. But he will, just give him time. And give yourself time.