My four month old does not have the sleeping patterns of her older brother who is 22 months, some nights she goes thru the night other nights she's up about 4 hours into the night and can stay up for as long as 1.5 hours. I work 3 nights a week, so my husband is full duty those nights, any suggestions on how to help her make it thru the night. I feel like it was so long ago we were at this point with our son, we try to stick to a bedtime routine and keep it dark and quiet and I have her nap in the same place during they day b/c she's home not at daycare. Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.
C.,
Such is the life of a 4 month old. It's too early to do any sleep training so I would say try your best to stick to a schedule during the day and for going to bed but at 4 months old they still need feedings during the night.
Good luck,
L. M
Hi,
You have two close in age...my first two were 15 months apart so I remember how it was :-)
My best advice for that age is to just bring her into bed with you. (Don't worry about spoiling her or any of that bad advice).
You'll be able to nurse her before she even really wakes up and she'll go directly back to sleep that way. You're all sure to get a lot more sleep if you bed-share :)
Sounds typical to me. She can't hold enough food in her little tummy at this point to sleep much longer so you have to feed her when she wakes. As I recall, it's closer to 9 months they can eat enough to sleep through so for now you have to respond by feeding.
Two things that helped me a ton with the feeding/sleeping were the "tanking up" before her bedtime and to do a "dreamfeed", without waking her before I went to bed. These are both recommended by Tracy Hogg, the Baby Whisperer, in her books. So let's say you normally get her in bed around 8 or 9. Well starting at like 5 feed her frequently! Give her as much as you can get in her before you put her down. Then, before you or your husband, if he's taking care of her while you work, go to bed, you go in and give her a feed without waking her. If you bottle feed (or it's your hubby), you just give it to her while she's laying in the crib. If you are breastfeeding, gently lift her out and get her on your lap and latch her without waking her - it really works.
Other suggestion is swaddling - we always swaddled at bedtime which I think kept her asleep longer. The MIracle blanket truly was that for us. http://www.miracleblanket.com/
Good luck. and congrats!
Hi there. Very typical behavior of a 4 month old!
When she wakes in the night - is she hungry? Or is she waking and is unable to soothe herself back to sleep?
If she is hungry - you can try feeding her more throughout the day. Either longer if you are breastfeeding or add an ounce or two to each bottle.
Most little ones that sleep through some nights and wake during others are hungry - you can tell because it is random. When they wake at the same time every night it is often out of habit.
So feed her and help her go back to sleep. Rock her until she is sleepy then put her down semi-awake and rub her belly for a while, or talk to her soothingly until she falls asleep. After a while she'll be able to do it herself (more likely after 6 months or so) especially if you let her go down semi-awake, but sleepy. Make sure that you and your hubby do it the SAME way EACH time regardless of who is on duty that night so your daughter can learn and catch on easier.
Give it a shot and good luck!
I'm sure you do this, but all I can suggest is that you swaddle her tightly.
