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Baby waking at 4am - help!!!
My lo is now 20 weeks old. He had been sleeping through the night most nights for several weeks until about a fortnight ago.
He has started waking at about 4am every night. Initially i thought he was hungry so started feeding him again but then he wouldn't be interested in morning milk. I then tried using hungrier baby milk at the dreamfeed (BF the rest of the day) but he still woke at 4am (not fed this time) self settled but not interested in feeding until 11am! Back onto normal formula for dreamfeed now.
If i leave him he will self settle after about 5 mins of moaning but then wakes every 15-20mins until about 6ish where he will usually fall asleep until woken at 7-7.30am.
I think i have worked out that it is not hunger so must now be habit. When i 'googled' it there were lots of questions from people with the same problem at around the same age so know it must be a common problem but what do i do to get him out of it or if i ride the storm how long will it last???
This happened to anyone else? Need some reassurance that i'm not missing something!
Thanks
Katstar xxx
He has started waking at about 4am every night. Initially i thought he was hungry so started feeding him again but then he wouldn't be interested in morning milk. I then tried using hungrier baby milk at the dreamfeed (BF the rest of the day) but he still woke at 4am (not fed this time) self settled but not interested in feeding until 11am! Back onto normal formula for dreamfeed now.
If i leave him he will self settle after about 5 mins of moaning but then wakes every 15-20mins until about 6ish where he will usually fall asleep until woken at 7-7.30am.
I think i have worked out that it is not hunger so must now be habit. When i 'googled' it there were lots of questions from people with the same problem at around the same age so know it must be a common problem but what do i do to get him out of it or if i ride the storm how long will it last???
This happened to anyone else? Need some reassurance that i'm not missing something!
Thanks
Katstar xxx
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Replies
After that he slept through again for a few weeks, but last 2 to 3 weeks he has been doing it again. Just after he started to roll over. Again I am feeding him and he drains 9 oz of milk and goes back to sleep. He than gets breakfast at 8.30 (normal time for this if he was a bottle at 7) Than out of the last three days he has been sleeping till 7 for 2 of them, the other he woke up at 5.
For now it seems to last with Michael around 2 or 3 weeks and than he sleeps longer again. I must say it does make me very very tired, but if I don't feed him, he stays awake and keeps me awake till 7. :S Than he is so tired that he his entire day is strange and his naps are completely off what he normally does.
I think they go through stages of it and it might be better to go along with it, rather than trying to make him sleep. If he is hungry than just feed him and don't give him his 7 am bottle. You don't say if he actually is taking his 4 am feed and than not taking his 7 am feed, so assume he is feeding at 4 and than skipping his next feed.
Breighlin - i have stopped feeding him at 4/5 as he was then refusing morning milk which put the rest of the feeds for the day out of sorts and i was trying to catch up before bedtime. I think it will be much easier when he's on solids as like you do i can feed him when he wakes and then give him solids at the usual time and catch up with the milk feeds throughout the day.
Not yet started weaning...given him the occasional gluten free rusk to suck on when teething is bad in the last 2 weeks. Did this start for you before weaning and did it make any difference when starting solids?
Thanks again x
When he was not weaned I fed him every 3 hours during the day. (7 am, 10 am, 1pm, 4 pm, 6.30pm) When he woke up at 5 or something I fed him and he wasn't interested in his 7am bottle so was worried about the rest of the day, but I ended up doing. (4 or 5 am, 9 am (wasn't interested in bottle before than) 12.30, 4 pm and last feed at 6.30)
I only had to adjust it a little bit, because of his early morning feed he was not interested in a bottle before 9 am anyway. So it was only a little bit of catch up, but it depends on your routine of feeding during the day.
The first period only took about 2 weeks max for him to wake again at about 6.30. This second period is now lasting for over 2 weeks, but last two nights he has been alright.
At the moment i am feeding 4hrly but have worked out i could do 3-3.5hrly to fit in feeds if i fed at 4/5 ish. Just got to do some fiddling with naps and it should work.
Thanks for your help i will just roll with it for the moment and see what happens!!!
Good Luck and fingers crossed we both get a good nights sleep in the near future! x