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Baby waking at 4 1/2 months


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All of my babies have begun waking at this stage after sleeping great (9pm-7am) for over two months. What am I doing wrong??? He can put himself to sleep and does so at very nap and bedtime. He is on a regular schedule. What is the deal?????

 

With my last three we tried cereal when this started happening and it didn't work... I think it may have even made matters worse. So it's not that. He is getting enough to eat and nurses every 3-4hrs during the day with closer feeds in the evening. 7,11,2,5,7,9 and then he is off to dream land. Sometime I almost wonder if I am over feeding him in the evenin gand that could be part of the problem?

 

His waking at night isn't too bad YET. He is waking at 11 and 3 aprox. But this is how it always starts with all my kiddos.

 

Any ideas?

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I don't know, because mine always woke up to nurse. I just don't think most babies can sleep all night without the tap. That said, I slept with mine, and just rolled over for a few minutes and dozed back off. I probably slept more of the night with a baby latched on.

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Sorry... I don't know, but I totally read this as baby WALKING at 4 1/2 months! Yikes! LOL...

 

I hope someone here has some helpful advice for you.

 

I read it the same way.

 

To the OP: My babies didn't sleep consistantly through the night until 11 months. I agree with a PP who said that most babies still need to be eating often at that age. Especially if you are nursing.

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It is not uncommon for babies to have growth spurts and need to nurse more often to increase your supply. My oldest did this and it drove me nuts (he was my only really consistent sleeper.) He would start night-waking unexpectedly and I would be pulling my hair out for 2 weeks trying to figure out why he was doing this. All of the sudden, he would have a new skill like roll over (or push up to sitting or crawl or something.) After that, he would settle back into a more normal sleep pattern.

 

ETA: I read it as "walking" as well. Talking about gifted!

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yup...read walking too!! and i thought i had an early walker at 10 months, although i've heard of babies walking at 8 months!

 

ME TOO!! I read it as "walking at 4.5 months" and thought TROLL!! TROLL!!! :-)

 

astrid (whose Molly Cate walked at 7months 3 weeks! NOT ready for a mobile infant!)

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I doubt you're doing anything wrong. I would keep doing what you're doing and nursing often in the evening. I wouldn't add cereal or other solids because it might make matters worse and then you could be dealing with colic or gas or who knows what. If he is eating and going right back to sleep I think that is all you should expect, to be honest... and is a lot better than how a lot of babies sleep. I think it's more uncommon for a 4 month old to sleep through the night than it is for them to wake at least once during the night. I wouldn't worry about it.

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I read it as "walking" too and thought....finally someone else who will know my pain )okay it was cruising until 6 mos but it was awful).

 

Yes, there is a growth spurt around then that will mess everything up in terms of night time schedules. DD5 nursed before she went to sleep, then before I went to sleep, then at 2am and again at 5am when we woke as her general rule, but from about 4mos to 6mos she was up every hour.

 

DD3 just nursed all the time. Seriously, b00baholic.

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It's pretty common for babies to stop sleeping so well around that time. Growth spurts, milestones, etc can all interfere with sleep, even if baby is not hungry. All three of mine did it. DD started sleeping again at about 2.5yo, lol. The twins have had phases of great sleeping, and phases of not so great. They STTN at like 9mo, but they don't now at 2yo. DD always slept a 5hr stretch at the beginning of the night as a newborn (bliss!) but stopped that at some point around 4mo.

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Sorry... I don't know, but I totally read this as baby WALKING at 4 1/2 months! Yikes! LOL...

 

I hope someone here has some helpful advice for you.

 

 

I did too!!

 

I would keep things very low light and calm at night. Offer a feeding if you think he might be hungry and then follow whatever routine you use to put him to bed. For Mia, it's hug, kiss, cuddle, tell her goodnight and leave. So I would offer to nurse her if I thought she was hungry - with the lights off/low - and then take her back to her crib for a hug, kiss, cuddle and then put her back down and leave.

 

I'm not a fan of CIO though and Mia is the first of my kids to actually go to sleep on her own OR to sleep in her crib so I might not be the best one to be giving advice. LOL!

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Ditto growth spurt...

I changed the feeding schedule a bit and the sleep pattern went back to normal...

 

My oldest was CRUISING furniture at 4.5 months (actually closer to 16 weeks old!) ... she was walking the day she turned 7 months... and RUNNING at 9 months. She was also extra tiny (a failure to thrive child) I've always wondered if she was small because she was more mobile! Early walking did not help her corrdination... she is a very UNcoordinated adult!

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Ditto growth spurt...

I changed the feeding schedule a bit and the sleep pattern went back to normal...

 

My oldest was CRUISING furniture at 4.5 months (actually closer to 16 weeks old!) ... she was walking the day she turned 7 months... and RUNNING at 9 months. She was also extra tiny (a failure to thrive child) I've always wondered if she was small because she was more mobile! Early walking did not help her corrdination... she is a very UNcoordinated adult!

 

So maybe change the feeding schedule? Feeding more often during the times of day when he is goin longer?

He is really good about going back to sleep/ I don't turn any lights on just get him feed him for about 5-10min and then lay him back in his crib and he goes right back to sleep.

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Holy cow!!! Really? My William walked at 8 months and I thought that was early!!!!

 

YES.... it was CRAZY. She NEVER liked riding in the car seat, and we blew her mind one time when we drove 7.5 hours to a friend's house in Maine. They have a big ranch, and we walked in through the garage door, put Molly down so we could hug our friends. Anne asked, "Where's Molly?" We all looked around, and there she was-- walking away from us down the long hallway. Like she was saying that she sat for nearly 8 hours and she was DONE with that! She never stopped after that.

 

 

astrid

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My DS didn't sleep through the night consistently until he was nearly a year old, and still sometimes doesn't nearly 3 years later. OTOH, I had a friend who panicked when her DS started not sleeping through the night at 2 months because he always had since he was born and she exclusively breastfed :confused1: I've also gotten conflicting info from pediatricians about adding rice cereal (some say go for it, others say it causes food allergies if introduced that early in infants.)

 

Every kiddo is different, I think people are a bit hung up on having kids sleep longer than they are ready to because it's more convenient for us or another kid happened to be that way.

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From all the exclusively breastfeeding moms I've talked to, babies don't seem to more than occasionally sleep through the night until 10-12 months. The only exceptions I know of, personally, all did some sort of Ezzo-like cry it out method (which I don't support).

 

My second ate every 1.5 hours, day and night, for the first 5 months of his life. It can be rough, but I think your baby waking up more now is normal. Between teething, learning to roll over, learning to crawl, babies have lots of reasons why they wake at night. I've read that many of them use night time to practice their new skills.

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