Four Month Wakeful?

watermellens

My older son never went through this, so it's new to me.

I have no idea if that's what this is, but my previously awesome sleeper (went down around 8, up to eat at 3, back down til almost 7 most days) has been up and fussing/crying twice since bedtime. the last couple nights he's been upstairs with us because I got sick of going up and down the stairs 5-6 times a night. 

I've heard of "wonder weeks" but don't know a lot about it and the little I do know doesn't line up with how old he is. 

how did the 4 month wakeful go for you ?

Runaway22

Still going. Up every 1 - 2 hours.

He was going about 4 hours during his first stretch of nighttime sleep. 

Jbunny100

I had never heard of this until your post.  My baby is almost 4 months and within the past few nights he has been waking up in the middle of the night and very hard to get him to go to bed.  He was doing great with sleeping from 10pm-8am and now I feel like we are reverting backwards.  I downloaded the "wonder weeks" app and it did talk about how this is a developmental milestone period starting ~17 weeks where the baby will be very fussy - much more than usual.

kristenncl

My baby is four months old today, and has been waking up every hour at night for the past week. He used to be such a good night sleeper. A few people have suggested I start giving him cereal to sleep through the night on a fuller tummy, but I don't like the idea. Sometimes he wakes and just needs to be held a minute and then he goes right back down. 

How long does this stage last? And has anyone gotten through this stage without introducing solid food?  

mnj05

DS started this about a week before turning 4 months. For us it's not so much sleeping as it is getting him to sleep. He fights it but once he's down, he sleeps his normal stretches.

Hang in there. This can last for as little as a week or as much as two months but eventually it will end and you'll get some sort of normalcy back in terms of sleep.

=Lee=B

For us it started at 3.5 weeks where her night and day sleep changed completely. She is almost back to her past norm.  I don't know if it is related but she also suddenly got very scared and teary around strangers.  When she suddenly wakes from sleep it is to look for me, once she sees me she drifts back to sleep.  Most of the time I just have to go in and kiss her head and she smiles and drifts off.  When she's having trouble falling asleep she seems stressed, I put my hand in front of her and she grabs it with both her hands, smiles and drifts off to sleep.

I think it has a lot to do with her suddenly being very alert to the world, she just needs some extra reassurance and closeness.

BTW, it may be subsiding quickly because I am spending more of the night in her room bedsharing with her.  She usually sleeps in her crib but around 3 in the morning when I am really tired I put her in the bed in her room with me and we fed/sleep the ret of the night there.  Since this wakeful period has started I spend more, sometimes all the night in there with her.  I can feel her jolt awake turn to me and go back to sleep.  But since I don't have to come down the hall when she wakes the wake up are much shorter and less disruptive to both of us.  She still sleeps the first 4-5 hours in her crib since she goes to bed by 6:30.

I've also been doing less naps in the crib and more in the baby carrier or on the couch beside me. I like her to have her sleep more than I like her to be in her crib routinely!

pinottoparenthood

kristenncl:

My baby is four months old today, and has been waking up every hour at night for the past week. He used to be such a good night sleeper. A few people have suggested I start giving him cereal to sleep through the night on a fuller tummy, but I don't like the idea. Sometimes he wakes and just needs to be held a minute and then he goes right back down. 

How long does this stage last? And has anyone gotten through this stage without introducing solid food?  

your instincts are right and I would not introduce cereal. Your baby isn't waking out of hunger. His stomach is still capable of holding enough milk to get him through the gift, just like it was before. Baby is waking up because of the cognitive development going on, and there's not a lot you can do about it except help him go back to sleep. It will pass with time, or you can consider sleep training in a few months.

kristenncl

Thanks Amanda. Your baby is so cute!

plusoneblog

It happened to me from about 4 - 5 1/2 months, some nights she woke up 3-4 times. Last night she only woke up once, but tonight she has already woken up once and was put to bed only 3 hours ago. I think it can go on a long time, unfortunately.