Community› The Bump Local Boards› Hawaii Babies
Hawaii Babies
New Discussion

Four Month "Wakeful"?

Married2MrWrightMarried2MrWright member
in Hawaii Babies

Okay mamas...please tell me about this four month wakeful thing.  Libby is definitely in it right now.  She's not napping more than 20-30 minutes at a time during the day and is taking forever to get down at night. 

Once she's down for the night she'll sleep a good 6-7 hour stretch, but our bedtime routine that used to only take 15-20 minutes has begun to take over an hour and lately the only thing that can get her to finally doze off is a super tight swaddle, lots of rocking/jiggling and white noise from our hair dryer (the sound machine we have doesn't seem to be loud enough for her to fall asleep to which concerns me because I don't want to be hurting her hearing with the dang hair dryer every night.)

So, did you LO go through this and if so, what advice do you have for me?  How long does this phase last?  I am spoiled because I've been getting 8-9 hours of semi-uninterrupted sleep each night (we bed share so her 2:30-3:00 a.m. feed barely wakes me up) and now it's just 5 hours the past couple of nights and I am starting to feel like a zombie.

image
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Lilypie Pregnancy tickers
Report Reply to Post

Re: Four Month "Wakeful"?

  • 4forluck4forluck member
    DD was never a good sleeper, so I don't have any advice, but I know what you're going through.  When she was 6 months I finally got her to sleep in her own crib instead of with us.  One thing that helped was I bought a CD of beach noises... mostly waves crashing and a few seagulls.  You could try something like that, because you would be abe to turn it up louder than the sound machine and it would be less annoying than a hair dryer. 
    Report Reply
  • Loading the player...
  • MrsNJSwimmerMrsNJSwimmer member

    At least you're getting the 6-7 hours at night!  Ours started waking up every 3-4 hrs overnight (we would get 5-6 until that point).  I'm sorry I don't have any solutions for you, we just had to wait it out - we basically picked him up and walked him around until he fell back to sleep. 

    I've been meaning to ask though, since you bed share, does someone always stay in bed with her when you put her down for the night? 

    Lilypie Third Birthday tickers Blog
    Report Reply
  • miemie
    I think it went on for a couple of weeks and then she settled back into her usual sleeping patters.  Of course when she started on milestones and teething, her sleep patterns changed again.  It sounds like you're doing what  you can and i'm sure that Libby will settle down and be back in the routine soon.
    Report Reply
  • Married2MrWrightMarried2MrWright member
    imageMrsNJSwimmer:

    I've been meaning to ask though, since you bed share, does someone always stay in bed with her when you put her down for the night? 

    We actually let her sleep on our bed unattended for naps, etc.  She sleeps WAY better in the middle of our bed (no fluffy comforters, etc. near her and we place pillows around the perimeter just in case she ever were to move toward the edge of the bed, etc.) than in her crib or ARCS.  Sometimes she'll nap in her swing.  That said, we have a Sleep Number bed and I crank it up to full firmness so it's not too soft, etc.  And she has good head control so if she were to, somehow, end up face down or something she can move her head (I've tested it before).

    But around 6:30/7 pm I usually nurse her down in the middle of our bed and sneak off after she's fallen asleep.  I check on her every 10 minutes or so and she's always sound asleep, just like I left her.  Normally, she sleep until about 8 pm, then she wants to be up for a bit and around 9:30/10 pm I get ready for bed and take her back to bed with me.

    I was hesitant, at first, to let her sleep in our bed without us.  But she just sleeps SO much better there, at least for now.  When we place her in her crib or ARCS she moves all around and ends up in weird, contorted positions.  The other day she napped in her crib and I found her with one of her legs hanging out between the slats!  Scared me!  So for now, she sleeps in the middle of our bed without us or between me and the ARCS when we're in bed with her.  Once she's more mobile, I'll have to see...we may end up getting these:

    https://www.gobedbug.com/

    So we can do something like this:

    image

    image
    TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
    Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

    Lilypie Pregnancy tickers
    Report Reply
  • HulaLoveHulaLove

    Our four month wakeful lasted what felt like an eternity.  We're just coming out of it in the last few weeks.  In actuality I think it lasted about 6 weeks.

    Elyse (like Libby) was a really good sleeper, I was used to getting about 6 or 7 hours of sleep at night and then BAM! she was up every 2-3 hours. 

    Because it lasted so long I'm not really sure if was just this mythical 4 month wakeful or if it was her needs changing and me not knowing?  Maybe I perpetuated it by feeding her everytime she woke up rather than shushing her back to sleep?  She was also teething during that time so I have no idea? 

    The baby whisperer (who has become a diety in our house), says that at around 4 months babies should be eathing every 3-4 hours and napping longer?  I wonder if I had tried that earlier if it wouldn't have lasted so long? 

    My tips are to nap when you can.  Other than that I really have no idea? 

     


    Married Bio
    image
    Pregnancy Ticker
    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"