4 month wakeful? Sleep advice

Christina_Diane · July 2012

I'm not sure if he has hit that early or what is going on, but I could use some advice right about now. I know there will be two different camps of thought here, but I am hoping to combine advice. CIO is not an option.

DS went to bed at 8:30. It is now 2 and this is the third time he has been up. The first time was at 12:22. I popped the soothie back in his mouth and he was asleep within minutes. The second time was at 12:36. It took more then 45 minutes of head stroking and rocking to get him to sleep. The third time just occurred at 1:45, presumably right when I fell asleep. This time I nursed him because I felt like he was hungry.

The second time he was up, he was wide awake and alert. Not his typical behavior. Does this sound like the beginning of the 4 month wakeful? What did you or do you plants do to get through it?

Thanks for reading even though it was long.

huahualove · July 2012

This sounds like ds tonight but the 3rd time awake was at almost 4am and I'm going ahead and feeding him. I'm not really sure what I'll be doing about it yet but I pretty much did what you did. Dh did pick up ds to calm him down better and he walked around with him and ds started to have a big smile. He has been sleeping better the past week but there have been a few nights where he wakes up and after eating he does not want to go back to sleep. After an hour+ of trying to get him to sleep I've just laid down on his bedroom floor with him and he will normally fall asleep then. It isn't fun though.

Mamasaurus · July 2012

I am up with her as we speak. I wish I knew how to make her fall back asleep. She has been on a nap strike all week and has been waking up at night and not going back to sleep after nursing. Tonight H actually woke her up taking a work call in bed instead of dragging his butt downstairs to do it and I swear, I could have gotten at least another half hour of sleep and I am going to p*ss in his coffee. I hate this sitting on the couch while she makes cute noises and trying to ignore her so she sleeps business...but at least she isn't crying.

huahualove · July 2012

Ds seems wide awake. I think he is almost asleep and then he pops his head up. I'm just listening to him talk on the monitor right now. I go in there and then I sniffle from yawning so much and he pops his head up all the way , As I was typing this DH wakes up and says "that's a good idea, just let him keep making noise." Then I told him how I've been trying to get him to go to sleep for the past hr, what do you want me to do, and he got mad so went I left the bedroom to come mess with ds again I slammed the door a little. Oops. I know he works and I'm at home now but it would be nice if I could get a little help sometimes. Uggg men!

starbound6 · July 2012

We haven't had this with DS2 (yet!) but did with DS1. He had a month of "wakeful" from 4-5 months. This involved going from STTN 12 hours to waking several times a night and being hard to put down afterwards. He cried and cried, whatever we did.. eventually we brought him into bed with us. It really sucked. The only advice I can give is to do what you can to get through it. It will pass.

I understand the 4 month wakeful comes from them feeding less during the day due to being more aware of the world and being distractible in their eating, so then they make up for it at night. In my DS1's case, he WAS hungry when he woke up at night, due to faffing around during his day feeds. So I fed him when he woke, and that helped get him back to sleep. It's awful though, I really sympathise with you all! Eventually at 5.5 months we did Ferber which led to STTN again for 12 hours. I know that's not an option for you OP right now, and I wouldn't do it at 4 months either.

laf10 · July 2012

I know not everyone will agree with me, but I always nurse LO when he wakes at night. He is usually hungry, but even when I think it hasn't been long enough for him to really be hungry, I nurse because he's a big comfort nurser and he's usually back asleep in 10-15 min. Lately he seems hungrier and he's been eating longer in the motn, I think because he's more distracted during the day, so he'll eat 30 min sometimes at night lately.

metucker · July 2012

DD was up at 12, 4, and 6:30 and I fed her every time. I don't know if it's the right thing to do, but when I try to rock her, she sucks on my shoulder and continues to cry. She has been eating less during the day also.

llizzyb · July 2012

metucker:
DD was up at 12, 4, and 6:30 and I fed her every time. I don't know if it's the right thing to do, but when I try to rock her, she sucks on my shoulder and continues to cry. She has been eating less during the day also.

I feed DS too, unless it's been under 2 hours since he last ate. Then I send DH in there or put DS in the swing if me rocking/soothing him is further keeping him awake. Poor kid, he gets overstimulated way too easily, even with gentle soothing!

My kiddo isn't waking up too much, but it is more than he was. We had a couple glorious weeks of STTN, or waking once at 5 a.m. and then going back to sleep for awhile. I am noticing his nursing sessions are more distracted and short during the day, which is so frustrating!

llizzyb · July 2012

Christina_Diane:
I'm not sure if he has hit that early or what is going on, but I could use some advice right about now. I know there will be two different camps of thought here, but I am hoping to combine advice. CIO is not an option.

DS went to bed at 8:30. It is now 2 and this is the third time he has been up. The first time was at 12:22. I popped the soothie back in his mouth and he was asleep within minutes. The second time was at 12:36. It took more then 45 minutes of head stroking and rocking to get him to sleep. The third time just occurred at 1:45, presumably right when I fell asleep. This time I nursed him because I felt like he was hungry.

The second time he was up, he was wide awake and alert. Not his typical behavior. Does this sound like the beginning of the 4 month wakeful? What did you or do you plants do to get through it?

Thanks for reading even though it was long.

I probably would have fed him at the 12:36 wakeup. I assume DS is hungry if he doesn't settle well like what you're describing.

I plan to just soldier through the 4 month wakeful, but may do some sleep training like starbound describes close to 6 months if his sleep goes south and stays bad after 4 months. I've read both Ferber and Weissbluth in preparation, and am comfortable with doing some modified CIO around 6 months. However, we already practice some fussing it out in this house, because DS will occasionally wake, fuss and talk a bit, and then go back to sleep without our intervention.

laurack · July 2012

I pretty much feed her any time she wakes, unless it's been a really short time since she last ate. But bed at 830, then at 12.36 he probably was hungry, that's a good few hours.

I just give her the boob as it makes the cryin stop. I'd rather lie down with her sucking on me than stand over her trying to soothe her while the cries escalate... Maybe I'm a pushover. But nursing doesn't hurt me anymore so it's no big deal. I feel it results in the same amount of wake time buts it's peaceful.

jenbelsan · July 2012

It's funny, I have no idea if we are going through this, as we are up 3 times a night already. Only time he came close to Sttn was when our ac was broken and he slept 5 hours. I usually feed at each waking unless it's less than 2 hours. He definitely has stopped those nice long naps he used to take.

Ximena M · July 2012

starbound6:

I understand the 4 month wakeful comes from them feeding less during the day due to being more aware of the world and being distractible in their eating, so then they make up for it at night. In my DS1's case, he WAS hungry when he woke up at night, due to faffing around during his day feeds. So I fed him when he woke, and that helped get him back to sleep. It's awful though, I really sympathise with you all! Eventually at 5.5 months we did Ferber which led to STTN again for 12 hours. I know that's not an option for you OP right now, and I wouldn't do it at 4 months either.

This is what I've been doing with Pilar. It seemed to help her get back on her on a better schedule.

Bean47 · July 2012

laf10:
I know not everyone will agree with me, but I always nurse LO when he wakes at night. He is usually hungry, but even when I think it hasn't been long enough for him to really be hungry, I nurse because he's a big comfort nurser and he's usually back asleep in 10-15 min. Lately he seems hungrier and he's been eating longer in the motn, I think because he's more distracted during the day, so he'll eat 30 min sometimes at night lately.

This is what I'm doing too. She's eating less during the day it seems so it makes sense to eat more at night. I'm exhausted but keep trying to remember it is a phase and will pass. I think when you're this sleep deprived you need to do whatever works for you and your baby. For me, that is nursing her when she wakes. Sometimes it has only been an hour or two but she nurses for a bit and then I put her right back down. It doesn't take long. A couple of nights I tried not feeding her when she woke and it just took forever to get her back to sleep and she'd wake up within an hour.

Christina_Diane · July 2012

llizzyb:
Christina_Diane:
I'm not sure if he has hit that early or what is going on, but I could use some advice right about now. I know there will be two different camps of thought here, but I am hoping to combine advice. CIO is not an option.

DS went to bed at 8:30. It is now 2 and this is the third time he has been up. The first time was at 12:22. I popped the soothie back in his mouth and he was asleep within minutes. The second time was at 12:36. It took more then 45 minutes of head stroking and rocking to get him to sleep. The third time just occurred at 1:45, presumably right when I fell asleep. This time I nursed him because I felt like he was hungry.

The second time he was up, he was wide awake and alert. Not his typical behavior. Does this sound like the beginning of the 4 month wakeful? What did you or do you plants do to get through it?

Thanks for reading even though it was long.
I probably would have fed him at the 12:36 wakeup. I assume DS is hungry if he doesn't settle well like what you're describing.
I plan to just soldier through the 4 month wakeful, but may do some sleep training like starbound describes close to 6 months if his sleep goes south and stays bad after 4 months. I've read both Ferber and Weissbluth in preparation, and am comfortable with doing some modified CIO around 6 months. However, we already practice some fussing it out in this house, because DS will occasionally wake, fuss and talk a bit, and then go back to sleep without our intervention.

Uuuugh. That last sentence you bolded is practically unreadable! Sorry guys.

Christina_Diane · July 2012

Thanks guys. The odd thing is that he seems to be eating just as much throughout the day. However, he is becoming a lot more aware of things.

manning15j · July 2012

LO did the same thing a couple of nights ago, I had to get up 6 times between 9 and 2:45, I was exhausted. I did the same thing you did with the paci and rocking and I fed him one of the times too. I dont know if there is anything elase we can do, maybe try to keep him from taking so many naps during the day. He only did it one night, so maybe you will be lucky, I just hope it wont be like that when he actuallly is 4 months. Good Luck!!

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