To those whose 4 month old sleeps through the night

[jessmke]

How often does your baby nurse during the day? My LO nurses every 4 hrs or so during the day and if try to feed her more frequently than that she throws a temper tantrum. I feel like she will never sleep through the night because she doesn't take in enough calories during the day.

 

[crownest]

My little man feeds around every 3 hours but he can go shorter or longer. His feeds generally get longer as the day goes on. He has his last feed at 9 goes down to 7 ish goes back to sleep then wakes around 830 ish.

 

[noon_child]

My baby fed quite frequently during the day (between every 2hrs and 3 hrs) and still didn't sleep through till nearly 3yrs old. Some young babies need night feeds for growth, but there are so many other reasons that babies and children wake I would try not to get hung up on thinking it is all about milk and feeding. What is great about breastfeeding is that it is the SOLUTION to a baby/child who has woken in the night. It is often the quickest and easiest way to send them back off to sleep.

 

[DaisyDreamer]

You may take some relief in this post.

Lowered sleep expectations has made me a happier mom.

 

[jessmke]

Thanks guys. She generally has great sleep habits, she almost never fights sleep and is easy to put to bed for the night and for naps, I can just put her down drowsy but awake and she will settle herself to sleep. When she does wake at night she never cries more than to let me know she is awake and either wants a feed or a cuddle, then she is perfectly quiet. I am just really starting to feel the effects of sleep deprivation these last few weeks and I can't help but imagine how glorious it would be to sleep for an entire night! My LO nurses usually twice at night, but often wakes 2-3 more times for brief moments, usually she just needs a quick cuddle and will go back to sleep but it is still enough to make me feel like I was up all night! My OH would be more than willing to help except that LO wants only me at night, so if he tries to cuddle her or give her a bottle she loses her mind! The other issue is that I absolutely cannot nap during the day no matter how tired I am, my body just doesn't allow it, so having a sleep while LO is napping during the day isn't possible. It is very frustrating but I have always been this way, my body clock just doesn't allow for day time sleeping. Oh well, I will just keep reminding myself that this sleep deprivation is only short term in the grand scheme of things.

 

[crownest]

BTW when I say DS sleeps through the night I still get up for his dummy or sometimes to hold his hand for minute or 2 , I count not waking to feed as sleeping through the night !

 

[afisppq]

My ds feeds every 2 hrs during the day and recently started doing one 5-6 hour stretch for his first sleep of the night. I just think every baby is different, he literally went from feeding every 2hrs every night to sleeping 5-6 hours over night. We also bed share and he's a super light sleeper, something just clicked. It's still not very consistent either, the other night it was every 3 hours. Just give it time.

 

[RaquelDee]

My girl was somewhere around 16 weeks when she started sleeping through and her night sleep has stayed fairly consistent aside from nocturnal cot gymnastics with leaps (rolling, crawling, etc). At that point she was feeding around every 2.5-3 hours in the day, so 5 feeds from 7am-7pm, plus a dreamfeed at around 10. The dreamfeed worked great for me, particularly when she was mega-distracted with day feeds I could still make sure she got plenty to eat, maybe worth a try if you don't currently do it?

 

[sil]

My DS2 started STTN just now at 9 months. DS1 STTN at 10 months.

Both were EBF until 6 months when solids were introduced. At 4 months I was up 2-4 times per night.

It will get better. Hang in there!

 

[Heather.1987]

.

 

[loeylo]

My wee one was taking 4x 6oz bottles per day at that point, sometimes an extra ounce or two extra if she was hungry.