4 1/2 months old - night waking

A

angelamok

Registered User
My 4 1/2 months old is having "night waking" for almost 2 months. His routine schedule:
wake up at 6am, 5 times feed during the day
1 short nap (45 mins - 1hr) in the morning and 1 longer nap for 2-3 hrs after his 2pm feed
hit the crib between 7:30pm - 8:30pm
last feed between 11:30pm - 12midnight

His night waking happens between 4am - 4:30am. On a good day, takes me less than 15 mins to tuck him back to bed but recently, it takes over one hour to put him back to sleep. I have ruled out all the possibilities from heat, cold, wet, hunger, lighting, illness but the crying is quite persistent even padding or rocking won't do any good. He will cry until exhausted, then hit the bed..

Does it sound familiar to any of the parents? I am considering to visit a baby sleeping disorder specialists. Any recommendation from clinics or hospitals? Thanks.
 
could be starting to get some teeth. my son had 6 teeth by the time he turned 6 months.

honestly, i think you are REALLY getting ahead of yourself looking for a sleep disorder clinic for a 4.5 month old baby.

both of my kids slept beautifully until they got to about 5-6 months, then they woke every single night until they were 2.5 years. that's just the way it goes. they still occasionally wake up & they are 3&5 years old now.
 
agree with Cara.... he is very young. take it easy - their sleep pattern changes quite often till they are 1ish. we need to adapt.
 
teething could be a possibility. sleeping disorder consultancy is my last resort as I am quite worry about his growth development with consistent lack of sleep (only 12 hours of sleep) at this young age.
 
how much does he sleep during the day? it is NOT expected that the baby sleep for 12 hours consecutively & consistantly every night. it's a TOTAL amount of sleep rather than the actual length of sleep at any one time...
 
his total napping time during the day is about 3 hours and around 9 hours of night time sleep which comes to about 12 hours in total per day
 
I agree that one night waking in a 4.5 month old probably isn't enough of a problem to call in the sleep disorders but I think most experts would agree that on average 12 hours sleep a day is not enough for a baby of that age (recognising that some babies survive on less sleep than others).
Maybe the afternoon sleep is too long and too late in the day for a good night time sleep. Could you try having your baby go to bed earlier for the afternoon nap (around 12.30 or 1 at the latest).
 
If it's really bothering you and affecting your quality of life (which it might be...1 hour of crying at 4am would get old fast after awhile), you could just have a chat with one of these sleep specialists to put you more at ease. I think if you go to Annerley Midwives (located in LKF) on a Monday or Tuesday morning they have a play group for something like 160 for 2 hours. Moms and babies gather there, but there is one lady, Deborah, who is supposed to be a sleep specialist, and you could mention the issue to her and see if she thinks you need to do a one-on-one consultation with her. The one-on-one is 860, and you can just pay for a one time consultation (they have you fill out a sleeping and eating chart for a few days before the session). It might be premature, but again, if it really if bothering you at the least charting it all out and talking to a midwife might help you figure out what is going on. Good luck! I am still struggling with my own sleep issues but my baby is just shy of 4 months so I know it's too early for me to expect much from her!
 
agree with the above in that your baby's afternoon nap might be on the late side....try 1pm? at 4.5 months, i would not worry about sleep issues yet as they are still so young. it would be a different story at 10 months old and on solids. your baby is still growing and like the above posters said, might be teething as well.
 
my bub is 10 months and when he turned 4 months started waking up every 2 hours. This lasted for a month and then one day just started sleeping thru. Babies go thru many phases. Just when you think they're sleeping pattern has settled, something happens and rocks the boat again (teething, travelling overseas, moving homes, etc). I would say a baby 4.5 months is still adjusting and night wakings are very common
 
thanks for all your great advises. i might be a bit over-reacted but the night waking is worsen for the past week, wake up two times every night. usually i can manage the first wake up (between 2:30am - 3am) withthin 15 mins but the 2nd one happens around 4:30 am - 5am and he just cry over top of his lung until exhausted. he refuse any rocking or padding, light music, pacificier or any soothing tools won't work....lately, i have been searching thru the web for tons of "sleeping programs" (purchase online). has anyone try those?
 
i'm thinking that your little one is experiencing a growth spurt... if that is the case, after another week or so, it will all settle down again!
 
Hi angelamok, I totally sympathise, I'm absolutely pathetic if I wake up too much at night and I think that some people just cope better with it than others. Having said that, night waking is part of being a baby and as the others have said, it's early to be too worried about it but I think you can certainly do things to help them to settle back down to sleep more quickly.

If I were you I'd decide on a strategy at night and stick with it, i.e. when he wakes check the obvious things nappy, teething etc which you do already. Then assuming they're ok decide what you will do next and stick with is for a few days so that you know if it improves things or makes them worse.

For example what we do (with 8 month old) is pick him up, shush and soothe him briefly then lay him down whether he is crying or not and leave the room, if he continues to cry then I go back in after a minute or two (loud screamy crying) or 5 to 10 minutes (gentler whimpery crying) pick him up and repeat the process, always laying him down and leaving the room after a cuddle.

For us, after trying a few different strategies, this really helped us through a short period of night wakings, I like the consistency of knowing what I will do (I like not having to think too hard at 4am!) and I think it helps The Boy to know what to expect, he knows he gets a cuddle but he also knows that he will always get left to sleep as well. Now I usually only have to do this once or twice at most when he wakes and he is waking less often but he is a bit older than your bub.

I would look at various strategies to help him settle after waking and try one at a time - it sounds from your post (and I might be wrong) that you're trying all these different things every time he wakes and that may actually be confusing him and actually making it harder for him to settle.

On your specific question, I don't know anything about online programs, if I was paying I'd be keener to go with a known name and a recommendation - people here have recommended Annerley and Sleep Fairy (on another thread) and I adapted the Baby Whisperer strategy to suit us when I found doing exactly what she said wasn't working with The Boy.

Best of luck.
 
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