3 Month Old Waking up Every 2- 21/2 Hrs at Night

Well I hate to say it but that sounds about right to me. Your baby is only 4 months I know to you that seems like she is getting old but no. She is still very little and needs to be fed on demand. If she is hungry every 2 to 2 1/2 hours then you need to feed her. My babies were like this and I would nurse them in bed and fall back asleep while they were eating. That way I got more sleep in. As she gets older she will sleep better but right now she still needs to eat a lot. And all babies are different some will start sleeping better at a younger age but that is because they are not hungry. My first daughter only woke up twice a night starting around the 2 month mark and did that until I weaned her at 11 months. But my second daughter woke up every 2 hours all night until I weaned her at 13 months. So I know it's hard. My only other thought besides trying to sleep while she is nursing is to try letting her sleep in a swing or a vibrating bassinet sometimes the motion helps babies to sleep a little longer.

Sounds normal for a nursing baby! I have nursed 2, till 9 months....and through 4-5 months it was still every 2 hours around the clock. After that, they would go about 4-5 hours at the beginning of the night, and then every 2 hours till wake up time at about 6 am. At about 7 or 8 months, they went to 4 hours for the first stretch, 4 hours for the second stretch, and then 2 hours the rest of the day for feedings, milk/nursing alternating with colids at that point, and finally at about 9 months they were weaned from nursing, and went to sleeping from 6:30 pm to 6:00 am with just one midnight formula feeding. They both stopped the midnight feeding at about 11 months, and were weaned from the bottle to the cup by a year.

Sounds like you actually have a pretty good sleeper to me, mine definitely didn't have naps that consistent at that age....make sure you nap when she does for now, while you are still home, and try to make your hubby take turns who will get up and feed her, so you get a little more sleep. Also, try formula for all night and breastmilk for all day, it might help, I know mine slept more on formula, but that was also only given as they got older and would've been sleeping better anyway. Also, try to get her ot eat more than 2 oz at a feeding, waker her, undress her, etc. Good Luck!

we followed the book Healthy Sleep Habits , Happy Child, that helped alot...

Jessie

Nothing you've shared is abnormal behavior - - if this is enough to frazzle you so much, you've seen nothing yet! Babies do the largest spurt of growth in the first year... and need the nutrition to allow for such rapid development.

Just bed-share and breastfeed on demand. Babies have growth spurts, sometimes when they learn new things - they like the comfort of Mommy and the breast... who knows - but following your baby's ques is the best thing you can do as a Mother. Sleep when she sleeps.

PUMP PUMP PUMP and STOCKPILE!!! When you return to work, pumping will get harder and harder and soon you'll get nothing out of your breasts. The pump is barely strong enough to get maybe 25% of what baby can take out. Breastfeed while home and pump while away. Also, pump the other side when DD is on one side.

Also - at only 4 months old... her GI tract is still immature and open. Hold off on solids until about 7 months. She should have her tongue thrust reflex gone by then too.

2 oz. seems very low. Will she take more?

I have to agree that this sounds within the range of normal for a 4 month old. At that age, my daughter was doing a long stretch at the beginning of the night (7 or 8p until midnight) then every 2-2.5 hours thereafter. You could try to give her more than 2 ounces at a time with the hope that it will buy you more sleep. Or, try co-sleeping so that you can sleep even when she's nursing. Even if you just co-sleep temporarily... There will be time to get your baby back into a crib and sleeping "on her own" (if that is a goal) even if you allow co-sleeping now. It's what we did off and on from about 4-5.5 months so that I could survive being a working mommy! Now my daughter (almost 7 months) is in her crib for pretty much the entire night. I nurse her once or twice around 3-4am and sometimes again around 5-6am.

Good luck!

My son was not breastfed but did regress to every two hours w/ an 8oz bottle by two weeks! The doctor had me start giving him rice cereal with his evening feeding and it made a world of difference. Your daughter is definately old enough to have some cereal.

I would suggest that you maybe put her to bed around 8 pm instead (after feeding her both a bottle and some cereal and then bathing her).

My kids never took cereal in a bottle...had to spoon feed it (and my son liked it thick).

C.,
The trick is to make sure that you are feeding her 7- 8 times in 24 hrs. at least 6 feedings in the day time so that she is getting all the calories she needs, then she will sleep longer at night. That means feeding her about every 3 hrs in the daylight hours. It is the calories that determine how long they can sleep at one time. If she gets enough in the daytime, she she will be capable of sleeping longer once you help her get out of the habit by structuring her feedings.
She doesn't need an early bed time, she cant sleep 12 hrs like a toddler so feed her and put her down for the night when you are ready to go to sleep.
To start this process, make her last nap of the day be the old 7:30 bed time. Wake her up after 2 hrs, feed her again and put her to bed when you are ready to go to bed.
So if she goes to bed when you do, say like 10pm, she will most likely wake up about 4hrs later since that is her longest stretch. again put her back in bed and let her wake you up one more time, probably around 5-6 am. feed her and put her back to bed. At this point you can let her wake on her own and start counting three hrs from when you started that feeding to get all the nursing in, OR you can choose to wake her up, lets say at 8am and start your day from there.
If you do every 2 1/2 -3 hrs, the first feeding in the "daylight" hrs would be about 8am, then 11am, 2pm, 5am, 8pm, and then 11pm, go to bed and wait till she wakes you up. start counting the 2 1/2 - 3 hours from the start of a feeding to the start of the next feeding. If it is before 2 1/2 hrs since her last feeding try to pacify her until its been at least that. By doing so you are not depriving her of nutrients, but postponing it so that she will truly be hungry and not snack. Once she is feeding with in these increments, she will eat more at one time, because she wont be snacking as often, and she will gain more weight. you will notice that once you get her feeding routine fairly consistent her sleeping will follow, and once you get her sleeping and napping consistent, she will also eat better too. They really go hand in hand.
In the DAY TIME, If it has been 2 1/2 -3 hrs, wake her up and feed her, don't let her sleep longer then that. But AT NIGHT, let her wake you up, and make sure you feed her right before you go to bed. That way you will get to sleep during her longest stretch. You can adjust the 2 1/2-3 hrs to whenever she wakes up in the morning. Just try to get those eight feedings in. Every time after you feed her in the day keep her awake for awhile like 30-60 min and then put her down for a nap whenever she starts to get fussy. She might whine or cry a little, but that is just a stress release. You will know she is not hungry cause you just fed her, and changed her so she must be tired. She should be getting 16-20 hours of sleep in 24 hrs. I know it seams counter intuitive, but the more regular sleep she gets in the day the more she will sleep at night. She should sleep 1-2 hrs in between each feeding in the day.
These are my tricks and usually by three months they are sleeping 8-10 hrs at night and taking four - five 2 hr naps a day. if you need more info, or have questions just send me a message.
Also try not swaddling her arms, she is old enough to not need the extra security. She may just be waking cause she cant move her arms.
Good luck
E.

Sounds about normal to me.

When you go back to work, you and your husband can split the night into 2 sections. Then you'll both have the opportunity to have a 4-5 hour stretch of sleep.

It WILL get better, but for now since you'll be partners in working, you have to be partners in feedings as well.

:)

honey, she's still on breast milk, just because she's older doesn't mean breast milk will last any longer. that's normal, every 2-2 1/2 hours, even if she's 1 breast milk will only tide her over for 2-3 hours.

If you want her to sleep through the night then try a formula milk at night, or try giving her baby ceral deluded in warm water in the bottle before bed time so she doesn't get hungry....congratulations on the new baby!