Waking Every 2 Hours

Babies sleep patterns change all the time in the first year really. My son was co-sleep next to bed (not in it) for first 6 months and he'd go a month sleeping thru the night and then 3 weeks waking up 5 to 10 times a night - then a few weeks of a couple times a night etc. Even when we moved him to his crib at 6 months with no issue he'd go thru the same sleep thru the night to weeks of waking up a couple times a night. He finally leveled out on his own at about 8 months where he would go to bed at 7PM everynight and sleep until 10AM with no wake ups. Just be patient - it's very normal and this tuff time period is over before you know it.

I don't know the answer, but I am having the exact same problem! My 4 1/2 month old was sleeping great starting around 6 weeks and would only wake up once at night around 4am and I could deal with that. Then about 3 weeks ago, he started waking up throughout the night and I have to go give him the pacifier for him to go back to sleep.

I am hoping that he is teething and that once he cuts his first tooth, this will stop. My first son cut his first tooth when he was 5 months so it could be around the corner. I also wonder if he is getting enough to eat because he is not a good eater, but he has never been a good eater and it did not matter previously.

So, I don't have advice, I just wanted to let you know you are not alone. Good luck!

Do you think he is getting enough food during the day? Is it possible that you have started a new food that is bothering him? Did he just go through a growth spurt and now he just has a habit of getting up.

You did not mention if he puts himself back to sleep. If so, that is great, and you are well on your way to his learning to settle himself down.

Is he getting too much sleep during the day? (Don't get me wrong, I think the more sleep the better, but I have found that too much day sleep affected my son's night sleep, although for him it was more in an earlier wake-up),

Could baby to hot/cold? Could there be a noise that is arousing him? (Our sleeps in our bedroom and i became really aware of how darn noisy the satellite TV receiver was, the disk drive spins up at 4 am, and in general the box is whirring on a regular basis)

Maybe he is about to hit a milestone and his little bring is waking him up with the excitement of figuring things out!

I think you will find his sleep will go back to the old pattern, even if you can't determine what is bothering him.

I will tell you that my ped said don't let our baby cry it out until 6 mos. The reasoning behind this had to do with his not being able to self-soothe until he was older.

If you are having to soother him, you may want to avoid putting him in bad with you (although, most of us have done it for the sake of sleep, so don;t beat yourself up). Some people theorize that if baby figures out he will get to share the bed, he will purposefully wake up for just that.

I'm sure you are tired. I hope you both get more sleep soon.

Your baby could be teething and waking often for comfort not out of hunger or he could be having a growth spurt. My youngest would nurse around the clock when he was having growth spurts.

I know others will disagree with this and I wouldn't do it with your pedi's advice, but if he is having a major growth spurt and is hungry all the time and that is causing the waking he may be ready for a small addition of solids. I know for allergy reasons it is best to wait until 6 months, but my son was always hungry and was a large baby so our pedi had us start him on solids a little early and it did the trick. He would have eaten 24 hours a day without them!

Google "4-month sleep regression". Not a great term, but it may give you some answers. Another great resource is the book "The Wonder Weeks", which explains developmental milestones in the first year and how when babies' brains are so busy learning new things, other aspects of their lives are affected "negatively" (usually sleep and eating and increased fussiness/clinging). Basically, their brains are so on fire learning and soaking up the world, that it affects their sleep. It's just a nice way to reframe the situation-- there's a good a reason for all this waking up (though it's hard to be positive when you're not getting the sleep you need). Also, he may be going through a growth spurt, too, which happens at 3 and 6 months. Good luck-- this should be just a phase, and he sounds right on schedule!

It is also common with babies in general. :) Four months is a normal time for sleep disruption as others have mentioned (there are a few more too). There is also a lot going on so he may just need more nutrition during the night as well. He may be hungry. You could try extra feeds during the day, and especially before bed if he is looking to nurse each of these times.

It may be that there is nothing you can do other than wait it out. There is nothing wrong with bringing him to your bed at the 5 am wake up. That wake up lasts forever, it seems, even once they are sttn.

If you want to read a book on getting babies to go and stay asleep, try No Cry Sleep Solution, by Elizabeth Pantley. But, some babies do things when they are good and ready no matter what you try. He will get there and you will sleep again.

The same thing happened to me, although what brought it on was a case of RSV. My son was having so much trouble sleeping because of his cough, and he got into the habit of waking up every 1.5 or 2 hr at night. I kept thinking he would get back to his old schedule sooner or later, but he never did. When we'd done this for a few months and I was totally sleep deprived, I decided something had to change. He was 7.5 months old by this time and should have been ready to sleep through the night. i was nursing him every time he woke up (and he was actually eating a significant amount), but I knew he could be eating more in one nursing session instead of breaking it up all night long. I'm not sure whether you are nursing your son or doing something else to get him back to sleep. Anyway, I first instituted a no-nursing-for-at-least 4 hr rule. If he woke up in between, I'd give him his pacifier or take him into bed but would not nurse him. That didn't seem to change his schedule. So next I tried checking on him and giving him his pacifier if he woke up but otherwise letting him cry until he fell asleep. This has been working great. We've been doing it for about 2 weeks now, and he's down to one night-time waking and putting himself back to sleep fairly quickly. I feel so much more rested.

I'm pretty sure I would have had even better and faster results if we were not co-sleeping. I just don't have a spare bedroom for the baby right now (my other two sons share the other bedroom, and I don't trust them with the baby yet).

So my advice is to see whether you can figure out the problem -- for example if he needs a more substantial meal before bedtime or something -- but if you can't figure it out and the pattern does not change, don't keep hoping it will solve itself.

It will get better. It is difficult age for sleep patterns. They sleep when they need to, and not when you need to.................

It could be as simple as teeth moving under the gums... babies start to teeth at that age.