[anniemandbub]

DS is almost 4.5 months. He occasionally sleeps through, but most nights will wake for a feed once between 1 and 3 am, depending on when he went to sleep. But I'm now getting more nights of 2+ wakings. Tonight its been wake ups at 9 and 12 already after going to bed after the 6 pm feed Just Christmas night he slept through, and only single wake ups the next two nights.

Is it normal for babies sleep to be so erratic? I never know what to expect. And my breasts never have time to get used to a pattern either! Sometimes more feeds follow a day when he's fed poorly, he's become very distractible, but this is not always the case before some of the more wakeful nights.

For some reason, I'm finding it harder and harder to go back to sleep myself, so sometimes I get no sleep at all between wake ups. Which increases my frustration.

[greengoddess]

At around Week 19 (from EDD) babies go through a pretty restless Wonder Week - it can start a few weeks before and last a few weeks thereafter. It's also known as the Four Month Sleep Regression - google it, it's very common.

I'd highly recommend the Wonder Weeks book (and app!). It alerts you to these "stormy" periods, which are nothing more than massive developmental leaps (intellectual growth spurts, if you like). You might be up for a few weeks of disrupted sleep, but the pay off is usually a significant new skill at the end!

GGxx

[tibs]

My baby is only 3.5 months but I would think 6pm bedtime is too early if you want them to sleep through. I try and do the last feed around midnight then I go to bed and usually don't get woken until morning.

[anniemandbub]

My baby is only 3.5 months but I would think 6pm bedtime is too early if you want them to sleep through. I try and do the last feed around midnight then I go to bed and usually don't get woken until morning.

He's a terrible daytime sleeper, so is usually easily off to sleep by 7, although some nights will remain inexplicably wide awake till after the next feed. He would be cranky as if I forced him to stay up and I'm OK with one night feed, its when it turns into more that I get really frustrated.

Thanks for the Wonder Week info Greengoddess. I will have a read. He had just started rolling back to front a bit over a week ago. Every time he wakes he rolls over in his cot and then gets stuck as he can't roll back. He did roll front to back several times at 10 weeks, then forgot how to do it, lol. Tummy time became very frustrating for a time as he kept trying to roll, but he finally gave up and fast forward to now and he's getting lots of tummy time as he rolls over almost immediately whenever you put him on his back unless he is asleep!

[trishalishous]

Id say its pretty normal. My son is 4 months and has started waking at 6am (used to be up between 8-9) and I remember my DD going through this around this age too

[minidiamond]

We are all over the place too, DS is the same age, altho he's never slept through. And I totally empathize with the feeding issue, sometimes just before I go to feed him my boobs feel completely soft ! I always seem to just keep up although I wonder if he was getting more would he sleep better ie a bit of a viscous circle.

I'm going to introduce solids in 2 weeks so hoping that might bring a new phase and better sleep.

[KRT]

The only time DS started having any real consistency in night wakings was when he started sleeping through at 8 months. Before then there were 1, 2 or 3 wakings at various times.

Day sleeps settled down by 6 months and were much more consistent in times from then on.

However, even at 11 months, there would be at least two days a week that were all over the place. And now at 12 months, it's even worse

Great advice from PP on the Wonder Weeks. That would always knock DS around.