4 Month Old Having 2 Night Feeds

The baby sleep problem

Hi i have a 4month old boy and he was 10 pounds born and right from the word go has had trouble sleeping. He is fully on formula feed. He can sleep and will sleep in my arms and be transfers to ours or his bed and can sometimes go down on his own but not at night sometimes to save the crying he comes into our bed and he will sleep longer but my husband is a farmer and needs a good sleep and isak cry is very loud. But he has cat naps during the day for no longer than 30mins and that can be 2 on a good day if i put him in our bed he might sleep up to 2hrs. He can sleep through the night coz he has done it 3 times for 9.5hrs. He generally sleeps at night 6-7hrs but has been waking crying or talking to himself...he has a dummy and this may have fallen out. I go in and resettle him but he still has 2 full bottle feeds at night but will only take 2 full feeds during the day and the rest 1/2 feeds he is on 200mls. he likes it every 2.5-3hrs but im trying to get this to be 3-4hrs. I brought him a frog called baby tad and this plays music and i put this on if i put him to bed awake and it might take up to 20mins sometimes to get him to sleep..Can u please hep me or recommend anything to get him to sleep longer at night and get rid of the 2 night feeds or even just 1. I do swaddle him loosley and he has a saftey sleep coz he like to try rolling over. He is anywhere between 18-20pounds im waiting for Plunket to come. He is a good boy and during the day its fine but i do feel he needs more sleep and so do I.

Our recommended sleep solution

At 4 months it's really common for a baby to still want or need a feed during the night, particularly as he is a big baby. However there are likely to be things you can do to help your baby sleep longer than 6-7 hours.

The key things I would look at are:

Swaddling - make sure you swaddle your baby firmly, so he can't escape. Check my Swaddling Information section for instructions. If he is shpwing any interest in sucking his fingers, wrap with one arm out. But the main things is to ensure he stays wrapped. Swaddling firmly should help him sleep longer in the day too. Given his size, You will need a large wrap, such as The Sleep Store giant stretch wraps.

If he is much happier sleeping on his side, then put him on his side in the Safe-T-Sleep, done up firmly enough that he can't roll over. Otherwise ensure he sleeps on his back.

You can also start to think about replacing his wrapping with a sleeping bag, such as a merino Woolbabe. You can use this with a safe-T-sleep, or a Babe Sleeper.

Make sure you always use the Feed/Awake time/Sleep routine, so he gets used to falling asleep on his own. I would not get into the habit of having your baby in your bed either in the day or at night, as this will get to be what he expects and you will have a tougher time as he gets older trying to get him to sleep in his own bed. He will soon develop what's called a sleep association, meaning he thinks he needs you with him to fall asleep. As babies with sleep associations get older, they start waking every 2 hours, as they want Mum with them every time they stir or wake in the night.

As he gets closer to 5 months, I would ensure he is in a structured routine, with his feeds 4 hours apart. This will help his feeds in the day, avoid snacking and also really help his sleeping. The book 'Save Our Sleep' has great routines that are easy to follow. For now I would work on 3 sleeps a day, at about 9am, 1pm and 4.30pm, with bedtime at about 7pm. Do your feeds when he wakes up and one before bedtime. Then do a dreamfeed (bottle while he is asleep) at about 10.30pm.

When he wakes in the night, offer the dummy and go back to bed. If he has fed well in the day and had a dreamfeed at 10.30pm, offering the dummy can be a good way to help your baby sleep through without needing the feed in the night.

However given his size, it may well be that he is really hungry. I would talk to Plunket about whether he should start soon on solids - they will cover the signs with you.

I would use a sleep music CD, so you can leave it playing on repeat all night. This means that if he stirs the music will still be playing, rather than need you to turn the toy on again.