Four month old is still eating every 2-3 hours at night. Normal? Or time to sleep train
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Anonymous
| I nurse her to sleep. She wakes up, I feed her, she falls asleep, repeat every 2-3 hours. Is this normal or should I try to sleep train? |
Anonymous
| Since she was born? Or is it a growth spurt? |
Anonymous
| Totally normal! Too young to sleep train. |
Anonymous
| Normal, don't deny food. |
Anonymous
| Imo if you nurse to sleep and never work on falling asleep independently, you pretty much have to do this until you’re willing to sleep train. They don’t know any other way to fall asleep. How long are you letting the baby fuss before you intervene? The other challenge is you probably still need overnight feeds, but it should be one or two. This many means it’s mainly how you and your baby are getting back to sleep between sleep cycles. |
Anonymous
I also want to add that it’s totally normal to wake up in the night. Sleep training will not mean the baby “sleeps through” it just means the baby will put themselves back to sleep (unless they’re hungry). |
Anonymous
| Its been a while for me but I think that by 4 months she should have some time awake...not just eat and go back to sleep. |
Anonymous
| She’s only been here for one quarter. Give her a minute. |
Anonymous
| You are starting a terrible habit. Don't nurse to sleep. |
Anonymous
| OP, how much is your baby eating per day? I think it's ~30oz. The goal should be to get as much feeding in during the day, so that you're not balancing the consumption across the whole of the night. I had a GREAT sleeper and the most overnight feedings we had after 4 weeks was once per night (not counting dream feed and maybe an early morning). If you create the habit, your baby will have the habit. Focus on the baby getting enough food during 'waking' hours and see if that changes anything. |
Anonymous
| Very normal. |
Anonymous
| Feed more during the day and sleep train. You can sleep train and still do one night feed for a while. You can also handle wake-ups with soothing instead of nursing. |
Anonymous
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(EBF 3 babies) Are you getting her up out of bed and moving around too much? Or just quickly nursing and putting her back in the bassinet? Do you jostle slightly her as you put her down? Just enough so that her eyes open and she's not fully asleep. This will help her learn to put herself back to sleep over time.
Around 3 months is when I'd pause, wait a minute, to see if they really needed fed or they were just waking up after a sleep cycle ended and couldn't put themselves back to sleep. At 4 months my kids were mostly sttn, but if they woke I would wait 5 minutes before going in. Mine didn't have weight gain issues though. When they sttn, they actually ate more during the day. |
Anonymous
I don't understand this mindset. Nursing to sleep is so natural and easy, there is no reason not to do it. Especially for a 4 month... OP, I fed to sleep and also nursed during night wakeups when my baby was younger - he's now 8 months and I still nurse to sleep because it's easy and convenient, and he sleeps through the entire night just fine. I never sleep trained, and always soothed him if he woke up or cried. When he is teething or sick, he will wake up in the night and I nurse him, which calms him and helps him sleep soundly again. |
Anonymous
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Yes, normal, and yes, I would sleep train (assuming the baby weighed enough), keeping a dream feed, though that’s personal preference. You must be exhausted.
For sleep training and night weaning, I highly recommend The Sleep Easy Solution. Good luck and congrats! |