sleep help

[stel]

My son wakes up every 20 min to an hour after 2 am sometimes he'll soothe back to sleep and usually every 2 hours he'll nurse (7-8 to bed, nurse at 12, 230, 4:30; 6:30 wake up= not enough sleep!!!!) Except for a handful of nights this has been his schedule since 2 mos. - now and then he'll nurse at 1and four instead of 12, 2, and four.


He is in cloth diapers and swaddled though he breaks out 50% of time (I posted separately about this.) Could this be him feeling wet? other cloth diapered babies are sleeping, right?

any suggestions are welcome...I am so tired.

[Maluhia]

How old is your son?

[stel]

He is four months.

[whitneyg]

We decided to invest in some of the fancy pocket diapers to use at night (BumGenius) because the fleecy insides wick the moisture away and DD will last all night without a change, especially if I double-stuff them. We are using prefolds during the day which definitely bother her when she is wet. She is waking to nurse, but I don't have to change her which make going back to sleep much easier. As for the swaddling, have you tried the double swaddle? DD is a very active 3 month old and hasn't come close to breaking out of it. Here is a video of how to do it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOnsKlluHIg

It has worked wonders for us, DD now sleeps 5-6 hours for the first stretch instead of 2-3.

Good luck,
Whitney

[LadyCatherine185]

4 months is probably the most commone sleep regression age. The sleep pattern you describe sounds pretty typical of that age. Could be teething, developmental, growth spurt, etc.

Could also be the diapers. Maybe reflux? Food allergies? Also, so babies are just bad sleepers (I have one of those).

Are you cosleeping? For us, this is the easiest way to get most sleep. We also use white noise and blackout curtains to minimize anything that could stimulate him.

I recommend reading The No Cry Sleep Solution for some good ideas to help baby sleep better.

[stel]

Thanks for the tips ladies! That swaddle video was great! I've been hesitant to use a large size blanket b/c I was afraid of him kicking it over his head (which he did when he was 3 days old and swaddled in the receiving blanket) but I can see how with that set up the child is very safe - and well swaddled! - Do you "unwrap" your daughter to nurse at night or do you just nurse her swaddled?

We are using a white noise machine but it is pretty poor quality - I would like to invest in a good one but the expenses just keep adding up. Right now he is sleeping in the attached co sleeper so I can slip an arm under his legs and jiggle and sometimes he'll go back to sleep.

I've heard that babies do sometimes do sleep regression at four months but he never did sleep 'progression' (ha) to begin with!

He did do better last night only nursing at 12, 3 and 6 and NOT WAKING IN BETWEEN! This meant I got an actual 2 hour stretch of sleep in between and it makes so much difference!