Is 16-17 hours sleep to much for 4 month old?

[KellyandBean]

My girl will turn 4 months this weekend and we are having trouble with her naps. Well not exactly trouble but I'm finding that she has a crazy nap schedule that hinders my being able to do ANYTHING during the day. I'm just wondering if this sounds normal. She sleeps for exactly an hour every other hour. So one hour awake, then she is ready for another nap. And the rough part about this is that she doens't go down easy. If i don't catch her within a window of about 5 minuets then she gets overtired and throws a screaming fit. I try to bore her to death while she is awake so that she isn't overstimulated and can maybe stay awake longer but it doens't seem to work. It is so hard for me to go out anywhere when she wont sleep in the car seat anymore (it is to bright and to much going on!) and she will only stay awake 45 minuets before the fussing starts. Is this normal? And if so does anyone know at what age she is likely to be able to be awake for more then an hour at a time? I've read stuff about 4 month sleep regression but she has always been like this with her naps for over a month now (ever since she recovered from severe colic) and she is also currently going through the 4 month sleep regression OR a growth spurt because she is up every hour at night.\..I'm starting to wonder if she is sleeping poorly at night because she naps for 5 or 6 hours in the day time but if she is fussy i can't just keep her awake...it would make my days miserable. I hear about people keep their babies awake 4 hours before bedtime but she would FREAK on me with over tiredness after 2 hours...advice/thoughts?

[Jaesun's Dad]

I try to bore her to death while she is awake

Our little guy (20 weeks ~ 5 months) doesn't complain about much, but boy he sure does not like being ignored. He really loves interaction when he's awake. I can't imagine trying to bore him on purpose, but I think I can imagine his reaction if I did.

At this age we mostly feel that he should sleep when he wants to sleep, though he does go to sleep for the night at a variable bedtime. Some days he seems to want a lot of naps, other days he seems to just want to talk and flail his arms and legs and drool oceans. The on and off every hour does seem unusual though, he never went through that. The exception is when he's overtired he can be extremely cranky, but once he's calmed down he will nap, then if we dare to set him or lay him down he'll wake up again in a fit, so you kinda gotta hold him while he gets his nap in some days.

I wonder how your feeding habits and schedules work into this pattern. There may be more there.

Ours definitely is not sleeping 17 hours. Hasn't since a few weeks old.

[Lauren31]

My DD has been sleeping interestingly also... she will sleep from 8 until 7 or 8 and then again about 9:00 until 9:30 and then 11:30-1 and then 3-:330 and then 5-5:30... it's kinda annoying bc we are the same way, we miss that little window of putting her down and all HELL breaks lose. I wish she would sleep long stretches instead of short little naps bc she won't just fall asleep wherever, we have to lay down, nurse, the fall nap monty etc. Good luck, mama.

[LadyCatherine185]

It does sound like a lot of total sleep.. but that is coming from someone who's DS was a terrible sleeper.

I would look into something else being wrong other than just being tired. Especially considering you said she had severe colic. Have you looked into reflux or food allergies/intolerances? Are you breastfeeding? The waking every hour at night is pretty typical at that age (though my DS did this well after he turned one) but could be indicative of another issue like the reflux or allergies I mentioned. My DS had really bad silent reflux. He never spit up, but would swallow the reflux back down. It wasn't until we got him on some Prevacid that he stopped the screaming.

How is she if you are out somewhere and just stays awake? Have you tried babywearing? My DS had a hard time napping out, but he usually did well for awhile just to stay awake. Sometimes he would fall asleep in the Ergo as well.

[Llyra]

My kids are all big sleepers. At that age, they all slept easily 16 hours, and DD1 probably even slept more than that.

Mine didn't really settle into sleeping less, with a steady napping schedule, until closer to about 7 months. Before that, they mostly slept after about an hour to an hour-and-a-half of awake time, and sometimes a lot less than that.

As for the poor night sleeping-- I don't know. I don't think you can say for sure that it's too much daytime sleep, though. In general, better naps will lead to sounder night sleep, for most kids most of the time. I do think it's very normal and common for LOs to be up very frequently during the night at this age, though. DS was like that-- up to nurse at least seven or eight times a night, and often more.

I think kids who were colicky often grow into sensitive kids-- kids who are easily overstimulated, kids who need a lot of "down time," and kids who need help learning to shut out the big world so they can relax into sleep. So you may be dealing with a personality trait. They take in so much more than other kids do, too, which makes them fascinating people to live with, but they do need both more sleep, and more help getting to sleep, than other kids. My DD1 has always been that way. She's almost 6 now, and still sleeps WAY more than average, and has a hard time settling down after a long day, and she seems to need a lot of time alone to unwind and process things.

Babywearing can help a lot. Especially wearing baby facing you, and upright, while you're on your feet doing something active. Long walks in the Ergo were my solution at this age, especially in the evenings.

[lolar2]

We used to have to bore DS to get him to sleep, too, though I only dreamed of 16-17 hours! Will she sleep in a stroller or a Moses basket, if you drape a blanket over it to shut out the light? I see a lot of parents doing that, especially when we used to live in SoCal where the sun was so bright. It only worked for DS a few times, unfortunately.

[mamacolleen]

My DD did this exactly at 4 months. It wasn't until she was 7-8 months that she could more happily stay awake for 2 hours. It took me a really long time to figure out her sleep needs. It was the most frustrating thing for me.... she would nap for 20-40 mins and then be happy awake for only 1 hr max. She also needed a lot of intervention to help her calm down enough to nap. And she was never content to entertain herself for any length of time. She needed interaction but then would get easily overstimulated by it. Hang a blanket over her to cut out the world? No way. She would scream like it was a human rights infraction.

She hated the sling/carrier until she was about 5/6 months old, same with the car seat, and don't even get me started with the stroller. I COULD NOT stay in the house all day to catch her naps... it would drive me insane. So I took her out on at least one walk a day and if I missed her nap cues and she got over-tired and screamed for ages then it was, honestly, better for me than feeling locked inside all day long. Just me.

She's definitely an intense and sensitive child.... takes a lot of time to relax and ease into sleep. It's much better now that she's 11mo. and stay can awake happily for much longer. In fact we're transitioning to one nap a day now. Her naps are finally longer (1 1/2 - 2 hrs.) I think when you read about infants staying awake for 4 hrs before bedtime is for older infants. DD can do this now but no way could she at 4 months.

Hang in there. It will get better.

[jennybear]

Mine's awake longer stretches, but she averages around 16 hours of sleep, sometimes more.

She gets 12 hours at night and then takes two 1-3 hour naps.

[CassnBeth]

Oh yeah, my DD did this too. It was 45 minutes awake and happy, 15 minutes going down for a nap for a total of one hour awake. And she only slept for 45 minutes of a nap at 4 months old because of that gods-be-damned sleep regression. I felt like I spent all day putting her to sleep since she was sleeping 16 hours total.

But, miraculously!, the day she finished week 19 she suddenly moved in to a three 1.5 hour naps a day pattern. And then at six months she could suddenly stay awake for 1.5 hours instead of only 45 minutes and switched to two naps. Just like some switch flipped for her. I spent all this time worrying that she stayed awake for such short periods and it totally fixed itself.