Sudden Nightwaking

[SeattleRain]

My 3 month old has been sleeping from around 7:00-8:00pm until about 7:00am since about 8 weeks old. He sleeps in our bedroom, but not in our bed. We use a very modified version of Dr. Weissbluth's sleep method (without any bit of CIO). We didn't train him to STTN or anything, we just pay attention to his drowsy signs and rock him to sleep and then one night he didn't wake up until 7.

The past week or two, he's been going through some changes. He's really into his hands (especially in his mouth) and he's babbling. We were hardcore swaddling him up until about a week ago when he started really breaking out and waking up in the middle of the night. We would find him practically eating up is hands like they were made of milky goodness.

We figured this end to the swaddle meant that he was learning to self-soothe with his hands so we stopped swaddling him. Now he's waking up in the middle of the night still, wanting to be fed, and waking up early babbling quite loudly. None of these things in and of themselves are BAD per se, they're just out of character for MY baby who hasn't woken up for a feeding in at least a month.

Why the sudden nightwaking? Has this happened to anyone else? Does it get better? How long could this last? Should I try re-swaddling? Perhaps he's not ready for the end of the swaddle? Help!

[Tattooed Hand]

you might be coming up on the 4 month sleep regression. Have you tried swaddling him in something a bit stronger? Or perhaps just swaddling his lower body. It could be developmental, as my DD began waking alot more often, not usually for nursing, around the time her senses got more developed.

[mrs.t]

My DS did the same thing, he was sleeping for about 6 hours before he woke for a feeding, then another 4, which was really, really nice. Then he hit 4 months and his sleep started to suck. I'm lucky if he goes 3 hours without waking up now, since he "practices" rolling over, crawling, etc. in his sleep and wakes himself up. Sorry I don't have anything helpful to say, just that I had a really good sleeper, got a little spoiled, and then everything changed for no apparent reason other than turning 4 mo. He's 6 months today and he's still doing it....so frustrating.