Very erratic sleep patterns @ 4months

[LaPaix]

Hi everyone, for the past few weeks my dd has developed very irregular sleep patterns. One night she will go to bed at 9 nursing only 2 and wake 2-3 times during the night, the next night it will take me 3 hours to put her down and then she will be up every 2 hours, every night is different. Some nights she nurses 4-5 times before finally falling asleep.

I've never had any issue with milk supply and she is a healthy 16 pounds, we do the same bedtime routine every night around 9, I tried waking her up at the same time everyday and letting her wake up naturally, made no difference, swaddling makes no difference, having her in our bed (as opposed to in her crib which is sidecarred) - made no difference.

This is my 1st - my gut is telling me it is normal and she will eventually find her own rhythm, but some days she looks so tried I am starting to think it may be unhealthy. 

Any advice/experience is appreciated - TIA!

[Gracecody]

My baby (3.5 mos) has been going through this too. We had a steady routine going for awhile that started to fall apart right around 3 mos. He started treating his bedtime as a nap and then was totally awake after 45 minutes-1 hour. So that pushed bedtime back to 10:30-11pm once he was finally tired again and ready to nurse to sleep. He also started refusing to nurse to sleep at times which was very hard on all of us. Now he will at least nurse to sleep but has kept on with the "fake bedtime" as we have started calling it. I don't really sweat it as I'm a night owl, and he sleeps in later in the morning (til after 9) to compensate. I do have to make sure to pay very close attention to his tired signs during the day and make sure he gets really good naps, which does take some effort with two other children. When you see what huge changes they are experiencing in terms of growth and development, it makes sense that their sleep would be affected too.

[ErinYay]

Welcome to the infamous 4-month sleep regression.

My little one (4-mo-old in 2 days) went from sleeping through the night, 8-9 hours straight for 3 weeks, to waking every 1-2 hours. It's real fun. REAL. FUN.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go set my head on fire.

[LaPaix]

thanks for the link..... at least we're not alone!!