My daughter is 4 months old and is 17lbs. She is a huge chunk! She still wakes every 3 hours to eat a 4oz bottle. I've tried giving her more than that, but she wont usually drink anymore. Advice? And by "sleep through the night", I mean 6 hours of so.
Mine all did, and they were all big boys. I second the tummy sleep thing. All mine slept so well on their bellies. Is she rolling over yet? I put mine on their bellies, but I know all aren't comfortable with this, but maybe when baby sleeps on her belly, everyone will get more rest :)
My Ped told me that a baby does not really need to eat every 3-4 hours after the first few weeks, and that older babies (6+months) that still wake and need food to comfort back to sleep do so because they have been trained to do so. Once my boys hit a couple months old I would just wait 3-5 minutes before going in at night if they woke and were fussing (a full on cry is different of course and should be attended to). See, many parents try to rush in before they "fully wake" or cry harder, but often that means they are feeding the baby when it is not really hungry. It is normal for babies to wake at night even if they are not hungry. By waiting a couple of minutes (up to 5) I was able to see if the baby would settle back on their own or if they truly needed something. I don't know that it made all the difference, but my boys both slept through the night (2030-530) before hitting 3 months old.
I'd say it's totally normal for her to still be waking up every few hours. I really don't know many that didn't wake up during the night until they were double this age.
Does she sleep on her tummy yet?
The moment our daughter could roll over and sleep on her tummy she would sleep from 9:00pm to 6:00am..
We were very fortunate that this was at an early age.
She will sleep through when she is ready. My sister, brother and I, my two nieces and all other babies ever born in my family slept through the night between 6 and 7 weeks of age. My son slept through the night at 16 -1/2 weeks. He was in the 95 percentile for length and weight and loved to eat - no problems there. But they do it when they do it.
We did not go to him whenever we heard him move a bit or whimper in his sleep. But the 'oh my G-D, I'm going to starve to DEATH, I can't believe nobody has fed me yet, who are those people who call themselves my parents?' cry was unmistakable.
I think that you are asking too much for 4 months, maybe 4.5 or 5 hrs but not quite 6.
Not all babies are created equal.
My son was not a "good" sleeper and more than 4 hrs at a time was hard to get out of him until he was closer to 10months.
My son also has ADHD & SPD afflictions that have been there since birth - both can effect sleep habits. Maybe mine is not the best experience, but again - not all babies are the same with anything. I am going to STRONGLY suggest that you do not feed solids of any kind until after 6months of age. Many people are going to suggest trying solids or adding rice cereal to the bottle - I beg you not to do this and to hold off until she is 6months or older and showing signs of readiness.
She sounds normal to me. She will sleep longer when she is older. Just keep doing what you're doing. This stage of parenting will pass and you will get to sleep again, I promise.
Maybe, my twins were sleeping through the night as in 12 hours by 4 months. This is going to sound harsh, but I really think what did it was my not holding them when they ate. They didn't get that comfort connection so they didn't look for it. I put them in the boppy and had the bottle held up by a blanket. Then I lied next to them or look down on them as they ate. My boys are now 19 months still sleeping through the night, the laugh hysterically when I come in their room in the morning, love giving hugs and snuggling, so I don't think they were adversely affected by not being cuddled at night.
It may be a while before you get a 'sleep through the night' 5 hours at a stretch kiddo. If you are giving her breastmilk, it is metabolized faster than formula. That said, most families I worked for that formula-fed-- if I was doing an overnight shift, I could count on about a max of 5 hours of sleep at most.
As they get older, can eat more, not needing as much food all at once, can take solids, etc.-- you will see longer stretches of sleep. Until then, their little stomachs get full quickly and hungry quickly as well.
It is possible, yes. Does it happen for every baby? No.
Mine slept minimum of 6 hours at a stretch by 12 weeks. But every baby doesn't.
I just remember that when I took my son in for his 6 month THAT was when the doctor said he should be able to sleep through the night (she also classified that as 6 hours). So, maybe this is too soon? I dont know that size really has anything to do with it. My son slept well early on (AFTER we got through the colic - ugh!), but my daughter took what seemed like forever to sleep all night! I don't remember exactly, but I know she was still waking up at 4 months and she also was in the 95th percentile so she was not a small baby either! LOL
Is she falling asleep while drinking the bottle? Maybe see if you can rouse her to drink more. I also would wake my babies right before I went to bed to feed him/her so I could get a stretch instead of falling asleep only to be woken up right away.
Oh! One more thing! My doc had also told us to make sure to feed that baby every 3-4 hours during the day (even if you have to wake her). She said that even very small babies (this is when DS was a newborn) will give ONE longer stretch of sleep and we wanted to train him early on to have that at night. Worked great for him. Worked pretty well with daughter. But, like I said, she was just not a great sleeper overall.
Good luck!!!
my daughter was sleeping through the night by the time I went back to work at 3 months. So she's probably physically capable. But every baby is different, I have a friend who's 1 1/2 year old doesn't sleep through the night yet.
I'm sorry but that whole "at x age" or "at x weight" they don't need food at night or will sleep through the night or anything else is an outdated and wrong old wives tale. It's not true.
Night waking, needing to eat at night etc all depends on the child. Whether they are going through a growth spurt. Whether they are about to hit a milestone. Whether they are teething. Etc and so on.
There are so many factors that determine if a child is going to sleep 6 hours or 30 minutes or anywhere else on the scale.
Also, their stomach is only about the size of their fist. 4 oz is a pretty good amount for a 4 month old. Trying to force a baby to eat more to get them to sleep longer is not going to work. There is only so much room in that little tummy of theirs.
I know every mother's worst part is the lack of sleep. It doesn't last forever. I promise.
Yes, at 17 lbs she is physically able to go longer stretches at night without eating. Usually 14-15 lbs is the lower threshold.
