Help Getting 4 Month Old on a Schedule

At this young age, it is almost impossible to have babies on a "schedule". They kind of make up their own schedules (which can vary every day) and you kind of just have to "go with the flow" as much as possible. It will get better real soon though, don't worry! Just hang in there ;)
(PS- every 4-5 hours is actually pretty good. From birth till 12 months my daughter woke up anywhere from 8-12 times a night, so I think your daughter is doing great!...)

I recommend following the ideas in the book On Becoming BabyWise. You can't get too extreme, but the general guideline is a schedule that revolves around EAT, PLAY, SLEEP. This way the child does NOT associate a feeding in order to go to sleep and learns to fall asleep on her own.

Best wishes,
C.~

www.HelpUStayHome.com

I too went along with the general idea of Becoming Babywise. And, my pediatrician and my babygroup leader both recommend the Eat, Play, Sleep general schedule. My 8 month old has been sleeping for the most part, 11 or 12 hours since she was 8 weeks. EXCEPT at the time of developmental milestones, in which sleep is often interrupted.

In order to get her to sleep, we did the 5, 10, 20 sleep training when she all of a sudden stopped sleeping. Meaning, once she was 4 months, she should be ready to go 10 hours without food (according to my doctor, obviously consult yours before you do this.)

Basically, if she woke, we waited 5 minutes, went in, let her know we're there, we love her and know she's upset but needs to go to sleep, then left the room (I'd be in the room for 1 minute). Then gave it 10 minutes...same thing...then 20 minutes. We did this for 1 night and that was it..she's been sleeping ever since. Some babies take 1 night of this, some take 3 nights...but I think it tends to work very well.

Good luck!!

Hi T.:
I'm sure you'll recieve alot of good responses to your request here. Sophie makes sense.(Becoming Babywise) is a very controversial book. Many professionals and parents disagree strongly with its methods,as do I. I believe a more appropriate title for that book would have been ( Caring for baby, when its convenient for you) Your baby won't always need feedings so close together.Shes young and naturaly yearns to feel secure,and comforted in your arms.She'll get the hang of it soon,and take in more nourishment,holding her over for longer periods of time.You will come to know the difference in her fussiness.After shes awake for three hours,try rocking her,then laying her down. You can lay next to her,and she'll relax enough to take a nap.She'll get use to the routine,and begin her own little schedule.Giving you and her a little breather. I wish you and your darin daughter the best.

around this age your baby is going through a big growth spurt and developemental changes this affects sleep big time. this will pass with time. try cluster feeding her before bed this helped my daughter sleep at that age (only i gave her rice cereal 1 hour before her bed time bottle). good luck! heres what my daily schedual was with her-

6-7a- wake up she got a bottle in bed (5oz)
8a- bath then breakfast (rice cereal and a 4oz bottle)
10-11a- 5oz bottle and down for a nap (depending on when she woke up)
12:30-1:30p- rice cereal and a 40z bottle
2:30-3:30p- 5oz bottle and second nap (depending on when she woke)
5p- rice cereal and a 3-4oz bottle
6p- quiet time in mamas room to get ready for bed with a 5oz bottle
6:30-7p- in bed
at this age my daughter was in her own room and was only waking up once at night (about 3-3:30a)

Your little one is totally normal and wonderful I'm sure!! Napping for me was tough, too. No worries, it can be remedied, but you need to find what works for you and your little one.

I personally, don't believe in 'training' babies to do anything...especially sleep, it's one of those things that according to even Dr. Ferber shouldn't begin until around nine months. My son's Pediatrician recommended feeding on demand at least until my son was on solid foods for two months. And, once he was on the solids he was able to go for periods of 6-8 hours without waking up for feeding. Babies, in my opinion, should not be expected to sleep through the night yet. It's my philosophy that our jobs as parents is to help our kids in learning to do things for themselves, not train them...

As for naps, the only thing that worked for my son was to let him sleep on my bed. Once I gave in and let that happen, it was easy to get him to sleep for naps. I did have to Baby Proof my bed, and get a couple of rails for the sides, but it was great. I could get things done, and he slept for about an hour twice a day. I would say the night waking it probably a symptom of needing a routine, growth spurt, teething and just plain being a baby.

Routines, are tough to keep espcially when you get used to one and then, another stage pops up and it all starts over again!! Don't worry, it's tough but you'll get through it together.