What was your 4 month wakeful like?

[hokiegirl82]

DS will be 4 months on Oct 4 but I think we are in the thick of the 4mw. He went from one wake up or STTN to 3-4 wake ups this past week where he gobbles down a bottle at each waking. He's also fussing/crying every time I put him back down even though he seems asleep before I put him down. I've been letting him fuss/cry for a few minutes when I put him back down the past few nights and he has begun putting himself back to sleep after a few minutes of fussing. Does this sound like the 4mw and what was your experience with it?

[jeaniebueller]

My DD is doing the same thing right now, along with constantly chewing on everything and sucking on her hands. Plus she has a cold. I think there is a growth spurt around this time, plus wakeful.

[hokiegirl82]

Sept 28, 2014 6:46:40 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

My DD is doing the same thing right now, along with constantly chewing on everything and sucking on her hands. Plus she has a cold. I think there is a growth spurt around this time, plus wakeful.

Our kids sound the same. DS has had a cold since starting daycare 3 weeks ago and always has his hands, and now his feet, in his mouth.

[bananapancakes]

My little guy woke up every 90 minutes like clock work for 3 weeks straight. It was awful! Naps were also really hit and miss. Like it would take be longer to get him down than he would be asleep.

That being said, L has never been a great sleeper but before the 4MW, he was doing a 5 or 6 hour stretch at the beginning of the night. We are still recovering and haven't had a stretch like that in a long while.

[changedname]

The four month wakeful was so annoying. Hugs.

DD basically woke up 2-3 times a night so not that much more than normal but she just wouldn't go back to sleep each time. She would be giggling and wanting to play.

Sometimes she would be up from 2am-4am and I was really reaching the end of my tether.
It lasted about 2 weeks.

[Pilsy]

Ours roughly coincided with my return to work, so it happened well before 4 months. Up 3 - 4 times a night (5 a couple times!), wide awake, only coaxed back to sleep through nursing. Some wake-ups lasted over an hour. It lasted for about a month.

I think it’s over, because things are SO much better, but I’ll admit I had a silly expectation that its end would mean STTN. LOL If we did awards for the FTMs around here, maybe I could win “Most Naive About Sleep.” (She STTN from 8-11 weeks and I thought that meant we were set. I didn’t know you could go backward. Ha!)

We have several wake-ups/night now, but they are (usually) solved by a quick replacement of the pacifier.

[Deleted]

It was THE DEVIL. He started STTN (11pm to 6am) at 6 weeks old. We though we'd hit the baby jackpot. Then BAM! The 4MW hit us like a ton of bricks. He started waking a ton at night, it varied widely from 2-3x a night to 5+ times. He didn't STTN again until we did CIO at 18 months old.

[chickadee77]

I think this may be starting with us, too. A lot of what Tambcat described, actually. She also suddenly is refusing her morning nap. Overnights aren't awful, but she wants to party at about 4am, which, no. My fingers are crossed that this blows over quickly!

Oh - she's also started hating the bottle and suddenly wanting to nurse again - which would be fine, but she had been refusing the boob for so long that my supply is super low. So I also wonder if it might be early teething in our case. (Combined with being a drooly mess, super red cheeks, and a few other things, lol.)

[Deleted]

I have no idea. Around 3.5 months, she stopped sleeping through the night and would wake up once or twice. Then it got to waking up every 3 hours, then every 2...and two nights ago it was every hour. I have no idea about the 4 month wakeful, but it has been varying degrees of good/bad since 3.5 months. I don't know when the wakeful ends, when teething begins, when it is because she is learning to crawl, etc. All I know is that sleep has been not great since 3.5 months and we are now at 5.5.

[redpenmama]

Yep, that's how it was with DS and he started it around 3.5 months (and ended it around 4.5). Hang in there.

[pinkpinot]

The 4 month wakeful started at 3.5 months and ended at 13 months. May God be with you during this difficult time.

[Deleted]

I don't remember with j specifically but I believe thats because he was such an awful sleeper anyways.

With the girls it was two weeks of hell. They woke up every single 45 minutes for two weeks straight. Even if one of them managed to sleep 1.5 hrs the other would be up. I have never felt so sleep deprived in my life. They also didn't just go back to sleep like they had before. They would be up for longer periods of time which meant I literally had nights where I slept one hour of broken sleep.

[browneyedgirl9]

It was bad! Lasted from 3.5 mon till almost 5.5mon. Good luck

[missbella]

It's killing me. He slept pretty well from 2.5-3.5 months. He actually slept completely through the night for about a week. Then at 3.5 months that all went to hell and he started waking up 3-4 times a night again. Then the past few days he stopped going to bed around 7-8 and now stays up till 9,10,11 whenever. There is nothing I can do. He will sleep until 1-3 am depending on when he went to bed and then be up every hour pretty much until 6am. He goes right back to sleep MOTN he just doesn't stay asleep very long. People say the first 3 months are the worst but for me, month 4 has definitely been the worst. I hope it's over soon.

[formerlyllizzyb]

Hell. Wouldn't fall asleep, woke at all hours of the night, naps were hit or miss.

We ended up sleep training early for bedtime and naps, and just kind of suffered through night wakings.

[Stingyshark]

She went from STTN to not STTN. She woke up 1x / night for a week or so, and then 2x/night for a week, then back to 1x/night for about 10 days, and then she would wake up at 5am and be ready for the day. Her sleep has never been the same since. She eventually started STTN again, but it was for a short period of time. She's been waking up 1x/night for.. I don't even know how long now, 6 weeks maybe. She is 9mths.

[sent]

I don't know when it happened, if it did. She woke up every 3 hours on the dot to chug a bottle every night until 5.5 months. She woke up more often during those dark early weeks when I was attempting nursing before we moved back to bottle feeding so we could both get more sleep. More as in 2 hours for me and 3 hours for her. After 5.5 months she moved to 2 wake ups and then 1 wake up even now which is fine with me. She was a preemie so 5.5 was really 3.5 months adjusted but 5.5 months of extended newborn was plenty.

Randomly last week at 9 months, she did the every 3 hours thing again and I started having flashbacks and getting worried that this was a regression coming. But since our lives calmed down, her sleep improved and luckily it was just a fluke.

[laurack]

William was such a great sleeper as a newb, like he'd sleep 7-8 hours at two months old! Got a good sleeper this time, we gloated

Now he's almost five months and if he obly wakes twice to eat it's a great night. Sometimes he's awake every hour. Usually I would say 2-4 wakeups

And he's still in the baby Merlin sleep suit too and I can barely tie it. Noooo

So I would say, I do not enjoy the 4mw.

We did Ferber with Matilda at about six months so that may happen next month.

[Deleted]

Hell. It was seriously hell. She was up every 60-90 minutes and just sobbed. We soldiered through it for two months before starting CIO at 6 months old.