my baby is 4 months old and still waking every 2-3 hours every night to nurse. when will she likely start sleeping through the night? anything I should do to encourage this? she is on full breastmilk - direct latch evenings/nights and bottle fed in the day when I'm at work.

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Typically, at around four months old a baby's sleep starts to slowly mature and the baby goes through what is commonly known as "sleep regression". Your baby begins to go through the different sleep stages that form the sleep cycle (approximately 120mins per cycle). Waking after each cycle is a normal way for the baby to check that he/she is still safe. To help your baby get used to the sleep cycles, you can start the process of sleep training. In the meantime, here are some tips to help encourage your baby to sleep more: - help your baby gets back to sleep after waking by doing things that you have been doing (e.g., feeding, rocking, holding) - swaddle or offer a pacifier to help calm and encourage the baby to sleep - offer a dream feed to help your baby sleep a little longer - ask people around you to help put the baby back to sleep while you get some rest yourself Here is an article with a section that offers useful tips to help your baby adjust if your baby is about three-four months but has yet to show signs of sleep regression: https://childsleepscience.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/the-four-month-sleep-regression-what-is-it-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/

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8y ago

If you are feeding on demand, it is likely that you will have to continue with the feeding as the baby's stomach is very small and getting hungry every 2 hours or so is not uncommon. The interval will increase with time as baby grows. Unless she is nursin

Ensure she is latching well and suckle well to receive enough milk from the first side of breast and offer 2nd side after burping her to satisfy the appetite well to space the frequency of feeds. Infants sleep goes in cycles of about 90 to 110mins, or shorter in younger babies. Brief arousals normally occur at the end of each sleep cycle, hence it can occur about 4 to 6 times a night. Babies who are unable to self sooth, may wake up and cry and require parents to carry, pat, rock or feed them before they can fall back to sleep. So try to encourage self soothing in your child.

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my 8mths old son still wakes up for nightfeed at 11pm, 2am n 5am. he is on full breastmilk - direct latch when I am around n bottlefeed when I am working like u. I think it depends on individual kids and as long as he fall back to sleep immediately after latching its ok. try side latching so that u will not be so tired.

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8y ago

you're in the same situation as me!

my 10 wks old sleeps longer at nights. she sleeps at 12am and wakes up at 4-6am depending. we feed her bm in the bottle for her last feed and give her slightly more, like 20-30 ml more than her usual feed.

Is she drinking enough? If she is drinking enough, u can try to give her pacifier in the middle of the night to see if she will go back to slp?

8y ago

actually my baby just wakes to nurse. for the whole time her eyes are closed. immediately after nursing she's back to sleep peacefully. I was just hoping there's a way for her to be full enough to sleep through the night!