What time should a 4 and a half month old go to bed at?

Question

1. I need some ideas for a routine? Ours is not working!
2. How many times should she wake in the night? 13.7lbs and waking 4-5 times and short nursing each time.
3. What should i do if she wakes in the night just to feed for confort.
4.when should she wake up in the morning?
5.How many naps should she have in the day time and for how long each nap?
6.What time should her last nap end?
7.What time should she go to bed?

Answer 1

1. Start getting up at the same time everyday and you will notice that your daughter will begin to do things (eat, sleep, etc...) at around the same times each day. She will only be able to stay up for a given period of time before getting tired, which will increase as she gets older. At 4 months, she can probably stay up around 1.5 - 2 hours, possibly a bit more.

2. It should probably be a maximum of 3 times for feeding purposes, thought there is no set amount of times that she should be waking. Each baby is different and it doesn't really have anything to do with how much they weigh. If she is nursing 4-5 times a night, it does sound that it's snacking and some are likely for comfort and not for hunger.

3. You should try to settle her other ways before you nurse her. If she is truly hungry, she will not settle back down, and you should feed her. Once she is down to a manageable number of feeds in the night (3 or less), you can gauge her enthusiasm for each feed. If she starts to scale back on any of them you can encourage her to drop it by reducing the amount of time you nurse by 1 minute every few days. This will give her a chance to compensate by increasing her intake during the day and she will probably end up dropping it herself. Do them one at a time if you feel she is starting to be less interested. You might have to hang on to 1 or 2 for several more months though, it really depends on the child.

4. There is no set time that she should wake in the morning. If you find her tending to wake up at about the same time, and it's a decent hour, you might just want to go with that as her wake up time, otherwise, you can encourage her toward a better time. If she starts to get on a routine throughout the day, she'll tend to wake up at the same time. It's probably good to do somewhere 7 - 8 so then she won't be up too late at night, and you'll have some "me" time at the end of the day, and it's good for meal times when she gets a bit older.

5. At 4.5 months, she'll probably need 3 naps a day. Maybe 2 decent naps and a shorter cat nap in the early evening. There is no set amount of time for naps, as each baby is different, but for an example, she could do two 2 hour naps, and one 45 min cat nap, with 10 - 12 hours at night (includes time for feeds). Day and night sleep are connected, so the trick is to get the right balance.

6. Depending on how much awake time she can handle, her last nap of the day should end approximately that amount of time before her bedtime. You really want your whole day to flow and be flexible so you can avoid overtiredness. Periods of awake time should be fairly consistent, maybe varying by 30 min - 1 hr throughout the day. You will find that she regulates this herself if you keep an eye on her cues for tiredness. It sounds structured but it's really not, babies will get into their own routines, and you can help by encouraging their natural tendencies to foster better sleep.

7. Again, this will depend on her and her routine. There is no set bedtime. You should just begin to wake up at the same time every day, feed her, activity, watch her cues and put her down when she is tired, and do it all over again and again and again until it's bedtime. You'll probably find that it moves around a bit through the months if she continues to wake at the same time everyday. Be flexible and learn your daughter's habits, it will all flow.

I hope that helped a little.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I would not feed her for those short comfort feedings. Try just rocking her back to sleep. She might get upset at first, but the night feedings are a learned behavior that can be broken. I would put her down at anywhere between 7-8pm. She should be able to go at least 6 hours without a feeding at this age. Once she is up for the morning, lay her down about an hour 1/2 after wake for her first nap. From that point on lay her down 2 hours after she wakes from each nap. If her last nap wake time is at 6, put her to bed at 8....if it's at 5, put her to bed at 7:00 or 7:30...however long she can last. Hope this helps. As far as feeding...try every 3 hours, and make sure she gets a full feeding so she's not snacking all day. GL

Answer 3

My son is 4 months and about 1 week. He goes to bed between 7:30-8:00 usually. He will get up often, at least 4 times a night, at LEAST. He will eat and drift off. If he gets up for comfort than I latch him on or just hold him while he cries (he is one to fight his sleep). I have to re-swaddle him 2-3 times a night. He doesn't sleep when not swaddled. He sleeps until around 7:30 in the morning. He naps as long as he want whenever he wants. Sometimes he will take 4 hour naps and sometimes only 10 min. naps. Sometimes 2 naps and sometimes up to 5. But his nights are usually pretty good. Better since I started him on food.

Answer 4

My daughter at 4 months when to bed at about 9pm. She's slept through the night at 6 weeks old. I don't really have any experience with her waking at that age so many times a night. But in my mind he's only using you as comfort. At 4 months old I don't think that he needs to be fed so frequently. Maybe once through the night. Maybe try to comfort him by patting his tummy or back and only feed him once. It will take a few night or even weeks for him to adjust, but he should adjust.

As for naps my daughter was a monkey when it came to Them. In the end I used controlled crying. And at about 4 months she had 3 naps. One right after breakfast about 8am(breast milk) one at 12pm then last one at 5pm. All for about an hour. Except for the 1st morning one, which was about 2 hours. Good luck

Answer 5

She should be feeding every 4-5 hours or so. about 5-6 feeds a day.

Okay start at the beginning. She should be sleeping about 3 naps a day of an hour long; approx 9am, 12pm, 3pm, bed at 6pm.
She should be feeding once in the night at approx midnight and then sleep till about 6am. (so 6 hours between at night)

If you can stick to these nap times for now then she should feed before each nap and before bed and then once in the night. If she wakes other than at the midnight feed then comfort her back to sleep by wrapping her back up, roll her to her side away from you and pat on the bum with a sh,sh.sh,sh,sh noise until she falls back to sleep. She may grizzle or cry at you try not to pick her up but remain firm and consistent and she will get the picture. Don't rock her or talk to her or make eye contact. Let her know it is sleep time not play/feed time. Its sounds cruel but this is how parenting works if everyone wants some sleep!

With her night time routine, try some solids at 5pm to fill her tummy a bit (just 2 tablespoons of pureed potato, pumpkin or banana.) then give her a nice warm bath, have a bit of tummy time and play and then have a feed and into bed at 6pm.
She is more than capable of going 6 hours till her next feed so do everything you can to stretch it out to this or wait at least 4 hours if not the 6. You may have to feed at 10pm, and 2am to start with and gradually stretch her to 12pm only. By 6mths she is old enough to not need a feed at all.

By 8-10mths she will probably nap twice a day at about 10am & 2pm and you will notice her doing this herself by being awake and alert more. By 16 mths she will probably be on one nap from 11am-1pm.

She really does not need 4-5 short nurses a night and is only doing it for comfort not hunger. Try giving her a few sips of water in a bottle/baby sippy cup for comfort or try a pacifier if you want, then roll her over and do the pat/pat sh/sh technique. It will take up to a solid week of consistency on your part to make it work, but before you know she won't be waking at all, or she will just wake, roll over and go back to sleep herself because you taught her how!

Its all about persistence and consistency otherwise no routine will ever work!

Best of luck

Answer 6

~ I just feed her as long as she'll eat half an hour before WE go to bed, and when she's really full she falls asleep fast with a pacifier. We don't go to bed til around 1AM every night.

~ My daughter is over 14lbs and hasn;t woken up at night since 3 weeks...but I don't think weight has anything to do with it. Every baby just has their own way of sleeping!

~ If she wakes up, feed her! And let her wake up when she wants to wake up!

All in all, you shouldn't try putting such a young baby on a sleeping schedule...my daughter naps at all different times, and eats at all different times, and I'm ok with that. They're all different!

Answer 7

My daughter is 7 months and I still put her to bed when she is sleepy, feed her to sleep if she needs it, feed her in the night if she won't pat back to sleep. I think it's best to just follow what their little body wants to do. It'd be nice if they followed a routine, but if trying to enforce one is stressing you more than just dealing with whatever she feels like doing, it's not worth the bother. None of us go to sleep or wake up at the same time always. We like to have cuddles in the night if we wake up, and sometimes we get up to raid the fridge. Why would junior be any different?