My son is 4 months and 4 days, he had colic for the first couple of months so found it difficult to sleep. However for the past couple of months he has been a lot better. He goes down around 6.30pm and wakes for a feed between 11.30 and 12.30. My problem is he often wakes after this time maybe 2.30 or 3.30 but does not want to feed and eventually puts himself back to sleep then wakes around 4.30 and again doesnt want to feed just play. If he manages to put himself back to sleep agian he wakes at 5.30 to play not feed and wont go back to sleep. he won't actually feed until around 7am and then it is only 3oz. If he isnt hungry why does he keep waking? he is my first child and i'm exhausted by this. I'm considering moving him into his own room at 51/2 6mnths because of this but i'd rather solve the problem if i can. please help if you can i don't know if its normal or not.

My no. 2 child was exactly like this..we kept him in our bedroom cos his big sister (2yr old) needed her sleep. In desperation we moved him in with her at 6 months, and guess what!! All-night bliss for the rest of his childhood. He was, and is a very very light sleeper, and WE were disturbing HIM with breathing, bed noises etc etc. Try moving him out of your room and see what happens. Cheers, Sera

My no. 2 child was exactly like this..we kept him in our bedroom cos his big sister (2yr old) needed her sleep. In desperation we moved him in with her at 6 months, and guess what!! All-night bliss for the rest of his childhood. He was, and is a very very light sleeper, and WE were disturbing HIM with breathing, bed noises etc etc. Try moving him out of your room and see what happens. Cheers, Sera

Thank you i get the feeling my sleep movements wakings him up. He is also a very light sleeper and i may stir and he is still asleep but if i turn over he wakes in an instant. plus he has always been swaddled but he is so big now he unwraps himself. should i stop swaddling? as could this be adding to his discomfort?

Try out not swaddling him, see if he settles. He may still like to be settled down in swadding but get too warm and restricted later on. You can only try different ways out.

Sounds like the same thing as my 5.5 month old.

On the baby monitor it sounds like she's really in desperate need of a parent to check on her in her crib, but when we go in there she's grinning and playing with her feet and having a party... at 2 am. sheesh! She's just learning how to get herself back to sleep as she cycles through her sleep at night... everyone does it, but some people don't come completely out of a sleep mode as they near a waking stage.

To combat our need to constantly check on her and make sure she's ok when she's playing at night, I just turn off the monitor and go lay down in the room next door to her's. (I can't hear her in my room since we insulated all of the interior walls of our house when it was built -- LOL). This way I can hear if she's crying, but her little playful noises don't bother me. She usually goes back to sleep in 15 or 20 minutes.

I found that I slept much better with my first than my second. With my first he went in to his own room the day he was brought home. I tried to have him in our room, but he was restless and kept us awake all night. In his room he got sleep and so did we. With my second, who was very very colicky, he slept in his bassinet in my room. BIG mistake. Our movements or my husbands snoring woke him continually and I NEVER slept. I am due with my third any day now and she will go in her own room. I don't have to use a monitor b/c I'm only across the hall from her room. Plus when I find I have a monitor on, I don't sleep as well since I hear every noise she makes. I hope you get some sleep soon!!! Good luck!

I would definitely put him to bed a little later at night. Going to bed at 6:30 p.m. is early. Maybe let him take a half hour nap (if he really needs it) at 6:30 and then put him back down at 8-9 or so.

I agree, as well, that a 6:30 bedtime is early. Just let him take a 20 minute snooze and then do a later bedtime.

And yes, out of the room! My babies were all very loud sleepers....grunting, snorting. Drove me crazy. My first daughter stayed in our room only because I was first time mom and I worried that something was wrong with her. The second daughter was in our room for a total of three weeks. I was comfortable with moving her and I needed to sleep. With my son, we had just moved into a new house. I wasn't totally comfortable moving him, so I put him in our closet. Seriously. It's basically a small room anyways. That way, we weren't next to each other waking one another AND he was close enough I could hear him when he needed me. He stayed there for about four months and then I was ready to move him to his room. He slept through the night at about 8 weeks, I guess. That's because I waited until I knew he was really awake before I went and got him.

I think you'll see a big difference by moving him and changing that bedtime.

Agree with the moving him out of your room and maybe to stop the swaddling but think 6:30 may be just fine. It sounds like he is learning how to put himself back to sleep after night wakenings. Both of my sons struggled with this but he 2nd son was in his own room earlier and still puts himself to sleep more easily than the first. Another recommendation might be to add some white noise, for example really light radio static or a small fan. It tends to drown out the background noise and provide a consistent hum that babies tend to like. (After all, it was pretty noisy when they were still in the womb) Best of luck!

6:30 p.m. is early since he is waking at 4:30 a.m. wide awake.

If he isnt hungry why does he keep waking?

That's 10 hours of sleep for him right there! He's ready to get up for the day.

If you put him to bed later - like 8:30 p.m., then hopefully he won't be wide awake until 6:30 a.m.! That's a good night of sleeping.