I had no idea there was such a thing. It explains why John has reverted back to "sleeping" like a newborn (sleeping is in quotes because if you've ever had a newborn, you know there's no such thing as sleep!!). After making a status this morning, a friend clued me in to what this was & then I googled it to find out more info for myself. It explains what John's been doing since 3.5 months perfectly!
4 month old sleeps (and sometimes as early as 3 months or as late as 5 months)…
We all go in and out of light and deep sleep. As adults, we might change positions, look at the clock, or reposition our pillow. Up until now, you may have rocked your baby or simply given him a pacifier and he slept for hours without waking up. Well, at 3 or 4 months old, your baby is now sleeping more like an adult. Now when she falls asleep, she does not enter deep sleep right away and if you lay her down before she is in deep sleep, she is likely to wake up and you will start all over helping her to fall back to sleep again and again.
4 month olds enter deep sleep…
Initially in the night, your 4 month old will enter deep sleep relatively quickly, within 30 minutes (this changes as we get older). However, as I said, we all cycle in and out of light and deep sleep. A child’s sleep cycle is about 45-50 minutes. So, your baby will briefly awake 45-50 minutes after she has been asleep. To put that in perspective, if you are holding your baby to sleep, you would need to hold her for at least 30 minutes to make sure she’s in deep sleep and then she might wake up 15 minutes later. Sound familiar?
Overall, though, your baby’s deepest sleep is in the early part of the night, so after that first sleep cycle, she might sleep just fine for a few hours. So, you’re golden right? Just hold her for an hour? Nope!
4 month old sleeps the rest of the night…
The technical definition of “sleeping through the night” is 5 hours of continuous sleep (i.e. no feedings) and many babies can/will do this by 2 or 3 months old. The beginning of the night is your baby’s deepest sleep and after the first 5 hours (if not sooner, depending on just how challenging he is), he will cycle between light and deep sleep, but not as deep as the beginning of the night. This is where the problem of sleep associationsreally come into play. If your baby needs your help to go to sleep in the beginning of the night, sometime after midnight or so, he will continue to need your help every 1 or 2 sleep cycles (that means every 45 to 90 minutes or as I often hear, every 1-2 hours).
Between 4-6 a.m., approximately, is the lightest sleep of the whole night (parents’ complaints alone make this true, in my experience, aside from my reading). In the very early morning hours (about 30 minutes to an hour before waking up), he will again go into the very deep sleep.
Although babies commonly wake up early, be sure it is truly their waking up time and not just this lighter sleep and that they are having trouble sleeping. You might notice they want a “nap” just 30 or so minutes after “waking up”. What you experienced was a night waking, not starting the day.
Anyway, there's more info at : Baby Sleep Site
I'm glad to know that this is normal developmental behavior for John. I was seriously getting frustrated not knowing what was going on with him. I was thinking he was hurting from teething, or having gas from something in my diet, or I thought maybe he was outgrowing his sleep & play rocker & needed more room to stretch out. I even tried putting him to sleep in his crib last night. That was certainly not the easy fix I was hoping for. He woke up every 20 minutes & after 2 hours I put him in bed with me where I got my first 90 minute stretch of sleep. Then when he kept waking up still, I put him back in his sleep & play where he continued to wake up every 2 hours or so.
Man, I seriously wish there was some all inclusive parenting book on what to expect. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough for a book like that. Anyway, I'm just glad to know that this too shall pass!!!
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| At least he takes a couple naps during the day |
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