Habit Night Wakings

Hello mummas!
I read about night wakings that are out of habit. Is this a thing and has anyone experienced it? My LO is 4mo and she can do stretches 3-4 h which is usually at the beginning of the night, if we are lucky she will have two of those. But then she seems to be ‘waking up’ every 1.5 and I feed her(she is EBF) and within 1-2min she is fast asleep again. She doesn’t even wake up properly. I do try to comfort her in other ways but doesn’t seem to be working even if I do not feed her to sleep and she able to fall asleep independently most of the times at the beginning of the night or naps. She is gaining weight slowly so I do feed her often but during the night is harder…Any suggestion?

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It's probably due to connecting sleep cycles. During the start of the night she is probably more tiered and therefor when she wakens she is able to fall back asleep herself as she is tiered and has that pressure.. as the night goes on, she's not quite as tiered so when a sleep cycle ends she doesn't automatically fall back asleep and needs some assistance. This is just my theory based on what I've read about this age 😂 my boy currently wakes every 1-2 hours and needs help falling back every time. He did fall asleep on his own for the first time though last night, so I'm hoping he is learning and maybe he will begin connecting a few cycles soon. What I would give for a 4 hour stretch 🫠 haven't seen one of those since before the regression started 7 weeks ago!

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Ps also EBF and feed most times he wakes up, but sometimes he really doesn't want to feed/be at the boob so I have to stand up and sway him. Occasionally just cuddles, tummy strokes and singing work, but very rarely.

It could be worth trying to extend the time she feeds on that first wake up.. if she has a full tummy might also help her stay asleep and connect sleep cycles (use breast compressions to keep her suckling).

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I am EBF and I did with my first too.
Like you said the first strech is the longest so if my baby wakes let's say 1.5hr after bedtime, I don't feed him. My husband gets him.

We found with my first that if I went, there was no change of not giving boob.

It is hard but if I think it's not a hunger wake up, I don't give boob and my husband may try for 1hr+ to get baby to sleep.


Mine is very inconsistent now. Some nights he does what you have just described and then last night he did his longest ever (9hr 😯)

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What I have done with both kids is
Look at their sleeping patters and decide on a time by which they may be hungry (let's day 2am)
If baby wakes before that no boob. And husband goes in.

Yiu both need to be om the same page as it can take over an hour like I said.

I also worked a lot before that on baby falling asleep independently for naps and before bed.

If he wakes in the night, we wait 1 15 to 20 min before we tend to baby to see if he falls asleep on his own or not. I spoke to a sleep consultant and this is hiw long she said it takes babies to fall asleep.
If he's crying then I don't wait the 15 min

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Thank you both and for the insights and advice.

welldone on the 9hr. We never got there.

It’s almost funny how, as newborns, babies can sleep anywhere and for long time, while not long after that they lose that ability and have to re learn it. Could that not be more simple 😅?!?

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I hope your little one starts giving you longer atreches soon.

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she had a 2h 30min day nap. Very random and unexpected 🤣 I hope any development she is going through is sleep related 🤞🏼😅

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