Gina Ford: 4 months sleep regression or growth spurt?

roses

Hi,

I have a 4 month old son. Between 2-3.5 months he used to wake up 4-6am, have some milk, go straight back to sleep then wake up for the morning around 8/9am.

For the past week (1 week before hitting 4 months) he has started to wake up every 2-3 hours. I've tried settling him with a dummy or sterilised water but the only thing that settles him is me feeding him. I give him his last feed at 11pm then he wakes up at 2-3am, 4-6am then 8am when he won't go back to sleep.

I use the Gina Ford routine for feeding, it doesn't work with naps as when he's tired, he's tired so I don't follow the daytime naps although he does sleep for 3-4 hours during the day.

I breastfeed so can't quantify exactly how much milk he takes but over the past 2 weeks, it's definitely more. I used to feed him 1 boob & that would satisfy him until the next feed but now he feeds from both.

I'm wondering if I should feed him on demand at night if this is a growth spurt in which case he should settle back to sleeping through soon or revert to Gina's method of leaving him to cry until 4am then feed him? Gina Ford says even during growth spurts, he should have enough milk in the day to still sleep through which is why I am confused.

The 4 hours/night of broken sleep is really starting to make me tired since during the day he is so active, I don't get a chance to nap as when he naps I use that time to eat, do laundry etc.

Spendless

Have you asked your HV? When mine did the same I was told they needed more milk, but my youngest is 10, you weaned earlier and they were FF.

I really couldn't comment on GF having never read her books, but I do think you should leave the housework and let sleep take priority for a while.

Treevo

I shan't write what I think of Gina Ford's methods as the great cow does enjoy suing.

stsarina

I'm a firm believer in feeding on demand - do what you need to do to have a happy baby and a happy mum in turn. Throw the prescribed doctrines out of the window, because no book knows your baby better than you do.

A baby being breastfed will take what they need, so go with it and in the meantime ask your HV about earlier weaning, and most importantly of all be kind to yourself. Screw the housework, it can wait. Your health and happiness (and baby's) take priority over everything else

flea72

Personally i find bf babies like to feed on demand, rather than set times. Also if hes waking and taking a full feed, then yes hes hungry. If its only short and he falls asleep, then its for comfort. Do you use a dummy?

As for being tired yourself. Sod the housework. Its not important. Sleep whenever you get the chance. If you arent at your peak, then it can affect milk production, so rest is necessary. If baby wakes in the night, put a load of laundry on and go back to bed. Then when they wake in the morning hang it to dry and go back to bed. Dint try to do big chunks in one go, just do 10-15mins between sleeping, feeding and caring for your baby. Great if you get enough time to iron a whole load, but if not, just spend 5mins before you go to bed at night ironing essentials for the next day (or better still wear clothes that dont need ironing or hang them up once dry. Babygros/vests dont need ironing, even tho you feel they should)

But yes, overall it does seem like a growth spurt, your milk will eventually adapt and sleeping routine will return

msb5262

Hi OP,

I think the answer is in your opening post - your baby clearly needs more milk at the moment.

In my opinion it's probably a growth spurt, and you should bear in mind that when babies breastfeed a lot at night, it acts to stimulate plenty of milk production the next day.

Please please forget the housework for now. Do the bare minimum for a few days and perhaps think about taking a 3 day break: I don't mean going away, just taking everything off your calendar and to-do list and spending that time resting and breastfeeding.

Four months of caring for a new baby is exhausting and your body needs a chance to catch up with itself.

If your baby is allowed plenty of access to the breast over a few days while you rest and relax together, I think you will feel much better and your milk production will keep pace with your growing baby's needs.

HTH
MsB

roses

Thanks all. Routine works for me so I'm going to stick with the daytime feeding schedule since he also seems happy with it. Before anyone starts criticising this method, if he does show signs of hunger before feeding time then of course I feed him - but usually he doesn't.

I'll give it another week before considering introducing a top up bottle in addition to all the the breastfeeding.

I didn't really like the advice I got from the HV on the occassions i asked for it. I talked about giving him a bottle top up before as occasionally he will eat all my milk, still want more then get frustrated and cry. The HV told me I should never run out of milk, I should always have enough which clearly wasn't the case because he was crying and when I squeezed nothing came out. This was just one of the few things I didn't like.

chocdonuty

Routine may work for you but it may not for your baby.
The more your baby feeds the more milk will be produced so keep feeding even though it doesn't seem like there is enough there soon will be, boobs just take a little time to kick in
Some mothers do top up with formula and it works for some, but do get advice from a breastfeeding councellor before you try for the best way to introduce it.
I did it with my dd, well was kind of pushed into a bit by my hv, dd was and still is small, thats just the way she is but some hv's love those charts and hv thought she wasn't growing as she should. I was a first time mum didn't know any better and pretty soon after it seemed she much prefered ff to bf

building_with_lego

I was never able to get more than a drop or two out through 'squeezing', even when DS was asleep and I was hugely engorged, so the fact that you couldn't either doesn't necessarily mean that you're empty.

Do you feed your DS in one position, or do you change during a feed? I had a greedy guts but would feed him lying over my tummy then when he'd finished would tuck him under my arm so his head was facing the other way and he'd get a lot more milk out. When he was growing I would sometimes put him back onto the first side even if he'd had both as the action of suckling, even if they don't get milk, stimulates your supply for the next feed.

I also found that when their feeding patterns changed (I exclusively fed one snacker DD and one greedy DS) it took me 3 days to 'catch up'. That was three days of lots of feeds, some quite small, and reading a lot of books, but after that the usual feeds were big enough to satisfy them. Maybe relax the routine for a couple of days to see whether it makes any difference? Like you have with his sleep routine!
HTH! Babies let you get comfortable with things then mix it up a bit, just to keep you on your toes

valk_scot

"Squeezing" doesn't work at 4 months into breast feeding, you're not filling up your boobs between feeds, you're making it during the feeds due to the let down mechanism. Either you pump on the breast he's not feeding at or you feed more often, then the breast production will ramp up a notch to meet the increased demand. This won't happen overnight though, there's usually a lag of about a week especially if it's your first baby.

I expect this is the phase you're in atm and there's a choice to be made here, either you top up with formula and maintain your milk production at this level or you go with the flow (quite literally!) and feed more over this week to allow your milk production to increase. Remember though that your body could easily support twin babies at this time, it's not that your milk production isn't adequate, you've proved this already by sucessfully breast feeding to this point already. It's an amazing system, you've just got to have a bit of faith in it sometimes.

As to the GF system, it will be out of fashion in two years, belive me. There's a new one every year and it's always the best. Until it isn't. I always wonder how women manage to raise babies if they can't read and don't have an alarm clock or access to the latest miracle system.

And I'll second what everyone else says...sod the housework. Do the absolute minimum so you don't starve and ignore the dust, or get your OH to do it given that he's getting a decent night's sleep while you're feeding the baby. If visitors say "Can I help with anything?" hand them the hoover or ask them to make you a cup of tea or bring lunch next time. More experienmced mums seldom need to be told tbh, but if you say no, they'll never ask again. But there's no point in making yourself and your child miserable for the sake of cleaning the bath, honestly.

unschooler

They do feed more during growth spurts and it can look like they're not getting any milk sometimes. However, this can be either because hand expressing isn't as effective as sucking or because the baby is having a growth spurt and sucking to encourage the breast to produce more milk. A few days later the supply increases to cope with increased demand and the baby settles easier again.

If you let him cry at night, your body won't make the milk he is asking for and he will be hungry. Giving him a bottle reduces the amount of time he sucks, reduces the amount of milk you produce and it can result in a spiral where you need more and more bottles to satisfy him.

That's fine, of course, if that's what you want to do. And some women can continue to breastfeed after introducing a bottle. But if you want to continue to breastfeed him, I would advise that you feed him when he cries at night at least during growth spurts. Breastfeeding counsellors can be really helpful. There may be a drop in near you or there are phone lines if you google.

Keep your daytime routines if they're helping you but be prepared to be flexible at night to help you both sleep better. Feeding on your side in bed with the baby is really relaxing and you can have a nap together during the day like that. Priority 1 is your health and wellbeing. Can you ditch some of the housework? Ask for help?