Sleep Stretches
My LO is 4 months and he has settled into a really consistent bedtime routine - bath, book, bottle, bed. He goes down between 7 and 7:30pm every day. He goes into his crib either drowsy or awake but will always put himself to sleep and has done for at least a month. However, once he wakes from his first sleep stretch, he wakes every hour like clockwork and needs help resettling which can take over an hour each time. The most frustrating thing is that there is no consistency with how long the first stretch is. He has, on 5 occasions within the last month, slept 8-9 hours, mostly averages about 6 hours, but we also do see him wake at 11pm and then our entire night is destroyed with wake ups.
He will drink well throughout the day and naps 3 to 4 times a day. His naps struggle to exceed 30 minutes unless being held or in a stroller. When we compare his sleep with days where he had long first stretches, he could have exactly the same naps and milk the next day and only sleep for 4 hours.
I feel like we have tried everything. We’ve tried putting him down drowsy, we’ve tried holding him into the second cycle, we’ve tried dream feeds (though this is difficult when sometimes he wakes before dream feed). I’ve tried every method to put him into the crib, soothing him with words, physically soothing him.
Any idea what’s going on or what to do here? This has been going on for months, this hasn’t changed since 4 months.