Why does my four month old get up more in the night???

Having used formula for my first three kids soon after they were born I was sad to learn that babies who nurse don’t sleep through the night as quickly as formula fed babies.  I learned this pretty quickly with my fourth child.  Let me clarify that my babies sleep all night I’m just talking about my formula fed babies waking up to eat.    This actually came as a very disappointing shock to a tired momma.  But what really threw me off was when around 4 months my babies started waking up even more during the night to eat.  I assumed it was a growth spurt at first but it never went away.  With Hyrum I remember trying to make sure he was warm, add baby cereal to his diet and more.   I asked advice of others and even tried letting him cry it out.  Nothing worked and I just found ways to deal with it.  Well, it started happening with Simon about a month ago.  He was sleeping for about 7-8 hours and then another 4-5.  Getting up once in the night was definitely tolerable, but then it slowly deteriorated and maybe slowly is being generous.  He started getting up at 6 hours, then 5, 4 and eventually he was getting up every 3 hrs.  We were all the way back to a newborn’s feeding schedule.  I was tired and frustrated because I still have to take care of 5 children in the morning along with everything that entails.  So, one night when he woke up at 10 right as I was ready to go to bed I Googled ‘my 4 month old is waking up more at night.’  You know I really have loved being able to Google anything my heart desires.  I know they are millionaires now, but I think it is well earned money.  

I found this article, which has pretty much saved my life.  As I read it everything just clicked as it was describing my situation perfectly.  I could tell Simon was hungry and didn’t want to not feed him.  I could tell it was going to take some time to cry it out which wasn’t going to give me any more sleep and just didn’t seem like the right answer.  He was hungry because he was so incredibly distracted during the day.  I mean with four brothers running around who wouldn’t be.  We even had a rule that you couldn’t sit next to his head while he was eating because I knew he was distracted, but I had no idea of the real impact it was having.  There is just so much to do that eating becomes much less important. 

So, how to fix this problem now that I have identified it?  Well, fortunately, I have three older boys who can run the house on their own, so starting the day after I read this article I started feeding Simon in my room just the two of us.  I found quiet activities to do.  That night he slept for 5 hours.  That doesn’t sound amazing but to me it was progress, and I was going to take it especially given that every night before it had been worse than the night before!  He still wakes up once or twice depending on how much quiet feeding time he got the day before, but that is much better than the path we are headed down.  I now have no problem reading my scriptures daily and even get a conference talk read every day!  I get quiet time with my sweet baby, he gets to eat in peace AND I get to sleep at night.   It is amazing how the events of the day immediately affect his nighttime feeding habits.  But at least now I feel like I know the cause and understand that he needs quiet time to eat and he will take it during the day or night, but he needs that, and it is my job to make sure he gets it!