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Let’s take a dive right into a 4-month-old daily schedule. This is an example day in the life, not a perfect example. Each day is a little different.
I am not a perfect parent and I typically struggle with naps and schedules. Any parents out there that are struggling or want to see what other parents are doing can take a look a do a bit of comparison.
Evening/Night
7:00 PM feed
8:15 PM Dad Put to Sleep
Usually, I like the final feed of the night to be closer to bedtime. This night it didn’t quite work out that way.
9:00 PM feed Put back to Sleep
12:45 AM Fussy-pacifier
We are trying to cut back on nursing every time they wake up. It is important to try rocking or simply replacing the pacifier. Give your baby the opportunity to succeed. Sometimes it is successful and other times we just need to nurse and that’s ok.
2:45 AM feed, burp, sleep
Morning
6:30 AM feed, burp, sleep
This is too early for me to start the day so she went back to sleep. Because I do not have a typical job we do not have to wake up and immediately get to work or daycare. My baby wakes up anywhere from 7:30 to 8:30 AM and we get going with our day.
8 AM start to stir, fell back to sleep
I thought at 8 AM we were going to get going with our day. Somehow she fell back to sleep. I should wake her up at a consistent time each morning but just can’t seem to make myself do it. I like to sleep in and then like today I was able to get up and start getting stuff done around the house or work on writing because she continued to sleep.
9:15 AM feed, awake for the day
Floor Playtime
The morning is always great for playtime. Usually, your little one will be ready to roll around and explore.
10:30 Nap #1, she was closing her eyes and sucking her thumb
Nap #1 I believe is the most important of the day. Watch your baby and put them down at the right time. You can usually see some obvious clues. Today she was really tired all of the sudden I saw her thumb sucking and her eyes started closing. She was ready to go down for her nap.
11:10 AM woke up from her nap
We often only get 45-minute naps around here. The goal is to get 90 minutes to 2 hours, but you can’t exactly control how much someone sleeps.
11:30 AM feed, burp, play
Afternoon with my 4 Month Old
12:50 looked sleepy
1:00 PM down for nap #2
We shoot for awake times of about 2 hours.
1:15 had to reset for the nap, down again
1:55 wake up, feed, burp
Time to go for an outing. I try to go right after waking up and nursing. This way we don’t have to worry about either being an issue.
We went to the grocery store today. Baby stayed awake the whole time, which is the goal. When we got home it was more time on the floor playing while I put everything away.
3:50 feed, burp
4:30 PM put to sleep-fail
Sometimes we struggle to go down the first time so I will go in and try to re-rock her to sleep. We need to get away from this, but for the time being it works.
4:50 put to sleep
5:45 wake up
Evening/Night
6 PM feed
Walk outside
When the weather is nice we try to get outside for a walk. A little fresh air before bed always feels good.
8 PM feed, bedtime
We do not nurse to sleep. We nurse out in the living room and then go into the bedroom for jammies and the nighttime routine. Our routine is the bare minimum of jammies, diaper change, and lotion. We are playing around with eliminating the swaddle. Some nights we do only one arm in and some nights we do two. We make the call based on our baby’s temperament.
This is so important! You need to be able to have your spouse or another caretaker such as a grandparent or babysitter put your baby to sleep. Do not nurse them to sleep because then it always falls on you to do it.
11 PM feed, burp, sleep
3:15 feed, burp, sleep
6 AM feed, burp, sleep
We are not in a great place with sleep. Waking up three times a night at 4 months old is less than ideal. The 4-month sleep regression has messed us up. Hopefully, when we come out of it things will get better.
I would love to be able to show you a schedule where my baby sleeps through the night, but that isn’t our truth at this point and that is ok.
Morning
9:10 wake up
9:15 feed
So there you have it. That was a little more than 24 hours with my 4-month-old. We are far from perfect and just doing our best to get by.
Swaddles
If your baby is still using a swaddle you need to start thinking about moving away from it. Your baby could start rolling at any time. Once they do so it becomes unsafe to continue using a baby swaddle.
There are many different items and strategies you can use to ditch the swaddle. When it comes to purchasing products I recommend finding something you can use for a while. For example, going from the swaddle to Merlin’s Magic Sleepsuit does not make much sense to me because you can only use the suit for a short amount of time.
If you want to purchase a swaddle transition product I recommend the Zipadee-Zip. My reasoning is that it will last longer than Merlin’s Magic Sleepsuit. It also seems like a step closer to the sleep sack or completely independent sleep. We almost purchased the Zipadee-Zip when we were struggling, but we pushed through without it.
The Merlin Suit just seems like another prop to then struggle to break them from.
Getting rid of the swaddle can also be done without adding a new prop. You can simply remove one arm at a time and then switch to a wearable blanket or sleep sack. This was the method we ended up doing.
Some parents take their time during this process while others just go cold turkey all at once.
You have to find the method that works best for your baby and family.
4-Month Sleep Regression
Depending on your baby you could be experiencing the 4-month sleep regression now or it could be coming right around the corner. This is when your baby starts experiencing 4 different phases of sleep at night rather than just 2.
Adults go through 4 stages: Awake, Light, Deep, and REM.
Babies at first only experience 2: Deep and REM.
During the 4-month sleep regression, they are adding the two lighter phases of sleep. This causes them to wake up more frequently and sometimes struggle to naturally put themselves back to sleep.
The 4-month sleep regression can present differently with every baby. Some thrive and come out doing very well. Others struggle and it seems to drag on.
The ideal situation would be to teach your baby to go to sleep as independently as possible before getting to the regression. If you are reading this now though it may be too late.
Do your best to stay on your schedule and routine as much as possible, but also know that you may have to adjust to get some rest during this time.
Introducing Solids
If you haven’t done so yet you have a major milestone approaching soon. Parents often introduce baby food around 4-6 months. I personally lean towards the 6-month mark.
It is time to start thinking about how and when you want to move towards incorporating solids into your baby’s diet.
Remember food at first is more for play than nutrition. They still need the normal amount of nutrition from milk, whether that is formula or breast milk.
If you want to read more about introducing solids check out my article Everything You Need to Know About Introducing Solids to Your Baby.
Conclusion
There you have it. That is a real-life example of what our 4-month-old is doing.
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