Babies who slept once through - now waking up

From about 8 weeks, Cooper was sleeping through (12 hours) and I was the envy of the girls at mothers group. Then from about 4 months, he started to wake up, and up until 2 weeks ago, he would have a feed in the night. Sometimes he can wake 4 times in the night, either for the dummy or was just whingy. I would just pat him to sleep, but doing that 4 times a night, as many out there know, you feel exhausted the next day.

So I was thinking that he was teething - scratching at one ear, dribbling, everything goes in the mouth etc, but then I saw another Mum (of 3 kids), and she looked at his gums, and said, nope doesn't look like anything coming anytime soon!! Aagh! I was hoping that this was what all the fuss was about :wall:

So I am wondering - are other mums who babies slept through at an early age, now waking up?? Cause all the babies at mothers group are sleeping through now, and Cooper isn't.

I am not sure what I need to do to encourage him to sleep through again. Sometimes he just wakes up at 4am (when I am in my deepest sleep) and just wants to play.

Can anyone please advise??

Milo slept through from day 2 home from hospital, for 4-5 hours til about five weeks, then the same number of hours as weeks old up til 11 weeks, when he decided 11 hours would be his average ;)

At about 6 months, 8 months, and 14 months this went out the window for a while, and then slowely went back to norla til the next hiatus.

For him, its usually related to development (8 months crawling in his sleep banging into the side of the cot), teething or pain (ear infection etc). It tends to be really bad for a night or two, then just a few times a night til it goes back to normal.

Sometimes like Cooper, he will wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning and want to play. Usually he is happy to goo goo and ga ga to himslef though, til he goes back to sleep.

If he is happy enough, and not crying etc, don't go in and see if he eventually goes back to sleep on his own. I do this all the time if Milo is happy, but I've never left him to cry more than about 30 seconds at night, sn then only if I need to go to the toilet or something.

I hope Coopers sleeping goes back to normal for you soon.

Nina did something very similar. For the first 4 months she was a great sleeper, in a 12 hour period she'd either sleep through or wake once a night. But then at 4 months she turned into this horror child that kept waking up! At first I put it down to a growth spurt, but then after 7 weeks I decided that enough was enough!!! I started her on solids, once a day, but that didn't really help either.
She's just started waking only twice a night now, from waking every 2 hours. It's now become habit for her to wake at the same time each night for a feed, so I'm trying different techniques to try and stop this.
So really, can't give advice, but can say it sounds pretty normal and hopefully he'll go back to sleeping through again soon.