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4 month old restless sleeper

3 replies

user1473540153 · 15/10/2016 01:00

My son is going through the 4 month sleep regression, for the past 5 weeks he's barely slept an hour at night without waking. He is exclusively breastfed, and has never been a great sleeper, as a newborn he was feeding every 90 minutes, by 6 weeks he had started to stretch to every 3 hours. He suffered from colic and used to pull his legs into his chest at around 5am and wouldn't settle- my husband and I would comfort him through these times.
Since he reached 18 weeks his sleeping has regressed horrendously, on a good night he is up every three hours for a feed, on a bad night he is up every hour, shaking his head from side to side, pulling his legs into his chest and kicking out. This has now been going on for 5 weeks and my husband and I are shattered. We feel as though we have tried everything. We have created a nap routine where we read his cues and try to get him down every two hours although he will only sleep in his car seat, pushchair or on one of us (he wakes as soon as we go to put him down) his naps generally last 30-40 minutes but occasionally we can get an hour or two nap. We've started putting him to bed at 6.30pm after a bath and baby massage, he also has dummies to help him sooth in the night. He currently starts off in his own room but comes back into our room into his crib after his first feed- he does the same kicking and waking in both his crib and cot. We have tried ignoring his kicking, groaning and head shaking but it turns into a cry and I will not leave him to cry it out. I've tried rubbing his tummy/ patting him when he starts moving about but that hasn't worked either. The last few nights we've had him in our bed, he still raises his legs and wakes but it's less taxing on us as sleep is at a real premium at the moment. We really are running out of ideas, tonight we are taking it in shifts to hold his legs down to hopefully keep him asleep but this is proving difficult. Anybody else been through the same? Suggestions please?

OP posts:
3kids1dad · 18/10/2016 06:49

Hello there. Please forgive me if these have been tried/done before. The blog wasn't clear what you mean by 'tried everything'.
Assuming it's basic colic causing this have you tried small amounts of prune juice? More of a constipation remedy but did help my eldest with her gas.
Is he fully burped after feeding? If not his lips may have a slight blue tinge.
Has the midwife/health visitor had a look and check to make sure it's not some other condition?
I know you said you don't want to leave him to cry it out, but given you say he does settle back down (presumably without remedy or medication??) suggests it's attention/comfort seeking behaviour. There is nothing wrong with waiting a couple minutes before going to him. Check he is warm, safe etc and leave him another 5-10. Perhaps a worn tshirt of mum or dad's as a blanket would help (the smell of the tshirt makes him think your there) or a tape recording of you singing/talking.
If possible, alternate nights you and your partner are 'on call' and the other has a full nights sleep. If not, could someone babysit for a night?
Hope any of that helped. Took a lot of trial and error to figure what worked for mine but worth it in the end

Hunnybitch30 · 06/12/2016 03:59

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HargreavesEmes · 18/01/2017 14:15

Could it be reflux? The head thrashing/pulling legs up etc sounds like it. Have you tried putting him to sleep on his side or stomach? I have read loads about it as was convinced my LO had it but turns out he's just a little bugger!

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