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Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.

Sleep

4.5 month old, waking every half hour please help, on my last legs

21 replies

msatlantis · 19/10/2016 20:33

DS is 4.5 months old - has his bath, bottle, then falls asleep in my arms. I then put him in his crib (my room) around 7.30pm.
He used to go down and sleep until he woke needing fed around 1am.
For the past 2/3 weeks - about half an hour after he goes down (he appears 'solid' snoring etc) he wakes. I have to cuddle him to re-settle him, make sure he has his dummy etc.
This maybe happens around every half hour till 10 or 11pm, last night it was 11.30 before he finally went to sleep properly (after a bit of boob comfort).
He wakes to feed between 1-2am so I am not getting a stretch of sleep. I am on my own and so perhaps finding it particularly tough. I'm shattered. Every night I just think I can't do it any more.
The struggle and lack of sleep has led to me becoming inconsistent... Sometimes I just let him sleep curled into me (not comfortable for me at all), sometimes I persevere.
Is this normal? Will it pass? Any tips?
Might buying and putting him into proper cot help now?

OP posts:

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Tumtitum · 19/10/2016 21:31

4 month sleep regression. Loads of threads on here and you can google it too. It's shit! Sympathy (it does get better, with DD it lasted pretty much 3-6 months tho!)

msatlantis · 19/10/2016 21:49

You just persevere through the pain and it will just improve?

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bakingcupcakes · 19/10/2016 21:55

I gave up trying to make mine go in a cot. Let him sleep on me all evening (while I watched telly) and then co-slept when I wanted to go to bed.

It does pass. I ended up letting DS sleep by himself in my/our double bed by 6months just because he stayed asleep there! That bed is now his and I've got a new one!

It does pass - just feels relentless at times when you're on your own.

msatlantis · 20/10/2016 00:51

Thanks baking.
I wouldn't mind co-sleeping if DS would happily sleep next to me, but he wants to be on me. He's 99th centile heavy baby and to sleep for more than an hour or so with him sprawled over my chest is really uncomfortable!

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LucyBabs · 20/10/2016 00:55

What happens if you have him sleep next to you rather than on you?

Tumtitum · 20/10/2016 08:09

We did change some things, moved her into her own room around 5 months (against SIDS advice I know), did quite a strict bedtime routine, tried a strict nap routine (didn't really work!!), tried formula at night (no difference!). Maybe some things helped (own room definitely does, if we go on holiday now and share a room it all goes to shit! Yours is probably too little though) but they still change all the time and some nights are still tough

Tumtitum · 20/10/2016 08:09

Better though! Tough but better!

Artandco · 20/10/2016 08:20

I would leave her with you in the evening. Can you lay her on a folded Blanket on the floor or sofa next to you in the evening, then when she wakes you can just soothe back to sleep whilst carrying on with your evening as not up and down so much?

I think they need more feeds in the evening also at that age, I would feed at 7pm, half wake and feed at 9pm, again dreamfeed at 11pm before both going to bed. Those three feeds in the evening should allow her to then go a longer stretch after 11pm

msatlantis · 20/10/2016 12:21

Lucy if I try and get him to sleep beside me he starts waving his arms about, trying to pull my hair etc!

Will try perhaps giving him another feed before I go to my bed...

Oh it's painful

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Tumtitum · 20/10/2016 12:32

Art I think it depends on the baby. DD will NOT go to sleep if there is anything or anyone remotely exciting in the room, she's been that way since about 3 months! We kept her down with us until that point as she'd sleep on us but after that she had to be upstairs. I don't know how people manage to religiously do all sleep in same room for 6 months, DD just wouldn't have slept!! We also found waking for more feeds didn't make a difference and sometimes made her wake more but it really is about experimenting as all babies are different so I think anything is worth a try!!!

Artandco · 20/10/2016 13:08

Tum - we only have one bedroom, therefore my 6 year old still sleeps in our room.

Tumtitum · 20/10/2016 13:10

Oh I get the overnight thing Art, it's the naps we couldn't do. She would sleep anywhere for the first 3 months then she just got too nosy and turned into a sleep resister!

Artandco · 20/10/2016 13:14

Ah see at 3 months we didn't even live at home, with both babies we spent a few months backpacking whilst on maternity leave. So they had to just sleep wherever we were. Naps usually in sling or random beaches or similar. We probably aren't very conventional. Once home Dh and I travel a lot for work so they just joined us.

Tumtitum · 20/10/2016 16:13

Wowsers Art that sounds amazing! And very brave!! All of my friends think we're adventurous just because we took a flight to Ireland when DD was 8 weeks old and have been to a couple of other countries (all short haul!) we travel with her probably about once a month as both our families live a flight or a day's drive away but unfortunately DD just gets more disrupted each trip rather than getting used to it!

LucyBabs · 20/10/2016 23:55

Have you tried swaddling op ?
This worked great for my ds, he would wake in the night and bash himself in the face waving his arms around eventually waking himself fully. I found the swaddling at least stopped ds hitting himself and fully waking. He continued to be a bad sleeper but he didn't look for a feed during the night from 6 months

msatlantis · 21/10/2016 03:49

Lucy, I swaddled him when he was small, maybe until he was around 8 weeks, then he got frustrated with it and wouldn't settle until his arms were released!

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worrierandwine · 21/10/2016 06:19

Going through similar with my DD who is 5 and 1/2 months msatlantis and it's worse than newborn weeks at the moment. We seem to have got our feeding routine arse about face somehow and she'll go 2-3 or even 3-4 hours in the day and only 1-2 or 2-3 hours at night. "Feed her more in the day" I hear you cry. I've tried and she just spits it back up on me like she didn't need it or is distracted by DD1 so doesn't feed properly. I have a SnuzPod co sleeper but I think she's too big for it now. I think with my DD we need to start weaning (I've started trying her with bits of food this week) and big cot in own room. Only problem is the room isn't ready so me and DH need to pull our finger out and get it sorted. Baby is sleeping on my chest as I type BTW

worrierandwine · 21/10/2016 06:24

She's 91st centile so not as easy as it was with DD1 who was only 25th centile!
On a separate note my DB who is 26 and still living with parents told me I hold her too much the other day and have made her clingy...I could have ripped him a new one but I just laughed...the infinite wisdom of people yet to become parents ey

msatlantis · 21/10/2016 21:04

Worrier - I feel your pain.
I'm going to look into proper cots next week.

What's also v frustrating is sometimes when DS goes back to sleep in the night, I struggle to do the same! But I'm tired! Exhausted! Don't get it... Agh!!

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worrierandwine · 24/10/2016 19:41

Sorry for horrendously late reply. No change here, barely functioning and snapping at poor husband for every little thing! Keep giving her bits of solids, started a mixture of spoon fed and baby lead weaning but the amount she is having is not making any difference at night whatsoever. But how can I be mad at this...

4.5 month old, waking every half hour please help, on my last legs

msatlantis · 24/10/2016 20:00

Very cute!
No change here either. I'm going cot shopping tomorrow!

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