4 Month Sleep Regression?

[MrsLayland]

Hello, my little boy is 4 months and has recently had a huge change in his sleeping patterns and also his feeding, napping and moods! I've read about the 4 month sleep regression and I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this?

He was eating 210ml every 4 hours (formula exclusively since birth) and was sleeping a good 5 hours before waking for a bottle then another 5-6. He's now become extremely fussy, waking all night every 10-20-30 mins crying, drinking only 70-100ml with each feed 3-4 hours apart and randomly breaks out crying uncontrollably, the kind he did when he got his first vaccinations (heart breaking!)

My husband and I are at our wits end, if it's something we need to wait out then maybe we can come up with a few solutions between us to try and make this easier on ourselves, but I can't help thinking we are doing something wrong and he is suffering because of it :( he's our first baby and it has been a very rocky ride since the pregnancy

He's such a happy baby and always has been but has gone through a small stage of colic, acid reflux, 5-6 colds and is most likely teething already.

Any advice or even experiences of others would be so helpful, sometimes it's just nice to know others are going through the same thing even if there is no solution!! Thank you x

[FATEdestiny]

The first thing I would try is daytime calorie loading. Try feeding 2 hourly through the daytime (by daytime I mean your daytime, so say 7am to 11pm, or from when you wake to when you go to bed).

I'd probably offer 5oz bottles, or 6oz bottles if they are drained. For example 7am 9am 11am 1pm 3pm 5pm 7pm (put to bed) 11pm (dreamfeed). That gets 8 bottles into baby through the day, meaning less should be needed at night.

Next task is have a settling to sleep method that is not feeding. Dummy is the easiest for this. Try to settle baby to sleep in the night without feeding initially, only feeding if baby won't settle.

[ifoundthebread]

I believe the 4 month sleep regression is a real thing and for the most part it is something you have to wait out. Your child's sleep cycles are changing and the constant waking is due to the lighter sleep cycles. We found we got more into a bad routine of night time feedings, my daughter would wake out of habit rather than need. She never took a dummy or comfort item except the bottle. We started by offering less formula during the night, but this didn't fix the routine waking. What worked for us was dd having a sleep over at my sisters. The change of environment and bed time routine changed something and she started sleeping so much better again.

[BlankSpace1]

Argh, this sounds like me!! So sorry you're suffering but I'm glad I'm not alone, I have just posted entitles 'I don't know what to do' and I really don't!

[MrsLayland]

Ahhh thank you for the advice and input! We try to get as much milk into him during the day but he's usually knocking the bottle out or moving his head from side to side before screaming at us! if he doesn't want it, he certainly let's you know.. He has his dummy at night so that goes in about 5-10 times before the screaming fit kicks in which in turn brings on the milk.

He also stays at his nanas every other week and is an angel there so maybe it's something to do with our house....although he's not stayed since this nightmare started

[Tabitha1983]

Same boat here! 4 month old baby was sleeping relatively ok...4-5 hour stretches, quick feed, easy to resettle. (7pm-6am). Now wakes every hour requiring either dummy or BF. I have been reading up on the 4 month sleep regression and I'm still confused! It seems this is a permanent change in how your baby sleeps and until they learn to self settle it will not improve?? So unless I'm misunderstanding things (someone please correct me if I'm wrong!), it's not really 'a phase' is it?! I could probably cope with the frequency of dummy inserts overnight if I thought it was a temporary 'phase' however I'm getting a bit concerned I might be doing this forever unless I sleep train...which frightens me to death 😢

[ifoundthebread]

I seen a tip on fb about it. During this time the child is going rough sleep patters of light and deep sleep. It's during the light sleep cycle your child will wake as they are unaware of how to settle to sleep again. Break the cycle and it has to start again, so when you go to bed. Kiss your child goodnight/tuck them in, something simple like that, that may make them stir slightly but not wake up. They will then fall back to sleep into the start of another deep sleep cycle.