4 month sleep regression, will it ever end?

[MilkManiaMama]

My 4 month old daughter has always been a brilliant sleeper. She was sleeping through the night 6pm - 6am from 12 with no night feeds until she hit 16 weeks. She began cluster feeding for a few nights around this time and had a growth spurt shortly after but her sleep still hasn't settled down, if anything it's getting worse.

She now wakes up every hour throughout the night, wanting to be breastfed. If I feed her she only feeds briefly and then goes back to sleep but screams when I try to put her back down. If I try to comfort her in other ways, rocking, stroking her hair etc she just cries until I feed her.

I have had no sleep for over 2 weeks now and it's really getting me down. I would love to co-sleep as we would both be happy but I simply can't sleep while cradling her as I need to turn over every 10 mins to keep comfy. I am co-sleeping in a way, have her in a sleepy head which is just next to my pillow and I can easily hold her hand, comfort her, pat her tummy/back but she only wants to be in my arms and on the boob.

I am EBF, she is swaddled, we have a good bedtime routine and she goes to sleep happily at 6:15 - 6:30pm but begins waking up every 45 mins from then. I am happy to do night feeds but can't feed her 8/9 times every night and subsequently change nappies every few hours for much longer. I tried a night of breast feeding only twice and comforting with rocking and cuddles during other wakings last night but she just cries and cries until she's on the breast and snuggled with me.

She's tired all day because of the disturbed sleep and is generally unhappy all day at the moment. I can't take her anywhere and have had to stay at home 24/7 recently which is also hard as before this we were swimming twice a week, going to baby yoga, visiting grandparents etc and she was a very happy baby.

She is the love of my life and I am not prepared to let her cry it out or any other crying based training, but if anyone has any suggestions or just hope that this may end on it's own, I'd be really grateful.

[MilkManiaMama]

* Sleeping through the night from 12 WEEKS (told you I was tired!)

[mummyoftwo5]

No advice I'm afraid but just want to say it does get better! My DD2 is an awful sleeper....apart from if she is next to me. She used to need to be cuddled in all night, attached to boob constantly. However since about 6 months she has definitely not needed to be as close and does not really feed often now in the night, she's nearly 8 months now. Hang in there, this too shall pass

[StarlightMcKenzee]

She's hungry, that's all. Whenever you sit down (And do that a lot) during the daytime, feed her. Your breastmilk supply needs to catch up with her needs.

This is common at 4 months. REALLY common. Just increase the feeds when it is (slightly) more convenient and then the nights will start to stretch out again.

[HopeAndJoy16]

My dd never slept through but she was in a manageable routine of feeding to sleep at 9pm, then waking at 12, 3 and 5am.sje turned 4mo and it went to shit and stayed pretty pants until she was 11mo. We had periods of bettet sleep.but generally i only (just) survived by bed sharing. I never coslept the whole night as it was just too uncomfortable but often between 12 and 5 when i was just too tired to be up and down constantly. She's 13 mo now and for the most part is back to waking just twice in the night.

[ethelfleda]

I'm sorry I have no advice other to say that the only thing that worked for us was time! DS hit this regression at 4 and a half months and it lasted 6 weeks. It nearly broke me!
In the end, we co slept, I turned my clock around so I didn't know what time it was and just went with it. It kept me sane as I wasn't wasting my energy getting frustrated. He is a gem now and sleeps really well. This too shall pass!! Hang in there!

[ethelfleda]

She's hungry, that's all. Whenever you sit down (And do that a lot) during the daytime, feed her. Your breastmilk supply needs to catch up with her needs

Apologies but I just want to give an alternative view to this...

I tried this with DS (also ebf) and it went against me. By feeding him too often in the day, he was feeding for small amounts of time and getting to bed time with a belly full of foremilk. I actually found that waiting until he asked for a feed meant that he would get hindmilk every time as he was hungry. Sleep regression still meant bad nights but it was marginally better when I did this.

[agabimou]

I had the same experience (right down to the sleeping through the night and then hourly wakes), it almost killed me. I caved at 8 months and did sleep training (full on crying) solved the problem in a week but was hideous. Baby is much happier and we are all a lot less frazzled and exhausted. (She is also much happier during the day!)

I wish I could say it got better on its own, but for us it didn't and honestly waking 8/9 times a night wasn't sustainable.

I was very anti crying methods until I had a baby who would not sleep by any other method.

[DrWhy]

Errm, it did improve slowly again but 2 to 3 wakes a night has been our standard since 4 months. He’s now 20 months and slept through 2 nights in a row this week, we’ve never had more than 3 so wish me luck! Sorry, probably not what you wanted to hear! At 12 months I night weaned him, at least then DH and I could alternate, I was back at work by then and so exhausted I wasn’t safe to drive.
Realistically it could settle down again in anything from a couple of weeks to a couple of years. People will tell you to feed them more or less at different times, give solids, nap more, nap less, go to bed earlier or later, use white noise or a night light. You might find something that works for yours, you might not - good luck!

[lorisparkle]

Ds1 was a terrible sleeper

[lorisparkle]

Pressed post by mistake!!!

Ds1 was always a terrible sleeper but got worse at 4 months and by 8 months I was on my knees. I read loads of books tried different gentle suggestions but the health visitor took pity on me and let me borrow a book called teach your child to sleep by the millpond clinic. It is very factual and does not say that only one way is the right way. Instead it has a flow chart of questions about the problem then you pick the solution that suits you, your family and your lo. At 8 months my ds was old enough for a gradual withdrawal/ gradual retreat method but at 4 months your lo is still quite young. I stretched the times between feeds by just 15 minutes and took my time so it was not until he was12 months that he was sleeping 12 hours.

[StarlightMcKenzee]

The hindmilk and foremilk thing is a myth. I mean it kind of exists but is way more complicated than that and feeding regularly does not deprive a baby of the fattier satisfying milk.

Feeding for only a short time can mean that you haven't switched breasts as many times as you could. As the baby feeds and gets more tired, switching breasts wakes them up and makes the feeding easier. It wasn't uncommon for me to offer 6 sides sometimes.

[TammySwansonTwo]

My twins slept through for two weeks at about 15 weeks. Then they were up all night most nights. Some nights one would wake up at 2am and just not go back to sleep. One day he was awake for 18 hours straight.

It didn’t stay as bad as that, but I’m afraid for us they didn’t sleep through again until about 18 months, and still mostly wake once or twice a night at 20 months.

[Gayu]

Hi

Guess she s hungry... I too ebf my baby... But sometimes the milk supply ll b low or they don't get hindmilk... So I suggest u to give formula n see how she sleeps... Formula only at night... I missed doing this to my baby n suffered sleepless night for an year... Baby wakes up very frequently only becoz f hungry...

[rubyroot]

It is very rare that milk supply is an issue and the foremilk/hindmilk thing has been disregarded now.

Btw I recently tried formula with my baby and it had no impact so went back to b feeding. I think it works for some people though- largely because it takes longer for baby to digest.

[rubyroot]

Is she hungry? Poster says she feeds only briefly- sucking for comfort? Have you tried a dummy. Initially my baby wouldnt take it- but persevered and it gets him back to sleep.

[MilkManiaMama]

Thank you all so much for your replies ladies, thought I'd send an update in case anyone else searches this thread later on.

The night time madness stopped as suddenly as it began, lasted just over three weeks in total.

I have stopped feeding her lying down in the night and now sit up, give her a 'proper feed' on both breasts and then put her back to sleep in her bed and this has worked well although it may just be a coincidence and she may have actually stopped the constant feeding on her own, I don't know.

She now wakes up once in the night which is absolutely fine with me, I have never expected her to sleep through without feeds, I just wanted a few hours of sleep without feeding each night!

Thank you again for taking the time to read and offer support xx