4 months old used to being rocked - please help

[Kikilelele]

Hi, my ds is 4 months old. Since birth he's been sleeping next to our bed in a snuzpod. We occasionally rocked him to sleep which developed into a bad habit. I have never tried not rocking him. Occasionally, at night, when I put him down he falls asleep straight away so I don't need to rock him. He's currently waking up twice in the night for a feed(1am and 5am), and is in bed by 8:30/9. His sleeping pattern has changed so much!!! He used to go down at 9 and wake up at 4 for a feed!! Why??

We want him to start sleeping in his room but I'm worried he won't be able to sleep without being rocked.

Our day time routine is even WORSE. He hated being put down so normally fell asleep in my arms and once put down woke up. I resorted to our pram. So when he's tired I put him in the pram and rock him until he's asleep(anywhere between 5-20mins).

The trouble is he is taking longer and longer to fall asleep in the pram, he's constantly waking up wanting more pushing around. It's so frustrating. We are now having to cancel our holiday in December because we are not sure how he'll/we'll manage.

Yesterday I took the pram away and introduced sleepyhead grand. I tried letting him fall asleep in my arms (I have to walk around the living room) and then put him in the pod. He slept twice for an hour. And then didn't sleep from 2pm onwards because every time I put him down he woke up. When it came to bedtime he was screaming and not wanting to settle down, assuming because he was so tired.

Please help!!

Hi,
It sounds like you've hit the 4month sleep regression. It might be worth having a google on it

I don't have much advice as my DS was a terrible sleeper until about a month ago at 14months! I would just do whatever works to get him to sleep, he's still only little so I wouldn't worry to much about rocking him to sleep

2 nighttime wake-ups at this age is really good.

Along with the 4 month regression he will be much more alert to everything around him, making it harder to settle him for naps. Their sleep cycles also go a bit mad around this point so he might start doing shorter, more frequent naps for a while.

Honestly, at this age, I'd just do whatever works to get him (and you) enough sleep. Sleep is developmental as well as learning/breaking habits and he's too young yet to know how to fall asleep on his own. The best advice I've taken on board is to not compare my baby to others. Some just naturally sleep better than others.

We went on holiday when ours was around 4 months and he had most naps in his pram. You may find a change of scenery and routine isn't all that detrimental while he's still so young. Good luck.

Hi OP!

We did the same with the rocking - from birth we always rocked our little boy to sleep. By the time he was 4 months he was 20lbs and we were rocking him for up to 2 hours a night! We had to make a change.

We decided to stop rocking him and try to get him to fall asleep in his cot, but we needed to replace the rocking with something else comforting to him so we got him a special bedtime only comforter toy (one of those little blanket things with an elephant sewn to it) and a white noise machine, we also let him have a dummy for sleeping. We used the ferber method (a method of controlled crying) and together these things worked.

Now he's 9 months old and sleeps beautifully, two 1.5 hour naps a day and sleeps 6.30pm - 7am.

Stop rocking now!

I rocked my first but learned the consequences and didn't with my second and she is great at settling to sleep herself. I'm also going thrrough the four month sleep regression stage with our daughter - this is probably a good time to teach your son new habits like starting fresh! I would get a white noise app or toy and place him down when he's full and tired and go from there. Won't be easy but if you revert back to rocking then it'll only get harder

Thank you for your messages.
Since posting we did go back to rocking because I've been getting hardly any sleep.
I did some research on sleep regression and it's most likely he's going through that phase. He's finding it so hard to fall asleep from 3am onwards. I'm exhausted!!
Im starting to wonder will it pass?!!

That all sounds very normal to me. Forget about all this bad habits rubbish and do whatever works for you all to get the most sleep. My ds (my 2nd so know what to expect from my first who is nearly 6) is 8 months and wakes probably 4 times a night between 8:30pm and 6:30am. At 4 months he was sleeping through til 6am most nights (he is ebf). It’s just what babies do. It’s actually riskier for the to sleep through in terms of SIDS, but it’s also just not normal. Do whatever works for now. It will all change again soon and you’ll figure out something else that works.

To be honest, he sounds like he's doing great. Getting himself off to sleep sometimes, going down (asleep) for some naps, only two night wakes are all good signs. The self-settling in particular bodes well in my limited experience, my 5 month old started doing that on occasion, dropped to just one/no night feeds just after incidentally and now does it more and more. She still sleeps on me mostly during the day. She'll grow out of it.