Help! Baby is so awake at night

[Rosebud1302]

I'm at my wits end with exhaustion. My baby is 4.5 months old and in the last week is so awake at night it is impossible to get him to sleep. He has always been a fairly decent night sleeper and has had a consistent bedtime routine since he was a couple of weeks old. But now he will wake up from 8:30 every couple of hours until about 1am at which point he will be so wide awake that he gets really upset when we try and get him back to sleep. It is like he genuinely thinks it is daytime and doesn't understand why we are putting him back to bed. I don't have a clue why this is happening all of a sudden and we are just exhausted :( I think he may be teething but I am 90% certain he isn't in pain as when we are trying to get him to sleep he is quite content. He just doesn't want to sleep. Any ideas?! Desperate mum here 😩😴

Exactly like my 5 month old!
They will naturally get into a routine when the time is right. Do you bf?

Around 4 months most babies go through a developmental change and growth spurt. They are coming out of their fourth trimester, they are more aware of their own bodies and they are using their senses more. Hearing, sight, smell, touch... it’s all new to them. And they are trying to roll over, build up muscles and get moving. It’s such an amazing time, unfortunately you’re so bloody knackered you just wish it over. I had 3, everyone the same.

I wish i could say it gets better, but once they start teething (6 months) it’s rare to get many full 8 hours.

My youngest is nearly 3 and she’s just woke up crying.

Still when they are teens you’ll have to practically drag them out of bed.

Sorry I’m not much help, it’s just normal and extremely tiring and frustrating, acceptance and you sleeping during naps too is the only way through it.

Google 4 month sleep regression: what you are experiencing sounds very much like this, and therefore very normal (sorry!). The good news is, it will pass!

As above, just roll with it and sleep when little one naps. I found 4/5 months such an exhausting phase of parenting but the fun bit of them being happier, more interactive etc is just around the corner.

Oh my goodness I feel for you!!! Im here in my bathroom trying not to scream. Everyday for the last week i have not managed to do a bight feed without him waking up on one of them and chatting!! It can be for an hour or 10 minutes!!! Im scared of feeding him at night
The annoying thing is he seems tp want food evry 3 hourz atm so was asleep for 10 annd 1 one and woke at 430 and has fed and is now awake and kicking and loudly chatting!! I put him in vot amd sob under a pillow!! Please let me know any solutions u find :) xx

Thanks everyone. Yes he is bf and I'm sure a lot of it is him just wanting comfort.

See I wondered about the regression but I thought we had been through that already as his sleep cycles changed pretty noticeably a few weeks ago. Eurgh!

Yes the chatting and interaction is lovely but like you said when you are so tired it's hard to enjoy it all :/ he has always been quite a moany baby too (I know I know it sounds awful to say but I hope you know what I mean) in terms of just general fussiness. Last night he was grizzling when held. Crying when put down. Grizzling when we sat down. I was just like so what DO you want to do?!

Yes he is started to roll definitely and I wonder if that is what it is because I brought him into our bed at one point and he was just quite happily rolling from back to side constantly and trying to get onto his front.

I will indeed let you know and please do the same if you find anything that works! 😂 I am so with you on the "scared to feed" front!!!

Yep happened to DD at around 3.5 months after sleeping for 9 hours. She’s 6 months old now and still up every 1-2 hours .

I try to sleep during her naps and on weekends when DH is home he gets up with her while I lie in and catch up on sleep.

Just do whatever gets you through. DD ends up in our bed most nights as it’s the only was I can physically function.

Oh crikey you poor thing. I honestly don't know how I will cope without sleep for that long!!!

So another question - if this is to do with learning to roll is there a way people have found to help them either stop rolling at night or alternatively get it out of their system so to speak?! Or is it just a case of letting them crack on and hope they get over it?

Yep the rolling they just have to learn I’m afraid. I’m hope sleep will settle down soon for you. I think part of the problem for us is teething! Plus DD is a very needy baby in general.

We went through a phase where DD was rolling onto her front and getting stuck. We did lots of tummy time on the play mat and after a few weeks she was fine. Even now she sleeps on her side as she always seems to be uncomfortable on her back.

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Yes I don't think DS quite knows what position he wants to be in and it is frustrating him. And yes he is needy too. Bless them. I hope you manage to get some sleep soon too!

My children are older now but when they were younger I made a very clear distinction between night time and day time by giving them minimal attention / eye contact during night feeds etc. That helped a lot and they quickly understood that night time was not for chatting or play. That was probably the one tactic that helped the most. That said, I never left them crying at night time, but handled them in a very matter-of-fact way.

I do a fair bit of work helping people who can't get to sleep and it's one of my interests. With this in mind, here is a link to a sleepy bedtime story about a teddybear that I've just uploaded on YouTube. It's designed to be very gentle and should help most children drift off to sleep while listening to it as it has a lot of sleep suggestions in it. It's free to listen to too.