DS has been up 4 hours and won’t sleep - at my wits end

[newmum234]

I’ve been sitting with DS (almost 4 months old) for a whole hour now trying to get him to sleep. He’s in his cot, white noise on, the usual routine. He normally goes down easily but is so, so lively today and is completely wide awake - kicking and chuckling away.

I don’t get it, why won’t he sleep? He must be tired after four hours awake, surely (he woke from his last nap at 8.30am). I’m not going to take him for a walk in the pram because it’s way too hot for him and me. Should I just get him up again? I’m finding it really frustrating and feel like crying because I’m desperate to get a few chores done that are way overdue. I need a bit of me time!

get him out and play with him until you can see he's sleepy.
chores can wait.

Oh I remember that feeling, when you think me time is coming and it doesn't!

I'd say get him up and potter around doing whatever chores you need to do. Chances are he'll fall asleep in a swing or something. Just be really boring!

He’s now started crying and rubbing his eyes so I think he is getting overtired. But still won’t sleep!

Have you tried a sling? This should allow you to get on with your chores.

Does he sleep in the pram or a sling? If so, put him in that and go for a walk.

Try him in the pram indoors. Baby same age here, and in the heat he often won’t settle being held, sling is too hot and like you say outside is hot.
So the last few weeks I have taken to walking around living room and kitchen with him in pram and he’s fallen asleep in 5-10 mins
He’s never napped in the cot though

Slings might be bloody hot though for both of you! Do you have a baby chair/bouncer thing? He might be bothered by the heat. Also - babies don’t have watches, so they kind of do their own thing! DS barely slept. As a toddler he never napped. He was always bouncing around like tigger.

I see you don't fancy a walk because it's hot. I used to put my little one in the sling and bounce up and down on a big exercise ball. Once she was asleep, I'd stop bouncing and put the telly on.

4 month sleep regression. Look it up and hang in there!

It's too hot for babies my daughter has been struggling this week.

@SerenityNowwwww

That is true re a sling in this weather - very warm.

As a toddler he never napped. He was always bouncing around like tigger.

That must have been so tough - my toddler is very “full on” as my Mum says, but he naps really reliably. How did you cope?!

I used to push the pram over the bumpy kitchen floorboard, the rocking movement knocked him out

He has finally dropped off...! I'm not sure how long it'll last as he's been catnapping a lot during the day this week (sleeping for 45 mins then awake again). I think its the heat...

Yes the heat is definitely a factor

Also the 4 month old babies I have managed to get to sleep the easiest were not mine because I was visiting my kids were at school and my chores were all done. I was relaxed and not stressed about getting things done! Never worked with mine

A massive lorry has just pulled up outside our neighbours house and is unloading laods of stuff really noisily. Nooooo :(

Oh bugger. Get your head down OP. Hope it lasts!

If he's knackered he'll sleep through it. Lie on the couch and try to stop counting the minutes until he wakes up again. It's really hard to do though.

Hate to say it but my DS started napping for 45mins at a time around 4 months old. The longer naps went out the window. Hes very nearly 5 months now and im just getting a long midday nap back again. The sleep regression seemed to happen at that point too - I put it all down to that and just went with it

@Letsallscreamatthesistene How was his nighttime sleep affected by the 4 month sleep regression? I'm expecting it to hit any time now so am a bit apprehensive.

DS woke briefly thanks to the lorry but has now gone back to sleep again. He's been down for nearly two hours now (not surprising given he was up for 4 hours before that!)

Oh gosh the dreaded 4 month regression! My little boy woke every 2-3 hours throughout the night which felt like it lasted forever and was only napping 30-45mins 4 times a day, his sleep pattern has now changed altogether now he's hit the over 6 month mark he's dropped his 4th nap, his 2nd tends to be the longest anything from 45-90mins, his bedtime is 18:30 and we're up for 5/5:15am (later bedtimes he still wakes early so we're grateful of the time of the evening and accepted an early wake up call 😂) hope if it is that it passes quickly ❤️xx

Similar to @dexy2020 really. It happened for us at about 3.5months and at nearly 5 months is just about getting back to normal. At night he was loads more wakeful/unwilling to sleep. At its worst we were up every one-two hours, but that only lasted a night or two. He also upped his feeds to three a night and that lasted for the whole regression period. We're just about down to one feed again now.

As I said, daytime naps were very obviously one sleep cycle of 45 mins each. Hes just started to have a longer midday nap with one or two 45 minuters before and after this, but this isnt a given and a day of 45min naps is still likely.

Oh, and he was very obviously ready to start his day at 4.30am! This lasted a couple of weeks. We're now just able to settle him down again until 6am.

That sounds hard. Do all babies go through it or just some?

From what I understand most go through it to some extent

Definitely sounds like the 4 month sleep regression. It sucks, you have my sympathy. It’ll be frustrating but you can’t make a baby sleep so just keep that in the back of your mind. All babies go through it, to some extent, some worse than others.

All the sleep regressions hit my DS hard. We were unlucky. However it’s worth remembering that it part of the brain development and once it passed, he had usually mastered a new skill by the end of it. We called them “brain farts”!