4 month old sleep help

[Boymumma20]

This is the first time I’ve used mumsnet to ask a question, so please be kind
I’m trying to find some other mummies that can help me, as my 4 month old boys sleep disturbance has got me at my wits end!
So basically...... he has always been a great sleeper, slept through (6 hours) from an early age, but up untill the past two weeks he has been terrible. He goes to bed at 7-7.30, but then he cries every hour, sometimes every half an hour, all night long!
Now he doesn’t wake up when he cries, he just cries in his sleep, I have to go to him, pop his dummy back in and turn his Ewan sheep on, and he quietens down and goes back to a deep sleep, I understand this could be worse, but it’s literally every half an hour that I am getting out of bed and putting his sheep on. I can’t survive off broken sleep, especially when he’s then up for the day at 6.30am! I really don’t know what to do anymore, is there a reason this could be happening? I’ve tried absolutely everything, such as lavender oil on a muslin, changing the room temperature, giving him more daytime naps, different bed times, etc etc. Please help
Thankyou

It's the 4 month sleep regression. I'm afraid you just have to ride it out. Most babies will come out of it on their own after a few weeks. My advice is to keep everything as you were doing and wait it out. It is awful and sleep deprivation is horrific. Be kind to yourself. It won't last forever.

Sleep regression. Do you feed him when he wakes up?

Yeah. What they said. You can get a plug in white noise machine cheap off amazon that you can leave on all night, if that helps.

Yep 4 month sleep regression. At 6 months you can try the Ferber method, saved my sanity.

Have you thought of having white noise on all night? Would that help? My ds does. Ewan is cute but not good for this reason!

I’d suggest

1. A proper white noise machine that runs all night long so it’s always running when he comes into a light sleep cycle to help him get through it, rather than you needing to turn it on. You can get these for £20 on Amazon

1. Consider going cold turkey on the dummy. I dropped DS1’s dummy at this age because it was disturbing his sleep, constantly having to put it back in and I’ve literally just made the same decision with DS2 due to the same issue. Sleep is still hit and miss with DS2 as he’s going through the regression, but far fewer wakes without the dummy (it was as often as every 20-30 mins sometimes!). Sounds scary, but at this age, they’ll forget the dummy even exists within a day.

Thankyou so much for your replies everyone I don’t feed him when he wakes as he doesn’t fully wake up if you know what I mean, his eyes are still closed but he just cries untill his sheep goes back on.
I do wish Ewan would run for more than half an hour! I wish I paid extra and bought the deluxe sheep.
I did think the 4 month sleep regression would mean he would be fully awake and ready to party every time he cries, so I ruled that out, but I think from your replies it probably is that.
I’ll definitely try a white noise machine that goes on longer, I don’t know if it would kind of lose its magic if it went on all night?! Like he’d get to used to it, but I’ll try/buy anything at the moment haha. X

Hi OP, you said you don't feed him as he doesn't fully wake. However I assume you are feeding him during the night, maybe at set times or something. 4 months is too young to be night weaned I think. Maybe he does need feeding, have you tried that?

Thankyou for your response, he definitely doesn’t need feeding through the night, he dropped his 5am milk by himself, and he drinks 5 7oz bottles throughout the day, and given his weight (15lbs) my health visitor says he is having the perfect amount for a 24hr period if he was hungry in the night he would fully wake up, as this is what he did when he used to wake hungry at 5am x

4 month regression
Nightmare !

Wow your child sounds very different to my 2, Dd night weaned about 8m and Ds about 13m by force 😂

Another vote for plug in white noise, it's a game changer. I have one for my 7 month old and also my 20 month old. Poor Ewan got kicked out when I discovered them

I’m not sure what noise Ewan makes but we put on a YouTube video called ‘Colicky baby sleeps to this magic sound’ which runs for like 10 hours uninterrupted and it helps our little girl sleep. We’re also going through the 4 month old sleep regression too, it’s tough!

Bear in mind that he might need feeding - growth spurts and developmental leaps often mean they need more calories. If you're already up so frequently what have you got to lose? Sleep isn't linear and will improve, then regress again for a bit, then improve, then regress... it's tough but normal (my evidence is the fact that my 15 month old woke at 2.30am and still isn't back to sleep...)

Definitely second a plug in white noise machine. The effect won't "wear off" as the point is when he stirs between sleep cycles the situation is the same - white noise on! Whereas with Ewan he wakes and it's silent and he needs that noise to get him back into the next sleep cycle. I'd also be tempted to look at ditching the dummy - we got rid at 4 months for this exact reason. That way he would have the ability to get back to sleep without you putting the dummy back! It might be a tough few days but you'll be thankful in the long run!

As above.... Could be a growth Spurt

It's pretty common for babies to add in extra feeds at/after the 4m regression. We went from one night feed to 3, and ended up on 2 for a very long time.