4 month old wakes up every time I put her down but only at night

[M24L]

My DD is currently 4 months old, had been sleeping through the night since 8 weeks old and now all of a sudden bed time has became a bit of a nightmare.

She will fight her sleep until she can't anymore and she will eventually fall asleep lying on my chest on her tummy. As soon as I put her into her next2me she wakes up straight away crying, if I pick her up and cuddle her right away she instantly falls back to sleep but as soon as I try put her down again it's the whole process all over again.

I have no idea whats causing her to be like this so any advice would be grateful.

I persevere with the whole trying to put her into her next2me again and again and eventually after about an hour she will settle but then she wakes back up at 2am then 4am. She doesn't want a feed either of the times she wakes up shes just looking to be cuddled and instantly falls asleep as soon as she's in my arms.

I'm loving the cuddles ofcourse and I know it won't last forever but this mum needs some sleep I'm currently like a walking zombie.

She only seems to be like this at night also as during the day she will nap and im able to put her down without any hassle.

Have you tried heating the next2me with a hot water bottle before putting her down?

My daughter used to do this, so I bought a swaddle as it feels like being held. She slept through the night every night.

4 month sleep regression… google it. It’s actually a thing. I can’t remember it with my first but we’re heading towards 4 months and naps are abit haywire.
Have you tried swaddling or white noise? They help us both a lot

4 month regression I would say. We continued swaddling until 5 months which helped us get through it but it was still rough. White noise helped too. I used to persevere with the next to me but give myself a cut off like if she still wasn’t settling by 3am I would just co sleep for the last few hours of the night so we both got a little stretch.

We used the miracle blanket swaddle it was great xx

Thank you so much for your responses. I can't remember sleep regression being a thing with my first child but that was 9 years ago so I'm assuming I've probably forgotten that part lol.

Little one has never been swaddled as she hates anything covering her feet so any form of cover on her causes a bit of an issue.

She is currently teething as well so I feel that this may also be playing a part in it.

@Happythoughts123 I've been trying this as well, if I can't get her to settle again at 2am after trying for about an hour I take her in and Co sleep although I'm barley getting any sleep as im constantly making sure she is ok. We have bought her ewan the sheep for Xmas which plays white noise so I'm patiently waiting until Xmas to try out the sheep to see if it makes a difference (I would give her it early but I wrapped everything weeks ago and not sure exactly where it is)

@M24L I was exactly the same and never felt comfortable co sleeping and never really slept properly when she was in bed but during really tricky periods it was all that worked.

I think the 4 month regression lasted about 2-3 weeks for us. There is an app called wonder weeks which details all the ‘regressions’ babies go through in the first couple years. I’m not sure I totally buy into it but it did seem to vaguely line up with when she was having a tough time settling/being fussy.

Good luck with Ewan! My daughter still has white noise every sleep now at 18 months x

Definitely the 4 month sleep regression. I remember it being absolute hell with my first and my second never went through it thank god!

I introduced a lovey for baby to cuddle with when it started so he wouldn’t be looking for me to cuddle with and that did the trick for us. Also put him down in a sleeping bag from then because he wanted his hands free. Still lasted 2-3 weeks but has slept perfectly since (nearly 3 now). Best of luck, hope you get over it quickly.

@Happythoughts123 we are just over a week in so this is warming to know lol, I got her settled last night and used some white noise on my phone which seemed to work for a little while until around 12am when she woke up crying as if she was in pain so I took her into bed to co sleep and straight away she fell asleep, and she slept a bit better with just wakening up to make sure I was still there.

@Temple29 is a lovey a sort of comforter? Thank you