Losing my mind! Baby wakes screaming every 30 mins

[AlwaysAnnoyed]

H e l p me!!!!!!

My 4 month old has turned into the worst daytime sleeper.

He used to just fall asleep when he was tired.. anywhere. He didn’t actually want to be held, he’d moan to be put down then would fall asleep.

Now everything has changed. He starts to moan and cry when he’s tired. So I’ll put him in his swing or cot or bouncer or Moses basket or in the pram. And he will just CONTINUE TO CRY!!!!! He won’t go off.

So I try and Shhhhh him & I’ll hold his hand. I tried picking him up but he did NOT enjoy that.

And then finally after 30-45 minutes of crying, he’ll go to sleep.

Then he will WAKE UP 30-45minutes later CRYING (I presume he’s still tired) so I’ll try to settle him. But he won’t have it. So he’s just a really grumpy baby.

Is this a faze? Why is it happening? What can I do? How can I get him back to just falling asleep when he’s tired like before?

I keep seeing sleep training courses online but they’re very expensive and I’m not sure we need it. As at night he just goes to sleep and stays asleep? A bit of whinging when put down but asleep in 10 minutes and doesn’t re-wake.

I feel like all day all he does is cry for a nap, cry when put down for one, sleep for 30 minutes, wake up crying, moan until his next feed, be a bit refreshed after his feed… then cycle starts again.

Someone help. I feel like I’m becoming a bad mum because I just feel so frustrated that he can’t sleep, and he’s clearly tired which is why he’s moaning which is why I’m getting frustrated!!!

4 month sleep regression! Its a shitter. Just keep doing what you need to get by and it WILL pass. Ignore the sleep training courses that make out you have to buy them and that it's an essential part of parenthood, they're not. You don't buy courses to help them breathe, walk, play and talk. And he's too young for any sleep training anyway.

Hey. This was the same with my DS. He napped for 30 minutes on the dot, every single time from around 2 months, lasted until 6.5 months then it seemed to all change.
I remember the frustration & exhaustion but i promise you it will get easier.
Will he nap longer on you? I tried to do this at least once a day just to get a decent nap in!

About that age I had to swap sleep/feed routines do he was fed when he woke rather than fed before sleep. For the next 2/3 months I had to feed as soon as he woke up.

@museumum hes always been fed when he wakes! Never to sleep!! Always feed play sleep! But because of theses 30 minute naps he’d be guzzling 7oz every 2 hours!

Sounds like it could be the 4 month regression. Though saying that I have a 5.5 month old. We didn’t notice anything particularly bad around the 4 month mark at day or night but this week he’s been a nightmare for daytime naps. I have to really work hard to get him to go over the 40min mark. If not he’s awake and miserable as hell.
my first child never slept during the day, ever. Until he was probably closer to 1. And even then it was likely to be a car nap.

sorry I don’t think I’ve been particularly helpful.

im assuming you’ve tried most things?
were getting by atm with his favourite toy comforter he likes to snuggle and his Snuz cloud playing a tune. Sometimes he’ll fall asleep unaided and other times he won’t.

Hi lovely, first of all you are doing great, promise this too will pass. It's so awful but it does get better!

Things that we tried that helped us:

• lying on the bed next to him while he napped - boring as hell but he liked the comfort and slept longer - I just played phone games or slept too!
• playing this "baby sensory dots" video from youtube at him on the phone or an ipad - it's honestly weird magic, helps every time:
• driving him around with baby sleep music playlist off spotify
• wearing him in a stretchy sling while bouncing on a yoga ball in front of Netflix
• pushing him around in the buggy with the phone playing sleep music or white noise
• a dummy

We did pay at one point for the expensive sleep consultant and she said 2 things that were great:

1. always try offering milk when they are grumpy - sometimes it's a growth spurt thing where they are really hungry and there's no point withholding comfort if that's what they need/want; and
2. use white or pink noise playing continuously in their room while they sleep - the ones like the sheep that cut out after a bit are no good because the purpose is to lull them back after 30/45 mins when they are drifting awake out of the REM and they need the noise to be the same at that point as it was when they first fell asleep. We always found continuous white noise helped.

Really hope it will get better soon - you're doing great, it's just bloody hard sometimes but you will get through it! <3