Help! 4.5 month old sleep troubles

[WaryViewer]

Looking for some advice or people in the same situation.

My now 4.5 month old had been more or less sleeping through the night for over a month up until a few weeks ago. He is now extra fussy in the day, only taking short naps and won’t nap past 4pm. This is making the days really hard work as he can’t yet sit up un aided and there are only so many things I can do to occupy him and they have a shelf life of 15 minutes.

He is also now waking up multiple times in the night and won’t re settle without a bottle. He has a big bottle before bed and usually drinks most of that. We have tried adjusting bed times and this hasn’t made a difference. In the evening, he is just constantly unhappy as he wakes from a nap at around 4pm and we then have to wait until at least 6.45 ish to start the bed time routine we have been doing since 3 months, he has a bath, bottle and then put to sleep.

I could cope with the short day time naps as he was sleeping through, but now with the short naps and night wakings I am really struggling. I get absolutely nothing done in the day, and dont even 10 minutes to myself. I love him dearly but I am considering sending him to nursery for half a day a week just so I can re charge my batteries and have time to breathe. People say this phase passes but it just feels never ending at the moment.

Anyone else got any tips on how to get through this stage?

Sounds like the 4 month sleep regression. It's caused by a big developmental leap which can throw sleep, feeding and behaviour into chaos. It does get better eventually!

His teeth might be coming in. Incredibly uncomfortable for them and I remember having a really tough time with ds at around 5 months.

Just try not to beat yourself up about it. It’s rough. Things aren’t going to get done it’s ok. Just do what you need anygo from there

It’s the sleep regression! Just posted this on a similar thread

So tough. We’re going through the regression with our second and it’s just as hard this time round! However I’m doing things differently and I feel it’s making a difference.
I’m following the taking Cara babies sit back method which is to encourage independent sleep during the regression so that when you’re out the other side they’re much better at sleep all round. It is NOT sleep training or cry it out, at all.
thete are two bits to it - one is slowly transitioning over several weeks the baby putting themselves to sleep in the cot. It’s really gentle baby steps to go from feeding to sleep to self soothing. We’re very slowly seeing an improvement after two weeks. At start of regression would not accept not being fed to sleep, now goes down drowsy in cot. This is helping sleep during the night and will help in the long term.
the other bit is how you handle wakings which again is a gradual transition- but I’ve gone from always feeding him to sleep to - on occasion- being able to jyst gentle rock him in the cot and him fall back asleep. The idea is eventually he’ll be able to start doing this himself - once or twice he has already done this. It basically views the regression as a development period that you can use so when you get to the other side they’re much better have really well embedded habits. Worth checking out - it’s £40 for the PDF that covers 3-4 month regression - best of luck x