4 month old waking every 45 mins - what is wrong?

[clarechick]

My DD has been a good sleeper, either sleeping through or waking once or twice during the night. Over the last few nights, she has started to wake and not want to settle again - taking two hours to put back to sleeps and then last night would not go to sleep until after 1am and then proceeded to wake every hour crying - I don't think she is ill and although there is lots of drooling, there are no other signs of teething - is this just sleep regression? even as a new born she was never this hard to settle. I have ended up feeding her to sleep all night long, and both dh and I are exhausted.

When she woke up last night she does this weird low drone of a cry - I think its just a tired thing but it is so hard to snap her out of it ?

has anyone else experienced this, need to some sleep!! Any idea what it is or can give me some reassurance it will pass??

sorry for ramble but a bit sleep deprived!!

Sounds like the dreaded 4 month sleep regression, my DD slept through from 6-19 weeks and then suddenly was waking 5/6 times a night! has got somewhat better (now 6 months) but now we ahve the six month growth spurt....

This does sound familiar. Please think twice about feeding her to sleep if you don't think she is hungry, because this is what I did in this same situation and nearly two months later my self settling baby only knew to feed to sleep and was waking up more not less for getting through the 4 month development spurt. I thought it would all blissfully settle down on its own but - no.

clara does this sound like what it happening?

Have you tried increasing feeds during the day? Say every 2 hours plus more if she wants it?

Well, had a lot better night last night, woke three times before midnight, but got dh to settle dd while I slept in the spare room. We then swapped over to get dh some sleep. DD only woke properly at 6.30, I gave her a quick feed and put her straight down again - fingers crossed this will continue.

Jiltedjohnsjulie - had a wee look at the link you gave me - very interesting. I have noticed that dd is feeding every two hours in the afternoon onwards and made a real effort to do this yesterday so she was nice and full at bedtime.
I do think it is something else as well, as when she wakes, its hards to get through to her through her cries and think she is trying to block the world out.... dh sang to her last night when she woke up and this appeared to get through and she eventually settled to a deep sleep without waking again until 6.30 - so feeling a bit more rested today.

Thanks for all your help!!

Fingers crossed that for a better night tonight too then.

lots of wakenings last night again - if that is even the right word as I dont think she is fully awake as she cries with her eyes shut and its hard to snap her out of it for some reason. I fed her a couple of times during the night but DH did most of the settling in the early hours and he's convinced it isn't a hunger thing and I'd tend to agree - this low pinch cry just starts from nowhere with her eyes shut - I think she is doing it in her sleep, but if you don't get to her she gets more and more upset.... was thinking of maybe leaving her the cry for a couple of mins with reassurance but not convinced this will work.

Any ideas? don't want to be picking her up / feeding her every time this happens - and that was at least 8 times last night!!! help!!

I've come a bit late to this thread, but this is exactly the behaviour my 14wk old DD is exhibiting. I'm going mad. She is awake within 45mins all day and all night. Not hungry. Low cry. Resettles relatively quickly as long as it is in a cuddle with either myself or DH. She is just miserable and so I am.

Did it end clarechick?! Any good solutions?

Hi Mimmymouse, just saw your post and yes it did end, we moved her into her cot from the moses basket, this really helped and reduced the times she was waking up. I also think that she was having some teething pains or she was in some sort of discomfort. The disrupted sleep gradually got better over a two week period and she is now generally sleeping through the night mostly again - she still makes the low sounding cries in her sleep and unless she is very distressed I don't pick her up and she seems to settle herself.

She is however VERY hard to settle at night when we take her to bed at first - lots of singing, walking and rocking - I know I've made a rod for my own back with this but at 5 months she is still quite small to do any sleep training, but I'm getting to a point where I need to start to teach her to sleep on her own as it can take up to a few hours to settle her to sleep which is exhausting....

I hope you have some success - I suppose you just have to keep telling yourself that its not for ever and things change so quickly when they are so young

Hi mimmymouse, have things improved at all? My DS was doing exactly the same as your DD, he was waking every 45 mins (sometimes more often or less frequently than that). How is your DD when you go into her? Our DS would just cry at me and take forever to settle back to sleep then one night I noticed he was pulling his knees up a lot. Turns out he has a dairy intolerence and after 2days on aptimil comfort milk for colicky and constipated babies he was back sleeping through the night.

This was the answer to our problems, I'm not saying this will be for you too but maybe something to consider. I've been there and no its hell, I hope things settle for you soon :)