4 month old - regression? night waking every hour now and feeding, anyone sucessfully reduced these??

[fruitandbarley]

My 4 month old has gone from waking at 1.30am and 4am, to waking every hour after midnight.
She still goes to bed at 7pm ish and self settles, but everytime she wakes after that I can't get her back down unless I feed her, even though most of the time she's not actually hungry. I have tried shushhing and rocking but the screaming gets louder until I cant stand it and she's very upset and shuts immediately up with a boob in her mouth.
She's is teething at the moment and seems to be having symptoms of the 4 month sleep regression, but I'm on my knees with lack of sleep. Will her sleep eventually go back to normal or should I be/can I be doing anything to help things now.

Don't panic it will pass but might take a week or so. Sorry but the only thing to do is to go to bed as early as poss - preferable with a flask and a tray of snacks to keep you going. It's really hard but it does pass. It's a growth spurt and I also think its natures way of increasing milk supply for growing babies (for bfing). Hang in there. Leave all housework. XX

Thanks, its been going on a couple of weeks now, I think any reassurance that it does pass will help, I was worried that this was her new sleep schedule!!

Hope it passes, my 4 mo has started this - same week we're moving house, so we are waking often and my mind is so full I can't get back to sleep.

We are in the middle of this too. It's hard work but co-sleeping helps as at least I don't have to get up. I remember this with DD1 and am hoping DD2 will takes less than a month to get back to sleeping for a reasonable stretch.

We are in the middle of this too. It started 2 weeks ago and I could at least guarantee that she would sleep from 7.30-1ish but it started being every 45 mins - 1 hour from going to bed last night so hoping that doesn't carry on. I have tried co sleeping but she just cries and is better in her cot. She is also teething and has a cold so we are really suffering! Are u feeding everytime she wakes? I am not as she is not hungry but not sure if I should if its connected to a growth spurt as well?

We had this too and it does get better! We have been co-sleeping - by 1/2am I used to give up on cot. I then took side off cot and we are co-sleeping with cot as side sleeper. Plenty room for everyone.

I concentrated on naps first - by whatever means possible. So sling and pram. I got him to nap after 90 min awake time to make sure no over tiredness. No bf to sleep during day either - unless ill/teething.

Then we brought bedtime forward from 7.30/8 to 6.30. Good bedtime routine.

We are using NCSS and there's a massive thread on here about it (I don't know how to add links - sorry!)

We weaned at 5 months.

So now - it's better - not amazing. He goes to sleep much easier. No tears at nap times.

He can go into cot drowsy a lot of the time and be shhhed/jiggled to sleep (at 4 months if he realised he was in his cot he looked like a startled rabbit!).

He can now do stretches of 3-4 hours (unless teething or late to bed and overtired).

He can be settled back to sleep with first wake ups with cuddle/rocking by me or Dad.

He'll sleep from half 6pm until 7.30am (with resettling/feeds). So no early get ups or wanting to play at 2am.

We've still a lot to tackle but it can /does get better! I would try and tackle one thing at a time and make sure you and any other care givers are agreed about strategy for consistency.

Good luck

Well since last posting she stopped the self settling when we first put her down so I felt I had to harden up a bit and at least get that back so have started letting her cry but sit with her to keep her reassured, took 10 mins of crying last night and she went off then she woke at 9pm for a feed but woke ten mins after putting her back down so let her cry again, then 1.30, 2.30 feeds she went back down after and 3.30am she woke again after ten mins so let her cry again.
She did go back to sleep after about 20 mins and slept for about 2.5 hours then fed at 6.30 and fell asleep in bed with me. She is teething at the moment and does seem hungry when I feed her in the night so unless its less than an hour since I fed her I am feeding again. If not, I'm now letting her cry., which I am finding very hard, especially when I know with boob she'd be back to sleep in seconds.
I don't know if this is the right thing to do or not but really want to remove this need she has of always feeding back to sleep. She won't take a bottle so its all on me and I won't be able to function if I have to boob every time she needs to sleep.
It would be a lot easier if I knew when it would end, its wondering if I'm doing the right thing and not knowing that if I don't do anything, if she'll end up sleeping like this all the time.
Apologies. Thats a right ramble of a post. Lack of sleep.

Personally I wouldn't leave to cry at this age. They've got a billion things going on in their little brains, which is why they can't stay asleep. The boob comforts, as much as anything. I survived my DD's sleep regression all 2 months of it by co-sleeping and learning to feed lying down, half asleep. We then did gentle sleep training at 5.5 months. She sleeps fine now (8 mo), for now at least.

I've just come through this. I won't tell you how long it lasted as it might depress you and it might pass quicker for you!
Got through it by feeding lying down and cosleeping. Fed on demand when she requested.
Could be a coincidence but her sleeping longer coincided with my stretching out her daytime feeds a little.

Thanks for replies, her daytime feeds have pretty much dropped off, she used to feed lots during the day and isn't really fussed now. It's like the feeding had switched round to night time.
Citydweller- the leaving her to cry is quite halfhearted at the moment, I am trying it when she's crying 10 mins after being put down and I know she isn't hungry, and if she doing more of a grumble than full on cry. She does seem to have got the idea. She grumbled for 3 minutes tonight.
I'm glad everythings now alright with your dd now, gives me hope. I think I've read so much that I've lost my instincts if you know what I mean.
I was also worried that if I didn't try and control the situation a little now and kept boobing every time she cries I'd be storing up trouble for myself.

We are just now getting over this, 6 weeks later DD was up every 90 minutes and settled for nothing but boob! Eventually we got a few nights with a 5-6 hour block before going back to her usual 2-3 hour blocks!
No useful advice but I feel your pain, the sleep deprivation made me miserable!

Also after the glorious 3 nights of 5-6 hour blocks she woke up at 1:30am and thought it was playtime. She eventually fell asleep 2 hours later. I used to feed her lying down but she would get nice and sleepy and then when I moved her it would wake her and she would be happy as larry talking away to herself. So now I'm dragging myself up to feed her, at least then when I put her down she won't cry so no need to give her the dummy! Fingers crossed it doesn't last too long for you