4 month old night waking - any advice?

[bellabean]

I have a lovely 4 month old baby boy who is perfect in every way apart from night sleeping. For a whole week we went from 7-11, 12-4 (and then staying in bed until 6.30 but wriggly and awake) which was amazing but he has regressed to his 3 month old pattern of waking all through the night, sometimes every hour. He is bottle fed, and has easily progressed to bottles at 7,11,3,7 plus a dream feed at 11. He is a very happy baby in the day and rarely cries, and I probably go into him too quickly. The week he actually slept he went from 3.5 to 4 hours sleep in the day to 2.5 to 3.

Does anyone have any experience of dealing with this habitual waking, or can you give me any hope that this isnt forever?! Also what do mums think about allowing crying this young? What about Tracey Hogg's pick up put down and wake to sleep where you wake them earlier than their habitual waking time? And what kind of hours sleep and routine are other babies of this age doing? Any advice or experience of others hugely appreciated.

Thanks

It will pass. Lots of babies start waking around 4 months.
we used to feed if DD wanted it but I didn't leave her to cry for more than a minute or two.

Google 4 month sleep regression !

Isn't 4m classic sleep regression territory? Sounds normal to me, hopefully its just a phase.

thanks all. I do think I am creating bad habits with him going in with his dummy every time he wakes up and asks for us. What is everyone's experience with allowing crying at this age and pick up put down? Do you think I should leave it for a couple of weeks and then if the habitual waking continues I then try some kind of sleep training? For the whole of his 3rd month he was waking every hour too.

I dont think that sleep training is recommended under 6 months but someone else will be better to advise you on that.

I know its hell when they are in a non sleeping phase and you worry about doing the wrong things, but I honestly wouldn't worry about bad habits and just do whatever gets you all through that night.

I'm going through this just now with my 4 month old DD so you have my sympathies! I actually started a thread a week ago as I was sure her dummy was the root cause of all sleep evils .

At 4 months babies go through a pretty significant growth spurt which can cause more night wakings/sleep regression. My DD has gone from sleeping from 7pm-3/4am to waking several times a night. I was giving her a dream feed but have dropped it now as it seemed to be disrupting her sleep. I just feed her when she wakes - last night she woke at 11 (close to when her dream feed would have been), seemed starving, so fed her. She woke again at 3.30 and drained 200ml when she usually has 150ml max, then slept til 7.30.

I was going to take her dummy away cold turkey but am going to see how things go for a week or so and see if they continue to improve before I do anything else.

Do you do a set bedtime routine with him?

He's 4 months old!!!! you have many years of getting up in the middle of the night to settle waking children ahead of you, so best get used to it!
unsympathetic

That's a bit unhelpful middleaged. I don't know about the OP, but my DD is my first baby and I didn't have the first clue about any of this stuff before I had her.

The OP is entitled to ask for advice without that kind of response!

It's unhelpful, but realistic! Surely everyone knows babies don't sleep all night, every night for a good few years??

I've just been reading about the 4 month sleep regression and its talking all about sleep training but on sites who are trying to sell sleep training programmes! Is it best to leave sleep training until after 6 months?

I agree with you middleaged bit not sure it's that helpful to know at 4 months in that your baby will still be waking in the night at 2yrs for some bollocks reason (nightmares/back molars/illness etc). No one wants to believe it'll be that way with their child anyway so they'll just assume it's your parenting fail.

OP it will get better, albeit temporarily to some extent. Most would consider to young to leave to cry. Lots of gentler options - wait it out, shush pat, pupd etc. Even cc when a bit older.

Yes, if course it's realistic, I know my DD will continue to wake for years, but I personally like to hear what has worked for others.

I just think saying 'babies wake up, deal with it!' is a bit unhelpful when someone is looking for advice. I knew nothing of shush-pat, pu/pd etc. I've had lots of helpful advice and reassurance on Mumsnet since I had my DD - even people reassuring me that it will pass, it's a phase etc. helped me.

OP - most things I've read say that cc should be for 6 months plus. As Tarka said above there are other options - shush pat is something that works for me. Might be a bit of try and see to get through it - e.g. shush pat, feed to sleep etc, whatever you're comfortable with to get through a rough patch.

thanks all, its really helpful to have such quick replies, this is my first time on mumsnet, and its great not to feel too alone! I'm learning that the rules are constantly changing with each month and to hear about other people's experiences and having reassurance that you are not going too wrong is really useful. I am going to try and relax and just deal with the wakings for the next couple of months and try not to worry too much about bad habit forming.

Could have written this myself OP! I know it's the 4 month sleep regression but unsure how best to manage it either. From what I've read controlled crying probably isn't the solution as the baby needs reassurance (someone will post in a minute that they swear by it!)

In desperation I tried wake to sleep the other night... woke him at 3 before a habitual wake up time of 4. It did seem to work that night and he didn't wake until 5.30. But then the next night he woke at one so I wasn't sure what to do next! Ho hum.

I do also try a bit of pick up put down as I don't want to feed straight away. He's not normally screaming just loud grizzling... I also have tried waiting to see if he will settle but I get impatient with it...

Finally I have decided today to be religious about tanking him up with food in the day! He is bf so the info is different for ff but this is my new tactic.

Best of luck