Help needed with 4 month old constantly waking in night???

[TearingMyHairOut]

My ds1 has always had a fairly good sleep pattern, going to bed at 7pm, waking at around 2-3am for a feed and then going back to sleep until 6.30am ish. In the past couple of weeks he has started waking constantly during the night, at 10pm, 12midnight, 2ish (when I feed him), 5am. I tried offering a feed but he's not interested, tried cooled boiled water, dummy, checked for teething, he's not ill and he's just wide awake and crying. I can't understand why he's suddenly started doing this, especially as it's been two weeks now rather than just an odd couple of nights. It means he's not getting good long sleep, which I presume he needs, and I'm not either...and I know I need it! Any suggestions as to why this might be and how I might resolve it?

its probably just a phase - what settles him?

he might be poorly? ears? teeth? I think my dd3 idd this for a week or so, she was bf so I just fed her every time and she suddenly stopped doing it

Nothing settles him, he screams if I hold him, sit with him, leave him ...whatever. And he'll just scream until he falls back to sleep. Kind of like 'leaving him to cry it out' but not really through choice. But I thought a couple of nights of that is supposed to get them not waking up again coz there's nothing to wake for?

have you tried calpol? could be ears

does he not want a drink? is he bfed or bottle fed?

Will he settle in bed with you? I think it is actually quite normal to wake several times during the night - although we'd like a 'long' sleep, babies are not always programmed to do that.

He's bottle fed and I have offered bottles and he doesn't want them...infact he's not really interested even at 2 in the morning. I offer him fennel tea which the doctor suggested for unsettled tummies and he'll drink a bit and then continue crying. Could it be ears for this long?

No it makes no difference if he's in bed with us or not. When you say 'normal'...at what age are we talking until. Most other mums I knwo with babies of similar ages are going at least 10 hours stretches at this age

We had this after a bout of diarr - poss a growth spurt but then she wasn't feeding more during the day. Then my husband tried taking over(he'd been in spare room as works long hours) and she settled instantly! Not sure if it was the milk she could smell on me. After 1 night of him going to her each time she seems to have settled and only woke twice last night (fingers crossed)with me going to her.

you will probably find that those other mums are probably exagerating, doing dream feeds or not telling you about the times when they don't sleep through. i have friends who tell me their babies sleep 7 til 7, but then they let slip, 'ooh we were watching eastenders the other night, you know ds really knows the theme tune now..' or i ring them at maybe 9 and oh surprise surprise the baby's up. or their baby sleeps 10 hours most of the time, but often enough he doesn't.

Well... you maybe don't want to hear this, but my ds is 19mo and has never 'slept through'. I don't think he's ever slept for more than a 4-5 hour stretch, and even that long is unusual for him! I think you just have to find whatever method works for you for getting him back to sleep - whether it be rocking, cuddling, feeding or whatever. We co-sleep because that's the only way we all get a decent night. I think my ds just likes to know we are there when he wakes in the night.

Hi Tearingmyhairout,
If it's any consolation when my DD (now 4) was 4 months old we had exactly the same problem, as do many Mums. She was a really good sleeper, only waking once at 5am for feed from 7.30pm then back down till 7am. Then she hit 14 weeks and it all went wrong, waking every 2 hours. The GP said its early signs of teething even though you can't actually see it so I tried calpol and teething granules - didn't work. The health visitor said it was hunger as she was taking the breast every time so I weaned her - didn't help. BUT by then she had developed the 'habit' so actually nothing worked until 7 months when I did controlled crying - absolute hell, but worked. I really sympathise as I now have a DS (10 weeks) and I can remember this stage so well, I'm already dreading it!
My only advice is loads of calpol and teething granules! You have nothing to lose!

My first 2 babies did start sleeping 12 hours at 4 months, fairly consistently. Their little brother has only just started going 10 hours at 8 months. I did stop responding to the crying a couple of weeks ago as was too tired to keep getting up. He got the message after a couple of nights.

4 months is quite little and he might not be ready for a whole night's sleep, whatever some baby gurus might say. You don't need to get up every 2 hours though - ignoring some of the wakings seems to be a good way to go.