4 month old takes forever to get to sleep and then will only sleep for 40 mins at a time!

[spillyobeans]

Driving me insane. Last night he went down at 2am, having been trying since 7pm to get him to sleep. He slso wont nap in day for more than 20 mins, once or twice. He will only ever sleep having been breastfed to sleep and you cant move him as he wakes and is inconsolable.

Ive tried putting him down awake but drowsy in cot, and he just crys and crys, even if i pick him up and shush pat. Anyone got any tips? I cant co-sleep as my husband is really against it and wakes me up to move him. Help!!!

When he does drop off he wakes after 40 odd mins and the endless cycle begins again

Bump

First oodles of milk in the day. Breast feed every 2 hours in the day, wake up if required.

Don't let him nap past 4.30/5.00. Then at 6.00ish (yes early, I know) up for a breastfeed. Then bath. Then into darkened room and night clothes for another breastfeed and into cot or Moses. Leave in dark and quiet room.

When shush patting, leave in cot and pat tummy and shush. Kneel on floor if required and shush pat for a few minutes. Don't lift him out.

Consider dummy if very sucky. But if you've got to 4 months without, try the shush pat. But you need to be persistent with it - hence getting comfy.

I will try thanks, he is a very sucky baby but refuses a dummy even though he will take a bottle!

More more sleep in the day will massively help too.

Do whatever you can to get him to nap. Will he nap in the car? Buggy sling?

Start trying for a nap after 90 minutes awake time.

Sounds like he is massively overtired so will take a while to re-balance

I don't have ideas but I sympathise. My DS has gone from normal baby sleeping patterns to bugger all sleep night and day. He's fractionally better than yours but there's not a lot in it at the moment

Yeah I had one of those - It doesn't last forever

This thread may help

My ds sleeping improved hugely when i worked on his nap and started co sleeping. I too was against co sleeping but i couldn't cope with 40minute wake ups through the night. For nap i still have to car/Pram/sling/bounce but i work it into my day.

I remember a phase like this. A friend of line advised that sleep begets sleep so it was sleep by any means.

My dd used a dummy but also had white noise. I also remember rocking, singing and swinging her in the car seat weirdly enough.

Best of luck

Thanks for advice!

Ok this sounds like major overtiredness (been there, you have my sympathy!)

Do whatever it takes to get him to sleep more in the day. That probably means lots of long walks in the pram or sling. First nap of the day is the easiest, try feeding then put in cot 90 mins after he woke in the morning. Use that nap to get yourself & buggy ready, then when he next starts to seem tired* get him in the buggy and get walking. Walk till he is asleep and keep walking for as long as you can (assuming he stays asleep)

*NB when a baby is overtired they often seem hyper when they are tired, rather than seeming sleepy. So tiredness signs to look out for includdfast breathing, flapping arms, irritability, getting very vocal, as well as rubbing eyes/yawning.

Totally disagree with the suggestion above of waking him every 2 hours to feed! He needs more sleep not more milk.

Don't try to teach him to self settle until the overtiredness is sorted - an overtired baby cannot self settle and will just scream.

With breastfed babies sleep and milk are interlinked. Agree about lots of sleep and ensuring naps every 90 mins at this age.

But also if mine had done a huge stretch of sleep in the day, I did get them fully awake for more milk so as not to knock all feeds into evening and night (3 breastfed babies, liked my evenings and it did work with them all, even though they were different baby personalities!).

Minipie thanks im going to try that!