4 month old with odd sleep patterns

[Kitty399]

My little boy is 4 months and is an awful sleeper.

He won't nap for more than 10 minutes, unless he's on me and is bounced to sleep with a dummy. He won't sleep for more than 3 hours at night if I'm lucky, other nights he's up every hour. In the past he's slept for 6 hours at a time woke up and then done another 3.

I try to get him down by 7, in the past he had been fine with this. But now he doesn't sleep till 9, sometimes 8. He also refuses to eat before bed, he will at most take 3oz. He does this all day, snacking and having ounces here and there, never the full amount. Attempting to give him more results in gagging or spitting it out.

I've tried routeens and they don't seem to work for him.

Thanks everyone.

I am in the same boat!
It is impossible for me to do a routine as he's so unpredictable.

4 month olds are notoriously bad sleepers, even if they have been better before.

I try to get him down by 7, in the past he had been fine with this. But now he doesn't sleep till 9, sometimes 8.

If he's not tired at 7pm, don't put him down at 7pm!

There's a development leap too, iirc.

TittyGolightly

I've been told by my health visitor to have him down by 7-8, plus by this time he is tired but he goes to sleep and wakes before going into the next sleep cycle.

He's a very odd sleeper but he's always been a funny sleeper.

Also If I let him stay awake I'll get no sleep. Once he gets to 12 he is awake every hour, so i try to get him to sleep at 7/8, he then sleeps for a bit. At least that way I get 3 or so hours.

Hmmm. I have a vampire child. Wouldn't go to sleep till 11pm at that age but would sleep till 11am. Was brilliant.

7pm is completely arbitrary and non-scientific. I don't get the love for it. A night owl child is just going to fight it.

Daytime sleep breeds night time sleep. No harm in cuddling them or bouncing while they sleep. Try going with that?

TittyGolightly

Daytime sleeps are always cuddled up with me, it's the only way he naps well. At times I can put him down during the day and he goes to sleep on his own but he wakes up to early and is still tired. But his naps don't seem to make a difference.

I'm wondering if something is bugging him, he can sleep for longer but seems like something is stopping him, but then I could be completely wrong with that and he's just being fussy.

Have you checked wonder weeks?

It doesn't sound all that unusual to be honest. Let him sleep on you, or use a bouncer, or pushchair. He's still tiny. 3 hrs at night is good. 1 hr isn't unusual I don't think. No real advice I'm afraid, but from what I hear at the baby groups I go to, it's pretty normal.

You realise that it is a SIDS risk for baby to go to sleep alone in any room until 6 months old.

This includes early evening and daytime naps. Baby should be in the same room as you at all times when sleeping. If you are down stairs, so should baby.

As for nap lengths, you just have a normal baby being normal. Find a way to help baby sleep in the daytime and expect naps if about 20-45 minutes.

There is a sids risk for all babies regardless of what you do. The only way to avoid sids risk altogether is to not have babies. As with every single aspect of parenting and probably life, there is an element of risk. Everytime you leave your front door and get in your car you're statistically more likely to die than sitting on the sofa. You have to make your own judgements as to what level of risk is right for you. No risk is not an option.

FATEdestiny

I said nothing about him sleeping in a different room. He sleeps in the same room as me always and he's always with me. If you referring to when I said he can sometimes nap 'on his own', I mean I put him down and he sleeps without help.

It's the four month sleep regression. Really common, normal, they'll grow out of it.

Before they didn't have adult like sleep (we have REM, deep sleep, light sleep etc), and their brains have just learned to do that and it wakes them. I'm going through the exact same thing with mine at the mo :)

thebabysleepgeek.com/all-about-the-4-month-sleep-regression/

Grimnews

Is there anything I can do for him if that's the case?
How long do they usually go through it? And will he have a sleep pattern after it rather than his current random one?

I more meant about "I try to get him down by 7...", rather than daytime naps. Some mums like to go to bed very early with baby, others prefer keeping baby downstairs past "bedtime", until they go to bed themself.

I'm not sure which you are doing, but if keeping baby downstairs in the evening, I find it best to continue the nap cycle all through the day. Say 7am-11pm for example. Just a cycle of about an hour awake, then a nap, hour awake, nap and so on. Awake time will stretch dependibg on nap length, it might be 90 mins for example.

Then, any awake time that falls between 7-9pm, call that "bedtime". Bath, change into night clothes and whatever else you do as part of bedtime routine. Then bring baby back down to nap wherever they normally nap in the daytime.

Desmondo2016 of course there can never be no risks. Only the ignorant would discount recognised SIDS recommendations without consideration. SIDS recommendations are all about managing risk in an informed way. Not elimimating the risks entirely.

It does mark a permanent change in their sleep - I can only advise on what I've read as it's my first baby, so do some reading online. Some will suggest establishing a routine! I've found mine is definitely sleeping more in the day than before so I'm making sure I'm putting him down for naps more frequently before he gets overtired, and then we had a good solid night last night.

It's down to the individual baby I suppose!

katiegg

He is bottle fed and yes I've tried this, I've tried one, twos and threes but no difference in the amount he eats. He's on threes now as it seems to be best for him, twos and ones he struggles with.

Yes Fate. My job is investigating cases of SIDS in my area so i am sadly very experienced and informed. I wasn't sure why you'd piped up with your comment which had no relevance to this thread at all but you've explained what you meant anyway now.

Desmondo2016, appreciate that if you are dealing with the families affected by SIDS it must hard. I cant see how it helps to imply that because the risk cant be zero that risks don't need to be managed.

Having spent time posting on the sleep board, I am aware that many posters don't realise that the room sharing recommendations apply 24 hours a day, including bedtime and daytime. There is a persistent assumption that it only related to night time sleep.

The OP mentioned trying to get baby down early evening. It's not a huge leap to consider this may mean putting baby to bed, upstairs. There have been many other threads which said similar and meant the same. As i said, persiatant incorrect assumption. There a nothing controversial, given the context of this being the sleep board on a parenting forum. Since you work in the field, I was merely helping the cause

Anyway, this is derailing the thread. The OP has already said she is room sharing in the early evening, so no SIDS risk in that way anyway.