Restless from early hours-sleep regression?!

[JustMumNowNotMe]

This is my third child so you'd think I'd knia this, but the first two slept so badly i didn't ever notice any sorr of regression.

DC3 is 4 months old and has slept very well sin e birth, has always self-settled to sleep and still does.

Only now he is restless acter his 1am feed and doesnt really settle again Hes not waking up as such, just restless.
I'm shattered as i can't sleep whist he's tossing and turning.

Is this sleep regression or could it be wind build up from earlier in the day?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Dear lord, sorry for the typos! One handed burning eyed typing isn't great haha!

My typing is worse, so don't worry about it!

Have you tried a dummy? I also value a side car cot through this stage (one side removed off any normal cot and wedges up to your bed). It means you can cuddle into the cot yourself, from your bed. Keep inserting dummy without even opening your eyes or moving. I firm hand placed on baby's chest is also a reassuring thing to settle baby into a deep sleep.

Now is the age to lol at how you get baby to sleep initially. In-cot settling methods are most useful for baby to learn independant settling.

HI yes he has a dummy, i put him in and give him his dummy and he goes to sleep fine from 8-1ish but after rhis us restless until 5 when we get up for milk etc.

He doesbt seem particularity awake, just moving about and grumbling. He doesn't cry or anything. He is just really restless, and i am putting the dummy in constantly between these times.

Daytime naps are all fine, put him down dummy in and hes out like a light. Not restless during the day, only after 1am?!

He could need more daytime sleep. Not necessarily longer naps, but less awake time between naps making them more frequent.

Sounds very much like he's in a light sleep for the second half of the night, struggling to get into a deep sleep. Some possible reasons for light sleeping at night that you could trial and error to see if they make a difference:

• not enough daytime sleep over the previous 24/48 hours. Try more frequent naps and naps as long as possible.

• not enough calories over the previous 24/48 hours. Try reducing the time between feeds so there are more feeds per day. Also bigger feeds, if possible, by reordering after winding.

• the method of going to sleep is not conducive to staying asleep. This isn't the case with you since he is going to sleep in the cot. More relevant to those cuddling/rocking to sleep

• Developmental changes. Sleep often goes to pot when learning the major motor skills: rolling, crawling, standing, walking. Some babies need to be actively taught to stay still and relax in order to go to sleep.

• Pain/uncomfortable. Things like teething, wind, illness, too hot or too cold.

Hmmmm you could be on to something with the sleep. He naps well but happily stsys awake for 1.5/2hours, sometimes longer between them so perhaps i should put him down sooner?

He feeds roughly every 2 hours in tje daytime at the min, has 4-6 ounces each feed so not sure i can up it but could maybe try adding in an extra dream sleep or two in?

Ive tried gripe water etc in case of wind but its not made much difference. He does struggle with trapped wind, but if it was this disturbing him wouldn't he be upset?!

With the girls their sleep was consistently shit from day one so i was so excited to have such an easy sleeper this time! If he was awake for feeds i wouldn't mind, its just this not awake thrashing about that's getting annoying.

Interesting because both of my girls were "challenging" (for want of a better word) in terms if sleep. Whereas both my boys were much easier. Purely anecdotal obviously, but my experience is that boys tend to be easier.

My youngest was a 2 hourly feeder too (91st centile chunk as a baby). She rarely went more than 90 minutes awake time. In fact i used to split the whole day into 2 hour blocks when she was this age:

• Wake and look at the clock. Make sure I was getting her back to sleep in about 1h15m
• Feed
• Play/activity/go out
• Settling to sleep when been awake for 75m
• Aslerp Asleep and expect about 30-45m nap.

Wake and repeat. It ended up being almost exactly 2 hourly repeated cycles, with one nap and one feed in every 2 hours.

Perhaps im lettinh him go too long then so Will try your timetable and see if it helps. Interesting about your boys being easier too! If i could guarantee they eould all be like DC3 I'd have 3 more! 😂😂