Ugh 4 month sleep

[Newmum26]

My LO was sleeping through from 10 Weeks up until a week ago 😩
He's now started to wake for a bottle around 3/4 hours after going to sleep. He wakes takes a full 7oz and then goes back down no problem in his crib.
It's not the going back down that's the problem he doesn't that fine but I just don't know why he's gone backwards to waking up so often during the night for a bottle?!
Is it the 4 month sleep regression?!
Is it his teeth hurting him?!
Or is it because he's hungry and needing more milk?!
I can see why people wean earlier than 6 Months if their babies start waking up again during the night.
He has been suffering with his gums and teeth bless him and is very sore so I think king maybe that's waking him and then he's realising he's hungry?
What do you guys think?
And I'm also considering the Hungry baby milk.
Thanks in advance :)

Waking up in the night is completely normal, and that's not very many wake ups to be honest. It could be anything from teething to a growth spurt.
Have you tried increasing the amount of bottles or the oz in each one during the day?
Weaning early is definitely not the answer, as the easiest way to get calories in is milk, compared to veg/other early weaning foods.
Every 3-4 hours does seem completely normal to me though, especially as their tummys are so small!

My DS was the same, really good sleeper until about 3 months, then gradually started waking more. We're at 4.5 months now, and have had some of the most horrendous nights ever. A good night is him waking twice between 8 and 6. On a bad night he might be up every 2 hours. This happens on average once a week. In the nicest possible way, shift your mindset from trying to get him to go all night without a feed, to working out how to survive this phase.

I am slowly going mad from lack of sleep, but I know it won't last. Sorry that all I have to offer is empathy

I assume in the daytime you are offering bottles with more milk in than baby will drink? In which case bigger bottles makes no difference.

Try to make your feeds closer together in the daytime, so that there are extra bottles per day being taken during the daytime. This means less needed at night.

For example if you currently feed:

7am 10am 1pm 4pm 7pm 12pm (6 bottles per day)

Try:

7am 9am 11am 1pm 3pm 5pm 7pm 11pm (8 bottles per day)

Try waking baby for a dreamfeed when you/DH go to bed, 11pm ish.

Then develop an alternate way to settle baby that is not feeding. Try to settle baby this way if you can. For example dummy may help. Or hand on chest and shushing (that may involve crying - hence why I'd use a dummy).

Also start moving baby's bottles so that he's not feeding to sleep. Have a different way to get baby to sleep.

Not much help but just wanted to add that we're now at 6 months and still not over the 4 month sleep regression. A good night is 3 wakings, a bad night is... a lot worse. Don't wean early - I know lots of people who did and it made things a whole lot worse.

Thanks Guys for the advice.
It seems quite common from what I've heard and read.
I guess I've just been spoilt as he was sleeping through from 6 Weeks and now I'm like 'What are you doing waking up twice a night?!'
What was your baby doing before the sleep regression ForgetAboutSleep?

CaptWentworth
That's so true about the mindset I think at the moment I just keep thinking why are you or sleeping through like you were what's changed?! Thanks 😊

Don't have much advice, but am going through the same thing myself - at 17 weeks DD went from sleeping 12 hours to waking every couple of hours.

Thanks everybody for the advice. I've increased daytime feeds, and am working on getting her into more of a routine.

Good luck newmum!

Before, DS would wake once or twice a night... so he was never sleeping through but it was a hell of a lot better than it is now!

We were super smug when we brought DS home. From a couple of weeks old he slept from 8 til 3, then went back down until after 6. I really wondered what all the fuss was about. He was obviously instilling some false security in us, so that he could hit 3 months and completely change the game! You're doing great, this is normal and some day you will sleep again

I'm glad I found this thread- I'm in exactly the same situation. Sounds very similar to CaptWentworth's baby. He would go 8 or 9 hours without waking, but from about 4 months now wakes at least twice a night, last night every two hours. It's so hard! I'm having to adjust my expectations.

Do you all have good bedtime routines? We do have a routine but I do feed until he is very sleepy, and have got worse at it as he's become harder to settle. Any advice on that, or should I not worry too much? I've read so much conflicting advice

We've done a bedtime routine since birth. Come rain or shine DS is bathed, a story if he's not too tired and fed to sleep. He will go down then but usually wakes again after 10 or 20 minutes and needs to suck a finger to sleep

I know this exactly what I'm doing wrong, feeding him to sleep. He then wakes because he finds himself in the cot instead of my arms and can't self settle yet. It's just so easy, and right now we need easy.

When he's 6 months I will start doing some sleep training, but until then I'm just doing whatever it takes for us all to get a decent sleep!

I also feed to sleep but he used to be fine to sleep through from that, now he often wakes after an hour. I'm going to try to reduce the feed to sleep from now on, gradually- it's just becoming harder as he's finding it harder to settle. DH is good at settling him so I might delegate...

Yeah DS often wakes up after an hour or more. I've tried putting him down awake but he just cries and gets more and more wound up if I try to shh or pat. Will only stop when I pick him up or give him a finger to sook. We could rock him to sleep fairly easily, but I don't see the difference between that and feeding to sleep. Ultimately he needs to self-settle, but neither of us is ready to try and teach him that!

My nephew was put in his cot, fell asleep and slept all night. As I'm so kindly reminded frequently

DS has woken every two hours like clockwork all night. It's horrific! I know he doesn't need to feed every time but I can't settle him otherwise.

Last night we did (well I say we, I mean DH- I really struggle with this!) self settle at bedtime. DH did a sort of pick up put down method to get to sleep from awake. It took 40 minutes. I've heard it should get quicker and soon he'll be able to go to sleep from awake at bedtime, then I'll need to try to apply it during the night ...

Great about your nephew . So he could just do it on his own from young? All babies are different I guess. I wonder if it's my fault for feeding to sleep (and I did worry I was making bad habits even when he was sleeping really well) but some people have told me their babies naturally learned to self settle after 6 months. It's so hard to know what the right thing to do is!

Is this a sudden thing, the 2 hourly wake ups? We had that for a week or so and I just put it down to the 'sleep regression'. I think their sleep cycles suddenly change and they become unsettled. It is AWFUL, but it did get better. We didn't do anything differently, just tried to survive it.

DS was up 3 times last night. He woke when we came to bed at about 9pm and I fed him, then 1am and 4am too. The other thing I'm thinking is that because he's EBF he's hungry. He's a big boy, 91st centile, and we discussed weaning with HV. She said 6 months is ideal, but if breast milk is not sustaining him for long then maybe we need to start him on some solids.... I'd really rather not, but if I get to the point where I cannot cope anymore, I think I might.

@CaptWentworth no advice I'm afraid but we are in exactly the same position - feeding to sleep aaaall night long

This all sounds just like my DS, whose previously great sleeping went to pot at 16/17 weeks 😭 We had the two-hourly wake-ups, then the 2-3 times per night (always starting at 1am when I'd barely been asleep two hours), the loud babbling to self at 3am, shuffling up the cot etc. It lasted 3-4 knackering weeks but he seems to be through the worst. So hopefully it's just a phase for you too.

We did persevere with in-cot settling, for both naps and bedtime. In sleeping bag, cuddle, rock then put down when droopy-lidded, hand on chest and stroke leg while shushing. Dark room, white noise. I only picked him up if he cried; then rock to dozy and repeat. I set myself a limit of say, trying three times and then I just did whatever worked (in our case, usually rocking fully to sleep). At first, he rarely fell asleep in the cot; now he does more often than not. He does seem to sleep better and longer when he does. However, I never routinely fed to sleep; you might need to work on weaning baby off that first?

CaptWentworth - yes it's a sudden thing. Glad to hear it's hopefully just temporary! We figured it is a good idea to teach him to self settle anyway, so DH is doing that and it's going very well so far (fingers crossed). Last night was a much better night too, but will see how the rest of this week goes!

I also think DS could be too hungry- he's always been a very hungry baby. I might introduce some solids soon (he's almost five months).