4 month old won't sleep

[Sophd195]

Turning to Mumsnet in hopes someone can offer me any advice at all, I am a first time 21 year old mum to a now 4 month old baby. He's never slept great, but recently the sleep deprivation is really getting me down! He goes down every night by 8/9pm but is always up by 11pm and sometimes stays up until 4am! I have tried everything from bathing him before bed, white noise, dummies etc. Because he is so tired he will usually then sleep until 12-1pm in the afternoon! How do I break this cycle?! If I get him up early he screams until I help him get back to sleep. My partner works away a lot of the time so coping with this on my own is an absolute struggle! Any advice would be appreciated

That sounds really tough. I think his sleep pattern is off if he's not waking until lunchtime. Try waking him a bit earlier each day and gradually bring it back round. Start waking at 11am etc.

Have you tried giving a dream feed before he wakes at 11pm? If you were to feed at 10.30pm this might prevent him waking too much and settle better.

When he is awake at night, keep it dark and low stimulus so he learns it's night time. Similarly in the morning when you are up, open his curtains and be a bit noisy so he learns it's daytime.

its so tough isn't it - but this too shall pass!

as to right now, look up 4 month sleep regression. Its a developmental phase that lasts a while so be prepared.

Do you co-sleep? maybe do that for a while (look up how to do it safely) so you can catch up on your own sleep a bit.

Also remember that sleep in babies is not a smooth linear thing - they have developmental phases that disrupt their sleep patterns for a quite a while - when they learn to roll over, sit up, walk, talk, eat...it all affects their growing brains and disturbs their sleep patterns. But of course, it does mean that they are developing and growing! You just have to go with the flow!

Hang in there