4-month sleep regression : how long did it last?

[Sandrine1982]

Hi there. My 4-month old baby seems to be going through what I think is this famous 4m sleep regression. Just before this happened, she was getting into a habit of sleeping for longer stretches of time (4h + 3h + 3h) waking up only about twice to breastfeed. All this went out of the window about 10 days ago when she had her jabs, and we thought that was the reason for disturbed sleep. Now she will sleep for a few hours between 8pm and 11pm, but from then on it's wakey wakey every two hours, just as mummy goes to bed. It's driving us crazy. This has also coincided with her rolling over for the first time, and a few other things, like being generally more alert, refusing to eat because she's too distracted etc.
I just wanted to know if any of you have gone through the same thing: - how long did it last ???

• and is there anything else we can do to promote better sleep habits at this stage??

Thanks

I've heard tales of it lasting 2 weeks and then baby miraculously going back to previous sleep habits, however this wasn't my experience with either of my two. Baby 1 was formula fed & Baby 2 was breast fed. We just survived until we decided to sleep train months and months later once they were weaned and not night feeding any more. DS1 was easily sleep trained, DS2 was a different baby altogether and needed a much softer, longer approach.

With hindsight I could have taken some steps at the stage you're at now. You could try feeding to not quite asleep and putting baby down awake to see if they'll fall asleep in bed themselves. I think that's possibly a big bit of good sleep habits? Falling asleep in bed without feeding or rocking. Might be best to start during the day as you'd need to be disciplined to not take the easy way out at night!

Just a wee aside from someone's who's DS are now 5 & 3, I promise this stage lasts a comparative blink of an eye. Your baby will sleep a straight 10/11 hours a night eventually and you will feel human again.

Thanks Liskee! This is very useful, and I'm really hoping this will last only a few weeks.

Just a bit of background - thankfully she has no problem falling asleep on her own. She does two longer naps during the day, and we have a bedtime routine where we give her a bath, feed her, burp her, dim the lights and just carry her around in our arms singing or talking to her quietly, then we swaddle her, give her a dummy and put her straight to her cot (attached to our double bed) with some white noise in total darkness. We have to leave the room immediately otherwise I don't think she would settle.

So, I don't think the problem is her having trouble falling asleep, but then after the initial stretch she keeps waking up every two hours. I think she might be genuinely hungry, so I breastfeed her every two hours, but not more often. She generally goes back to sleep super fast.
But I'd love for her to stop waking up so often, especially in the second part of the night when my deep sleep just starts kicking in.

At the moment, I also can't imagine moving her to her own room, because actually getting up and going to feed her there would make me even more miserable. The plan was to move her at around 6 months.

Another detail, we use combination feeding, 70% breastfeeding and 30% formula (formula generally late afternoon and evening).

Hmm, I don't know..

It lasted four months with DS waking 4-8 times a night. I was on my knees. He was feeding to sleep. What helped? Eventually... night weaning. Getting strict (stopped bringing him into my bed). Finding ways to settle him that weren’t breastfeeding (patting butt, lullaby). Possibly a shift to formula.

Thanks @Pjani. You have a point. I hear many babies use the breast for comfort. I wonder if our baby is like that but I think she is not so crazy about the breast, because every time there is a slight problem (vaccinations, tongue tie snip, or just being backed up from not pooing for a couple of days...), she goes on a nursing strike. She's very pragmatic about the breast, she'll just use it to feed, but never when she's upset, she wouldn't take it. Same thing when she's too tired and just wants to sleep, she'll cry and fuss, but she would never take the breast in those moments. So I don't think breastfeeding is the problem, I know she can sleep longer stretches, I just wonder if she is just really hungry, or something else is making her wake up ...

Our DS is 4.5 months and we started the sleep regression a little early around 3.5 months. He was similar to your baby, sleeping 4h-3h-3h before, and then started waking up way more. Needing 3 or 4 feeds a night and just seemed so ravenous. The same was happening with us around day time feeding being super distracted so I don't think he was getting enough during the day! However, about a week ago he suddenly dropped back to two feeds and the last two nights he has only had one feed (which is unprecedented!) so I am really hoping this is the end of the regression! Also, I believe the four month regression also overlaps with a big growth spurt, which would explain why our babies might be a lot hungrier. The fact your baby can self settle is super reassuring so hopefully once the growth spurt is out of the way, and once she adjusts to her new rolling skills, she will begin to sleep for longer stretches and want to feed less again.

2 and a half years. Seriously.
You have my sympathy

Thanks @hodgepodge21, that sounds great! It would be wonderful :-) Fingers crossed. @Ballsdeep, oh dear - I hope not !!! That would break me !!

We went through exact same thing. 4m sleep regression and rolling coincided. And the sleep patterns were the same. Lasted a couple of days (maybe a week or so). We were on a holiday in Spain and my dd was always outside in the fresh air and she slept miraculously well during her day naps. Her night sleep got fixed pretty soon afterwards.

This might help:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/sarahockwell-smith.com/2013/08/29/help-my-4-5-month-old-is-sleeping-like-a-newborn-again-aka-as-the-4-5-month-old-babies-from-hell/amp/

The only way we are getting through it is bed sharing. Our twins sleep so much better in bed with us.

Just hang on in there. Check out the groups Biologically Normal Infant Sleep and The Beyond Sleep Training Project on Facebook. They are really helpful!

The next regression is six months so you may or may not get some respite, sorry!

Haha ... this regression might then actually merge with the next one. Auch !!!!