4 month sleep regression

[crazydiamond222]

Help! For the last 2 weeks my 4 month old has been waking up around 8 times each night and will only resettle if fed. I don't think he is actually hungry and towards the end of the night 4am ish will only sleep on me whilst flutter sucking. He will not take a dummy or bottle and is wholly breastfed so my OH cannot help.

In the day he has 5 naps which are a struggle to get him to take in the pram, sling or car seat and are generally only 30 minutes.

What can I do to help him to sleep better at night and lengthen his naps? I read it is too early for sleep training and I have tried putting him down semi sleepy or rocking to sleep but he does not settle. Any ideas? Will he grow out of this in another couple of weeks? Up until 4 months he woke a couple of times at night to feed which was manageable. During the day he is happy for about 45 minutes after waking before getting grumpy due to tiredness.

They say to never try any sleep training during a sleep regression.. not that any form of sleep training has worked for us. DD is still a terrible sleeper at 19 months and never recovered from the 4 month regression (she was OK up until then!).

I'd give it a couple of weeks and see about riding out the best you can until then.

I'm similar to pp.
DD was never the same after the 4 month sleep regression, until 16 months!

I wouldn't try sleep training but sounds like you know what you're doing so stick with it.

Maybe sleep when baby sleeps so you can catch up too.

That is a bit depressing. Does anyone have any experience of it being a short term thing or have any suggestions for improving sleep? Happy to go with it for the next couple of weeks but cannot carry on with 8 night wakenings for months.

I don't know what the answer is but we are in the EXACT same position and it's intense.

We are trying to stretch her for 2 hours between naps, putting her down awake, making sure she always has 3 hours between feeds. None of this is easy or enjoyable on 4 hours of broken sleep but I am keen to instil good sleep habits.

OP I really feel for you as I remember how difficult it was. DD was solely bf too so DH couldn't help. We actually ended up in separate rooms as we'd wake him feeding etc or if he was asleep snoring while I was awake with the baby I'd get pissed off and kick him awake!
Baby went in own room at 9 months and DH moved back in, I virtually moved back out as baby was the same wanting me/ to feed all night so I actually ended up sleeping on the floor in her room!
Going back to work when she was 6 months was so difficult and I was a zombie some days after 2-3 hours sleep, it was depressing looking at my Fitbit sleep tracker to see how little sleep I got.
I used to express at work so she had my milk in the day when I wasn't there but it was so much easier to bf when with her/ through the night to save me having to pump/ store/ sterilise as DH worked a lot so it was me doing everything.
When she got to 16 months I had already stopped day feeds and she was just having morning/ night as when she woke in the night I gave her a bottle of the 1-2 years growing up milk and found she settled better after that. Then one night at bedtime bf she cried and didn't want it (I do t think much/ if anything was coming out as I wasn't getting full boobs ever anymore) so I gave her a bottle and she took about 6oz and slept til the usual 2am wake up bottle and I just gave her a dummy then rather than keep feeding her and another bottle when she woke for the morning 6/7am. Stuck to that routine more or less since.
It was only when I stopped bf that she finally slept through BUT it's different for every baby.
How have you found bf? I was really lucky as dd took to it perfect.

But, if I had another I'd definitely (if bf went well) have dh give a bottle of formula every evening. Maybe from afew weeks old. Not only would this allow me time with dd at her bedtime but I believe (May be totally delusional) that it would teach the bedtime routine early on and I've heard the majority of babies sleep longer after a formula feed.

It will improve, it may be tonight, it may be next year, no one knows. Just rest when you can.

Thanks MrsP. breastfeeding has been ok although baby is currently so distractable during the day I am not sure how much milk he is getting. I had meant to introduce a bottle early however it got delayed as baby had an initial hospital stay and when we got home would not take it.

I am wondering if weaning will help at all with sleep, maybe I could then give extra expressed milk with porridge but trying to hold off until nearer 6 months.

Again every baby is different but with mine I weaned at 6 months and it made no difference!
I do think mine was waking out of routine through the night and obviously loved the reward of the close hold and the feed.

Would I change it? Actually no I wouldn't as mad as it sounds! She is my first so I only had her to concentrate on and I loved the closeness of bf and the bond we had and now have. Second time round I would do different as I can't obviously give new baby all my time like I could with dd.

She's 2 now, you'll know already how quick they grow but believe me before you know it there will be a year gone!

It's trial and error I think. If you don't try you don't know but maybe try 1 thing for a couple of weeks before thinking it won't work.

Really hope your sleep improves though.