4 month sleep regression/training

[WildeBaby85]

Hello, FTM here. Everything I read online/in books about sleep training seems to differ, so I thought I’d see if anyone had any firsthand experience. My baby is 4 months old, and used to sleep from 7PM to around 2AM, wake for a formula feed, then sleep through until around 7 AM (I don’t wake him).

Recently he’s been waking at around 11/12 and then around every 2-4 hours until morning- I guess it’s the dreaded 4 month sleep regression! I would start trying to let him cry it out, but I’ve read that a hungry baby won’t settle- so do I just feed him every time, or try and train him to go back to sleep and last the night without any feeds?

He eats around 180ml of formula every 4 hours in the day

DON'T let him cry it out! He's too young for any sort of sleep training, you need to wait a couple more months.

When DD went through this (she woke every 45 minutes for 3 weeks), if she had been fed within the last 3ish hours (EBF, that was how long she lasted during the day) DH would get up and rock/cuddle/pat her back to sleep. If it had been 3+ hours, or if she was really upset, i fed her. Then at about 4/5am ish, we'd bring her into the bed with us so we got a bit more sleep and I'd feed her lying down.

I think this method really worked as it helped her get used to not feeding to sleep every time, which stood us in great stead a few months later when we broke that sleep association.

You need to stop thinking of this as something you can fix. This is a super normal stage of sleep for a baby, you just need to get through it. 2-4hrs is actually pretty good, awful though it seems! You've been spoilt by a good sleeper! Just focus on getting through this, and don't try and train him, he's too young and it will just be traumatic.

Hey!

I am also in the midst of the dreaded 4MSR (cba to type it out... toooo tired!)

My little boy was sleeping 6:30-2:30 then maybe 4:30 then up at 6 which I was very happy with.

Now I’m lucky if I can stretch his bedtime past 5:30 for some reason. I have tried letting him have a late nap and push bedtime back, but he will just cry until we put him back to bed !

He then wakes at 11/12 and then 2.5-3 hours until he wakes up at 5:30 am.... :(

I know it could be A LOT worse but I was so
Happy with his sleep prior to the regression... his naps have gone awry too! He will only sleep for max 30 mins at a time so just seems constantly tired but won’t resettle no matter how long I try!

You are not alone x

You don’t need to do any kind sleep training for this - if a 4 month old wakes and settles with milk it’s because they are hungry. Of course a hungry baby won’t go to sleep - no one sleeps when they’re hungry would you go to sleep hungry?