4 month sleep regression or dummy trouble?

[Kaysay2911]

Hi everyone,
My 4 month old has started sleeping terribly. Over the last few weeks his night wakings for his dummy have been increasing night on night to the point where some nights we are popping his dummy back in over 10 times. He always goes straight back to sleep when his dummy returns but I'm becoming exhausted. We had been working so hard on his bedtime routine to the point where I was able to put him in his cot with dummy, white noise and one arm swaddled and he would fall asleep around 7. He would then wake around 2 for a feed and sleep until 6ish. Then the waking for dummy started! It got the point 5 days ago where I decided we were going cold turkey and taking his dummy away. The first 2 nights went surprisingly well. It took a but longer to settle him to sleep but once he was down he slept and woke only once for a feed. Then nights 3 and 4 were hell! He woke up every 1 to 2 hours screaming. He took a long time to resettle and let's just say we were both very upset. I didn't understand why we had 2 positive nights and then nights 3 and 4 were awful. Anyway, we gave the dummy back last night as I wondered if there was just something else going on....teething/ regression or just not being ready for no dummy! I honestly believed night 1 would be the worst. Well, I think what I am rambling about is does this sound like the 4 month sleep regression or is the dummy the issue? Has anyone experienced anything like this? For the record, I am neither pro nor anti dummy. I just want the best nights sleep for my little boy.

Thanks in advance

One of my friends had a norland nanny and she also did sleep training for some of her clients. She didn’t believe in sleep regression and actually said when babies are in a good Sleep routine and then they’re not it usually for a reason that can be solved. For my friends baby it was food so she started to increase the bottle before bed.

Ah I can so relate to this! I took my DD’s dummy away at 5 months and it was the best thing I could have done in that situation. Similar to your baby, the first few nights were like magic, and then there were a couple of trickier nights where she seemed to rebel against the change. In honesty, they were only difficult at the start of sleep, not during the night, which must be tough. I stuck with it, comforting her and being with her as she worked out how to get to sleep by herself. She worked it out and now as long as she’s not overtired she goes happily on her own for naps and bedtime, and after night feeds (taking the dummy away didn’t get rid of them unfortunately!). If DS is back to all those wakings again it might be worth taking the dummy away and persevering for a few tough nights while he works out how to get to sleep without it. You can be there and support him through it.

I was just thinking about it and what I think was crucial was that the dummy was the only thing that changed when I took it away. She already had all the other sleep associations in place and wasn’t relying on me to help her go to sleep. So for her it was just adapting to going to sleep without sucking. Sounds like it would be the same for your DS.

Dillybear
Thank you for replying. Yes we had put in place white noise, sleep suit with one arm swaddled and introduced a small comforter which we safety pin to the sleep suit so he can't lift it too high. Normally with dummy in I just put him straight into his cot and after a few minutes he drifts off. I took the dummy away and for 2 nights he went to sleep with minimal help from me (hand on chest and a bit of shushing) first two nights he woke once for his feed but then the following 2 nights he was up every hour or two screaming. This is why I was wondering if it was something different or had he realised the dummy was gone...