4 Month Sleep Regression

[Coates1989]

We are in the depths of the 4 month sleep regression. About the last 2 weeks we have had anything from 45 min wake ups to 3 hours. Sadly the wake ups have got more frequent.

We use a dummy to get our LO back to sleep and I keep reading conflicting information.

Anyone has any experience on keeping the dummy whilst in the midst of the sleep regression? Does it hamper progress? Any tips?

Bump

Not sure if it would hamper progress to keep it as at 4 months my DS just decided he didn’t want the dummy anymore, I continued to offer for about a week but it was consistently refused so stopped offering.

He is 7.5 months old now and sleep has been variable since about 11 weeks really, I tend to class anything less than 5 wake ups a good night and anything more than 10 to be an exceptionally challenging night. Generally we get 2, sometimes 3 hour stretches and an occasional 4/5hr stretch.

So ultimately getting rid of dummy might have helped or hindered, his sleep might have been worse had we kept persevering with dummy, or it could have been better. Perhaps worth trying without if you have another reliable way to get baby back to sleep (feeding/rocking etc) but if the dummy is the only thing that works, perhaps keep it for the time being?

What I do know is that for us, sleep is significantly better when I forget about timings and just follow his lead, and when we get plenty of outdoor time in the day.

Sending virtual coffee and chocolate…sleep deprivation is not easy 😴

I think it's just one of those things that you have to weather. We didn't use a dummy for either of ours - four month regression nearly killed us on our first and didn't really happen with our second. We didn't do anything different in terms of feeding or sleep with them. Just luck.

Sending strength and coffee. It is absolutely awful.

Thanks both, its not going well at the moment and wakeups are so variable! I had the LO on my chest from midnight for an hour, to help him sleep. Hes definately going through some stuff.

Read so much advice about the change in sleep, and all conflicting, and the fact there is no end in sight makes me nervous 😂

4 month regression nearly killed me too. Horrendous, sounds exactly like mine. Two hours was a good stretch for us.
No idea on the dummy as we didn't use one (he had my boob for that!) But things started getting better around 6mo when I habit stacked to get him self settling. Introduced a comforter quite early on then went from feeding to sleep to shush patting, then shush pat in the cot. Then left him with the comforter in the cot after getting him 90% to sleep shush patting and it really only took 2 or 3 times in and out of the room before he fell asleep on his own.

4mo might be a bit young for this but you could start trying to work towards getting him to sleep in the cot rather than on you then at least he is falling asleep where he sleeps if that makes sense.

I follow parent and baby coach of insta, excellent reels and a podcast which helped me.

Good luck, it will pass!
Xx

We used to give a dummy rarely before the 4 month sleep regression, but then we started with it to help resettle! I don’t recall the nights being so bad but the days our little boy would do 30 mins nap on the dot for about 2 months! It does end though, good luck!

Thanks all for your messages.

We did have a slightly better night last night so we will see how the next few days go.

Glad that the dummy is not a hinderence, the concern is that if we are always using it too much we are making things worse but probably over thinking.

It is hell, but hang in there and stick with the dummy. Once you're through this phase they are so useful to support self settling and as a sleep cue. It will get better. Ours lasted 11 weeks but as soon as she could roll onto her front she started sleeping better and she also dropped her night feeds, all in one week.

@MGee123 Thats a busy week!

This may sound a strange question, how do we know the sleep regression ended?

Our DS is still going strong by waking up from anything between 45 mins to 3 hours. Very much in the depths of it!

You know when it's over when they start sleeping longer. Either all night or maybe 2 wakes.

One of mine ditched the dummy herself at 5 months. The other one we removed it at 6 months as it wasn't working, he was waking up constantly as in every 20 minutes. There was no magic improvement after that but he did get to sleep much more easily (still woke every 1-2 hours). We did sleep training in the end which resulted in much longer stretches straight away.

I guess whether you keep it depends on whether you think it's helping or hindering. If you are having wake ups every 45 minutes then that suggests it's not great... if you can get rid of it and get him to go to sleep in his own bed that would be the ideal.

Just wanted to update, and potentially seek further advice!

Since mid April the sleep regression and for the last 2 weeks its got worse; our DS has been up every hour pretty religiously.

There were 2/3 days where we thought we had cracked it as sleep did dramatically improve (although not perfect) but it wasnt meant to be.

Me and my partner are in 2 minds as to whether to remove the dummy, not totally sure if its worth it and how we go cold turkey if we do.

We are at a bit of a loss - any help would be great.

Oh no! Sorry for the late reply. Have you seen any improvement yet? 🙈