4 month sleep regression help

[yellowponcho]

My previous "good sleeper" is now waking up hourly at night. Any tips on how long this last and if things will ever go back to "normal". Should I be doing something now to set us up for better sleep in The future. Currently either feeding back to sleep or trying to stick the dummy back in. Any help appreciated

My 19 week old started with hourly wake ups about 3 weeks ago, I started doing pick up put down a bit and trying to get them to settle in their cot at that first and second wake up (as I knew they didn't need milk). This helped to lengthen wake ups to 3-4 hours. I think because they were falling asleep in cot. I am bf and feed every 3ish hours during night. Now, I put down drowsy but awake and they settle on their own but cry at the 30 minute mark but I do not pick them up, I just reassure I'm there and put my hand on their tummy.
However, from 2am onwards (when sleep pressure less I guess) they wake up A LOT as they roll around the cot and startle themselves awake! It's a nightmare and anything goes - feeding, cuddling, rocking, shushing. I just removed swaddle last week so hope it settles down!

I think I’m still going through this. It started 5 weeks ago. We had about 2 weeks of very regular wake ups and now we are down to either an amazing night 2/3 times a week or a 2 wake up night but with a very long wake up in middle of night(1.5 hour plus) and early start so everyone is tired!
im following to see what to do! I was just going with flo hoping it would settle and feeding at every wake but it’s still going on and sometimes a feed isn’t sending her back either!!!
no idea what to do ! My son naturally got better at sleep at around 6 months but he was always an awful sleeper while mine was great till 16 weeks when regression began

Thanks for the replies. We'd a slightly better night last night with longer stretches of sleep. Not convinced I did anything massively different to achieve this but I did play white noise all night and got a baby to fall asleep in cot. Will try the same tonight and see what happens

@yellowponcho glad u got more rest. Weirdly mine goes down awake but in night she can’t resettle herself. A feed used to send her back but now transferring her back to cot results in her waking and being up forever.
how do u settle urs? Mine doesn’t respond to patting and I tried a dummy yest but she thinks it’s a toy and keeps messing about with it! Prob too late to introduce one for me

Last night the dummy worked to resettle a couple of times. I've found putting teething gel on the dummy works if he doesn't want to take it but obviously can't do that every time. I also gave a small feed but this didn't resettle him so ended up giving a longer feed which worked. Patting and shushing alone definitely doesn't cut it!

@Addidas do you have a set routine during the day? I try to follow a 2 hour wake window but daytime routine really depends on what we are up to that day. Bedtime is different depending on wake windows/feeds.

@yellowponcho yes we tend to nap
915-1030
1230-230 then 430-5
sometimes this is mixed up if going out but days we are home or not going far is what I aim for. Good luck tonight!!!! Ahh!!! My friend had a sleep consultant at similar age and that’s the recommend times

Hi
I am really reaching out for help. My son is 16 weeks old and his sleep has got so much worse. He was previously sleeping in stretches of about 5 hours. Now I’m lucky if it reaches 3!
My husband works a lot so I am looking after my son all day and doing all the wake ups. I am exhausted.
To make matters work, I go back to work in 2 weeks so am dreading being so exhausted. Luckily, I’m a teacher so am only back for 3 weeks before the Summer holidays.
He wakes at 7am, has a 45 minute nap at 9am, a 2 hour 15 nap at 12 and a cat nap around 4:45. He goes to bed at 7pm and has a wake up at 10/10:30 for a full feed. We have established a good bedtime routine and I can see on his monitor during his naps that he has the capacity to self soothe on occasion.
Any advice/help appreciated.
Thank you!

@Zebramumma22 I wish I had an answer!
everyone says if they can self settle it’s fine. But it’s not true as mine puts herself to sleep every night at 7pm but can’t in middle of night. So I just feed her . She only takes 2/3 oz and is back to sleep so I know she’s not hungry she’s just using it to suck.
last night she slept at 7. I fed at 11 and 2 and then she was up at 545! Aghhhhh! Like a 6 week old!

my plan is to move bedtime to 730 and keep the last gap to 2.5 hours not 2 hours as maybe she’s undertired?!

Mine was waking only once a night before the 4 month regression messed it all up. Now at nearly 9months old she is still waking for feeds every 2.5 hrs, occasionally more. I have no useful advice as clearly I handled the regression badly but just wanted to share my tale of woe. I didn't use a dummy so perhaps that will help you avoid the reliance on feeding to sleep. Good luck anyway.

That is really good sleep for 16 weeks, I think you need to reset your expectations a bit. It's biologically normal for baby to wake through the night and to need feeding/comfort, it protects them against SIDS. You'll just need to ride it out I'd afraid.

Mine didn’t come out of it really until we dropped to one nap per day which was when she was about 12 months. My first was worse and was more like 18 months.

It's not regression, it's just a baby with no object permanence checking to see if their mother is there. Just be there, they go right back to sleep when they see you.

@woodencoffetable Hahaha, I wish answer was as straight forward as that!

Also, you shouldn't be using a monitor at that age - all sleep should be with an adult in the room. 16wks is prime time for SIDS and baby shouldn't be sleeping alone til 6m earliest.

It really is though. It's the solution, it's all they want is to know you are there and they are safe. Co-sleeping is the answer and so is breastfeeding but we aren't allowed to say it.

@woodencoffetable it's not the answer, I wish it was. I attempted Co-sleeping again at 4am and she just kicked me for 2 hours. She also pulls off when finished breastfeeding and then needs winding so not a solution in this house despite regular attempts. I'd love it to be as easy as getting baby to sleep, settle and lie still next to me just by pulling them into bed with me. Who are these babies who sleep peacefully in bed with their mothers? Mine rolls, kicks, wants to play. Mine is 4.5 months old

Though the advice is to keep baby in room until 6 months, people have to make a choice that is right for them and not be judged for it. People know their baby best and perhaps baby doesn't settle with distractions around so needs to be in another room with monitoring.

Mine did until age two but I had to put her in her own room then as feeding was becoming unbearable. A baby though? I suppose what you say seems alien to me but it's the experience of all my friends too that it's so much easier to co-sleep. I don't think we are the exception, and if you look globally and biologically across mammalian species it's the norm.

Yes @woodencoffetable yes I understand it's the norm but it's not always a solution when it doesn't help anyone sleep! I've tried it so many times but my baby just doesn't settle like that

@Addidas
Just checking in to see how things are going for your little one. I hope you are getting more sleep.
We have been visiting family and now my fella is teething and has a cold so things have been all over the place. Have had a few occasions where he slept 5 hours (woohoo) but generally he's awake every 2ish hours.
He's getting big for his next to me so need to rethink sleeping arrangements soon too!!

@yellowponcho things r more settled here! Generally having 2 wake ups…some nights just one! Sometimes they r quick feed ones sometimes longer

its def not like before regression where it was predictable night on night (1 wake up 11.5 hours sleep) but it’s totally fine and normal and I’m happy with where we are

I hope ur little one settles a bit more but sounds like they are getting there maybe?!
mine is 5 months now….I didn’t do anything except try ignore her when she wakes if she isn’t crying and kept her nap schedule fixed as I could !

@yellowponcho we waking up lots again!!!!
how is ur LO?

@addidas Sorry to hear it’s gone bad again. Good you got some better nights to recharge but hopefully things change for the better again soon. We are still waking every 2 or so hours distressed and only settling with a feed. I didn’t want to try break any habits during this heat so I just fed him when he looked for it. But I live in hope. I’ve loads of sleep training books from my first and dont want to dust them off.