Baby self settles but still wakes hourly?!

[Terriblethirtytwos]

Any bright ideas?

DD is 4 months old and self settles in her cot for naps (4x 40 minutes a day most days) and at night. However she is definitely going through the four month regression at the moment and after a chunk of sleep at the start of the night, wakes every two hours and then every hour from around 2am.She has one or two proper feeds overnight but otherwise just chews on my boob for a couple of minutes and then goes back to sleep, and I put her back down. Before this, she woke twice to feed which was amazing.

Do I need to just ride it out and it’ll settle back down? Or should I stop feeding her back to sleep every hour? I am really tired now as I have a toddler so can’t nap when the baby naps!

Thank you!

It's definitely sleep regression. Has lo got a dummy? I would be tempted to reassure and settle lo in side crib rather then getting out unless you know lo is hungry.

No she doesn’t have a dummy. I probably should try to settle her without feeding when I know she’s not hungry really.

I agree. She's using you as comfort, to go back to sleep and not hungry.

I thought that the whole point of self settling was that they didn’t do that though? I’ve been sold a lie! 🤣

Lol, lo is self settling initially but not linking sleep cycles by sound, which is part of the regression

If I carry on feeding her each time she wakes will she get through the regression and sleep in longer chunks? Can that happen? Thanks for your advice by the way.

She might 🤷‍♀️ from what I read when my lo went through the sleep regression some do grow out of it some don't. We got to 6 months and did CC as she was waking every 1 to 2 hourly. I couldn't cope any longer. Sleep deprivation nearly killed me.

The regression can last 2 weeks, 6 weeks or continue through out till a lot older with regressions merging into each other.

Your welcome. I'm not all knowing, just remember when I did lots of reading on it and seeing other people's posts.

Yes. Don't worry.

There's lots of different things that disturb baby sleep in the first year. This one particular problem of light phases of sleep making sleep rubbish will last for a few weeks. Baby will improve then get teeth, learn to roll, sit and crawl, allergies, experience separation anxiety, get sick, be too hot/cold etc... non of it is forever.

I think the biggest thing that made me less tired was stopping thinking I should be fixing the issue. Once you've done the black out blinds, white noise, falling asleep where they stay asleep etc... the rest is in the hands of the gods.

Once you've done the black out blinds, white noise, falling asleep where they stay asleep etc... the rest is in the hands of the gods.

This is good advice, thank you. With my older DD her sleep was so bad I never knew when she had a regression as it couldn’t have gotten much worse, so I feel a bit clueless this time around.

If you've survived a truly awful sleeper you can survive the 4 month regression. You can do it!

It's terrible though, I thought I was going to die from lack of sleep at the time. Although ds also had silent reflux which made it all worse. Are you able to split the nights with anyone? Can you feed lying down and cosleep for the part of the night where she wakes hourly. That's how I survived.

I know this is a few days old but I'm experiencing the same thing.

I wouldn't worry too much about comforting back to sleep. It baffles me a little how comfort is viewed as a negative in regards to infant sleep, when often it's the quickest way to get everyone back to sleep. Rather that than 'shh patting' for 40 mins or whatever the textbooks sqym

*textbooks say.

Here's hoping we're both on the other side soon!

Hang in there, my little boy was exactly the same - he could self settle without any issues prior to the regression then was up every 45mins-1 hour for just over a week. We didn’t feed for every waking, only 2 x per night max and he eventually just settled back into his old sleeping habits. Fingers crossed it passes soon for you, it’s so hard at the time.

Super normal and healthy for baby to nurse to sleep. Melatonin and oxytonin is released which relaxes baby and puts them to sleep. I nurse to sleep and it wake ups and my DS is 14months old. He was waking every 45mins - 1.5hrs during the 4 month sleep regression lasted 3 weeks. But he slowly extended after that.
Now we are going through molar teething and he is back to waking every 1.5hr - 2 hours all night.
It is what it is. Every baby is different.

I know having a toddler makes it hard to have great in the day..do you have OH/partner to help out. Thats what me and hubby do and it is working. We are also planning on baby number 2 soon so i am prepared mentally yo do this all over again. It is what it is.

High five 👋.
I agree Dr Bill Spears, Dr Mckenna and Pinky McKay helped me realise this to.

Hi @Terriblethirtytwos just curious on how things are now for you? Mine has always been a bad sleeper but is waking every 1-2hrs atm despite self settling from awake for every nap and for night sleep and I am going slowly insane. Any light on the horizon?

Hiya @SeanDanielorBalonz! It’s so hard isn’t it! Sorry things are rough right now but in my experience, thankfully yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The regression lasted 2-3 weeks I think, and then she settled into waking 3x a night. Often less but mostly it was 3 wakes. I stopped feeding her overnight when she was 9 months old and the wake ups reduced to once a night or occasionally sleeping through by the time she was 10m. The sleep throughs have slowly been increasing and now she is 11m she is sleeping through more often than not. Think she’s had one wake up in the last week. It’s felt pretty manageable since we stopped night feeds and I started getting longer chunks of sleep, and it’s magic when I get a full night’s sleep! I really hope things improve for you soon.