How to survive 4 month old waking every 90 mins

[CastleTower]

Typing from sleep regression land. Tips for survival much appreciated.

Baby is almost 4 months and all this week has been waking every 90 mins. (Previously he woke every 3 hours or so, which was fine.) Not sure how I can manage much more of this.

He's breastfed and is needing feeding back to sleep every time he wakes up. However, he DOESN'T feed to sleep for naps or at bedtime. He goes down fine with a dummy and white/rain noise - so I'm not sure what the issue is when he wakes up again and why those things don't work.

He's not just comfort sucking, he's taking in quite a lot of milk each time, and seems genuinely hungry, but surely not...?

He feeds frequently in the day (every 1.5-2 hours), so I'm not sure I could fit in more calories in the day.

Unfortunately I can't express to get a break.

I've tried co-sleeping at least part of the night, but he struggles to latch in this position and I have to wake up fully to feed him anyway.

Any suggestions...? So tired I can't think right now.

Hi! I’m awake feeding my almost 5 month old back to sleep now. Same thing happened to me - she was doing the night in two 5/6-hr stretches in her own cot till 4 months then suddenly started waking every 90 minutes. I resorted to co-sleeping and eventually we both got the hang of side-lying latch out of sheer exhaustion/necessity.

One thing I have noticed is that now I can get her back to sleep by tricking her with my little finger rather than my nipple. So yes, she was drinking every time but turns out she didn’t actually need to. Also if I give her my little finger to suck on generally I can slip it out of her mouth after a minute and she stays asleep whereas that doesn’t work with the boob. So I think the drinking actually keeps her awake rather than helping her back to sleep. Have you tried the little finger trick?

Mine is also still feeding very frequently during the day btw and has been super clingy since her 4-month vaccines. The other mums at the baby group assure me it’s totally normal and will get better soon. I’m starting to see the light with nighttime now. Only issue is that MY sleeping patterns are now entirely screwed up. She’s sleeping like a baby next to me and I’m lying awake scrolling mumsnet 😭

I remember this with my first. I took to creeping in about 15mins before the 90 mins were up and gently patting/rocking her slightly in her cot her and shushing. It seemed to help the sleep phase carry over to the next one without her fully waking.
I vaguely remember something about it being to do with the timings of the sleep phases and this stopped her from waking fully at the end of her REM sleep or something.
One of my coffee group friends made a soft glove stuffed with rice that she would stuff down her bra to warm through and she would put that on her dc at the same point (baby would only fall asleep with a hand on)
Oh the things we would do in desperation!

Thanks for both your replies - we had a very slightly better night last night, so not feeling so desperate! Managed to resettle him with a cuddle as well which makes me feel better.

I think he has some bad wind poor thing! Which can't be helping either.

Sorry no advice as my DS was a terror at that age. We did sleep training at 6 months and it changed our lives overnight.

My advice to my former self in your position would have been to read Dr Ferber’s book and count down the days until 6 months when your life will return.