Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Sleep

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler. Need more advice on your childs development? Sign up to our Ages and Stages newsletter here.

Help me with 3 -4 month sleep regression

8 replies

Sailawaygirl · 14/02/2024 08:31

DS is 16 weeks - was a good sleeper up to 3 months and had started to go between 3 and 5 hour stretches between night time feeds. He can go to sleep on his own at night and after feeds. Sometimes would take up to 30 mins of him making the grunting sounds before he went back to sleep but he always seemed able to settle him self.
however..... recently he is still going off to sleep ok, i put him down at about 7.30 - 8pm but...... the max time he sleeps for is 3 hours and then he is awake every 2 hours ( sometimes less). He settles fine after feed - looks asleep but then starts lifting his legs up and down banging his legs on the mattress ( who knows what the neighbours think as the noise travels through the floor/wall!). no obvious discomfort, although i am wondering if he is teething?

the banging of legs can go on for over 30mins and it escalates into calling out. The only thing that seems to help his feeding him ( although this seems just for comfort between waking's that are for food)
Ive tried stroking him, picking him up, white noise, co sleeping ect but nothing works apart from feeding him. He has one nappy change in the night because i thought he might be uncomfortable with a big nappy - possible makes a slight difference

im beginning to feel grumpy and grizzly myself in the night from increased broken sleep. I am hoping that I can have some reassurance that :
1 - this is just a phase / or due to teething
2 - feeding to sleep is ok
3 - his night time sleep will start to increase again
4 - have i missed anything?

thank you - my gut says just hang on in there and it will pass

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Everythingwinniethepooh · 18/02/2024 23:22

Oh bless you! Hang in there. Has he found his hands, and if so does he have them free to suck? My DD is almost 16 weeks, when she found her hands and I started leaving her hands uncovered at night (rather than pulling the mittens at the end of her sleepsuit sleeves over) she slept much better as she could suck her fingers to self soothe. Not perfect by any means but seems to help for her!

thecatsthecats · 20/02/2024 13:44

Sympathies from a fellow leg-thumper!

One thing I'm hoping might fix it is a new sleeping bag - he kicks against anything he finds, and his toes are right at the end now.

I'll report back if that makes a difference!

It might also be related to wind - even if you can't hear a fart (and our son is trumping away...) He might be easing his belly and letting some out quietly.

ThankGodForDancingFruit · 20/02/2024 14:50

Joined after browsing MN for a little while, just to respond to this!

My little one is exactly the same, he also sometimes shakes his head from side to side. The HV described both movements as self-soothing, and a completely normal - noisy! - stage of development. He’s 17 weeks and is definitely in a sleep regression period, with the added fun of 16 week jabs.

He has started to roll over from the hip, by throwing his knees up and over, and definitely practices this in his sleep as well.

The most sleep I get is 2 1/2 hours, between feeds and flailing… let’s hope we all get some rest soon!

Sailawaygirl · 24/02/2024 09:31

@thecatsthecats has the new sleeping bag helped? I was thinking about that too.

OP posts:
Sailawaygirl · 24/02/2024 09:35

@ThankGodForDancingFruit I'm glad its not just me. Actually the leg thumping seems to have got a bit better this week but he is still waking very often night feeds.
I feel he is eating more in the night then the day now! He can self settle a bit better in the morning but wakes up crying in night and all I can do is feed him to sooth.

OP posts:
thecatsthecats · 24/02/2024 11:49

I haven't tried it yet because his jabs were postponed, and they've only just arrived, so I'm going to introduce them after his jabs on Monday now.

Last night he was making the bed shake, but he did only wake up 3 times instead of 4.

FlyingHighFlyingLow · 28/02/2024 18:54

Joining in solidarity. I've got an almost 12 week old and the last week he's decided he can no longer sleep longer than 45 mins, day or night. I'm so so so tired! Goes down fine but 45 mins later he's scratching his eyes out, head banging side of crib until he wakes himself up, then the screaming starts.

Floundering66 · 01/05/2024 08:26

FlyingHighFlyingLow · 28/02/2024 18:54

Joining in solidarity. I've got an almost 12 week old and the last week he's decided he can no longer sleep longer than 45 mins, day or night. I'm so so so tired! Goes down fine but 45 mins later he's scratching his eyes out, head banging side of crib until he wakes himself up, then the screaming starts.

Did this get any better for you? My 16 week old has started rubbing his head and eyes everytime I lay him down. He wakes himself up.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page