Baby waking every hour - 4 months old

[Gemstonez]

Hi,

just wanted to know what other people’s experience was of the 4 month sleep regression (he is just over 4 1/2 months old) . We are currently in the middle of it and are 4 weeks in. He is waking every hour or every 2 on a good night. Will this ever end? Haha! We have started some light sleep training and he has started to fall asleep on his own at bed time but it doesn’t seem to be helping what so ever! He is also a very windy baby (he has CMPA) and that used to wake him on the best of nights so worried this hour waking is going to be permanent!

Just would love to know other peoples experience please.

Many Thanks

I recently started a thread about this too. We are also about 4 weeks into regression with a CMPA baby, no sign of it ending yet 😩

Aww no I’m sorry you’re in the same boat as us 😂 but also nice to know we arnt alone. We had another tough night last night 😅

Was there any hope of it ever ending on your thread?

If there is anything you can rely on with baby sleep, it’s that it will change. The first year is just all over the place, they’re growing and developing so rapidly of course it will affect their sleep. How could it not? And every baby is different too. The term regression isn’t very helpful, they’re not going backwards, it’s part of them developing and moving forward. You can’t sleep train them out of developing. Sleep changes are a normal part of being a baby. The best you can do is try to protect your own rest so can cope with it. I’ve always just bedshared and I’ve not been tired through 2 quite wakeful babies. This article might be worth a read.

https://sarahockwell-smith.com/2017/07/24/the-rollercoaster-of-real-baby-sleep/

Do not read anything by Sarah Ockwell-Smith. Honestly, she will make you want to throw either the baby or yourself out of the window.

You do not have to continue to live like this. Sleep train your baby at bed time and naps so they can self settle and they will likely return to waking just to feed.

It does end! I promise!

I don’t do sleep training with mine (we co-sleep when they’re little). One thing I would say though is sometimes it can be easy to attribute everything to sleep regression and forget to check other factors. Not that you’ve necessarily done this, but I know lots of parents who’ve overlooked things like baby being too hot/cold, too much light in the room, same night environment as going to sleep in etc and once sorted things do improve.

Otherwise though, it does get easier and they do end up sleeping for much longer periods again. I just kept repeating the motto, “every night is a night closer to sleep”. 🙈

If you can, try and swap in and out with partner or get them to take baby very early morning to give you some actual time to sleep.

The nights where he has been up every hour or more I have given in and put him in bed with me and fed him (he is EBF). Last night I did this and tried to put him back 3 times then just give in and let him sleep in our bed for abit.

We had been doing some light sleep training through the day with naps which has been going well and have started this week doing this when we put him to bed instead of me feeding him to sleep which also seems to be going well. But when he wakes through night I just feed him to sleep as I just don’t have the energy to see if he will go over by himself. I worry though he is getting fed too much at night and getting in a bad routine.

we just keep saying ride the wave but sometimes it just seems like it’s never going to get better haha

It will end.

i have 2 kids one just grew out of it the other one nothing i did helped. My conclusion is there isn’t anything you can do other than wait it out.

When you have a small baby a few weeks can feel like years. But it does pass. I assume (hope!) you are on mat leave and can chill during the days. With my youngest i cancelled baby groups etc during this time and just hibernated a lot. Be kind to yourself. Get your partner to do the housework.

Trust me you’re going to blink and suddenly your child will be 8 and you’ll wonder where the time went and it’ll be a distant memory. I promise x

Oh and i saw you saying about feeding to sleep. Don’t worry about it. At this age nothing is habit forming, he’s still a tiny little tot. I’d start to pause for thought if he was 12 or 18 months and not able to self settle without milk but at this stage whatever helps you get some rest, do it x

You honestly can’t overfeed an EBF baby and there is no concern about bad habits for sleep. It’s totally normal to feed to sleep at this age. My 2yo does bedtime with dad, but she will often wake once to feed for 5 mins or feed in the morning for about the same time. She goes off fine with dad but was EBF to sleep until about 1y. They grow out of it on their own at their own pace 😊

Thanks everyone! Sometimes we just need that reassurance. He keeps me up all night then wakes up with a big smile on his face haha it’s a good job he is cute

My toddler wa high needs and very sensitive from 3 weeks. At 4 month sleep regression I thought how courl it get worse. It did. Qaking every 45mins until 6am. It got better around 7 months then a bit better at 9 months and then 12 months it all went backwards again.

He started to sleep through at 20motha once fully weaned.
Now 27 months sick, teething and back to waling up 1-3 times a night.
Ee.babies are chill and some are high needs and need eztra parenting
. nothing you have done. Don't wueation that.

Just love on your baby spoil them with your presence and yes it will end. It will get better. You may have set backs. But know it is nothing you did. Your doing great Mama.
When they are age 10 and refusing to wake up for school and your are late yet again you will have that yo worry and stress about. Parenthood.

Hi

I just wanted to come on for an update because it annoys me when you search for these and never get an update 😂 Anyways we decided to try our now 5mo (as of this week) in his own room to see if that helped with the 1 to 2 hour wakings. We also started weaning him at 4 1/2 months with advise from the HV and also have been doing some gentle sleep training through night (not running in as soon as he cries and he goes back over within minutes). All in all this past week has been soooo much better. On one of the worst nights he has woken around ever 2-3 hours (still much better than 1-2 hours) but on a few nights he has went 7-9 hour stretches of sleep. What a change. I think we have been disturbing him being in the same room and also not been giving him any time to go back over himself. All in all he is so much more happier in general.

Just thought I would share to give other people hope 😂