4 month crying and kicking in sleep

[MrsW32]

For the last few of nights, my 4 month old has woken us up with either kicking or slamming his legs down in the crib, really hard to the point we keep thinking he’s tipped over his crib or crying/whinging but he’s not awake. Sometimes it’s both at the same time. Before all this he was sleeping through the night from about 10.30pm to 6am without needing a feed. We’ve tried waiting it out the crying but eventually crave in and pop his dummy back in after 5 minutes. We find we’re doing this 2-3 times a night. I know he’s not hungry as I can tell his cry and he settles straight away after we put the dummy in, which is never the case when hungry. I don’t know whether this is a sleep regression or something else.

Has anyone experienced this and what did you do to resolve it? I’m writing this at 4am after putting him dummy back in 😬

i think it’s a self soothing thing! Mine went through a stage of leg slamming and twisting his head side to side repeatedly! The whinging in his sleep could just be him in active sleep xx

4m sleep regression?

Apparently at this age baby is simultaneously going through massive growth spurts & developmental leaps, plus their sleep is changing from newborn sleep to more similar to adult sleep cycles. So when they enter the light sleep part of a cycle it's easy for them to wake instead of going back to a deep sleep

The leg slamming is repetitive motion for self soothing. And I personally wouldn't ignore the crying: they need you, even if it's just for comfort rather than food. Although you may find some nights they do need feeding: my baby also really ramped up how much they fed during 4m.

It appears to be sleep regression. Regarding the crying, from the advice I’ve read they say trying not to cuddle or rock them as they’ll get used to it and will regularly wake expecting to be comforted. To be honest, I rather not get into the routine of that during the night. But he seems to soothe straightaway once the dummy is back in. Not sure if it’s because the dummy keeps falling out why he keeps waking. Also my health visitor and GP said there’s no need to give him a night feed as he’s gaining weight healthily.

I just feel I have to ride it out and just be prepared to for the frequent disturbances. I have thought about sleep training too but not sure if it’s too soon for that