Still in the 4 month regression 5 weeks later 😢 GP or wait it out?

[NovemberFlush]

I've posted about this before, but our LO who has just turned 4 months has been going through what we believe is the 4 month regression for 5 weeks. We are so exhausted, every night time and every nap can be so hard. At night he does his first stretch of sleep which can be anywhere from 1-3 hours usually. Then after this, he's awake every 1 hour or every 40 minutes. It takes multiple attempts to get him down in his next to me, as he wakes up loads. My poor dh insists on being the one to soothe him as I breastfeed, and he still feeds quite a bit. And my dh is up with him every hour of the night after the first stretch of sleep, over and over again. 😢 We've tried bedsharing, which doesn't really make a difference anymore. We can't swaddle anymore. He enjoys rolling onto his tummy and tends to sleep best like this, but doesn't always do it. He turns onto his side and usually within a couple of minutes rolls onto his back and cries. This happens multiple times through the night. Daytime naps are hard, he only sleeps 30 - 50 minutes usually. I worry he's not getting enough rest. When I've googled, it says to ask a gp if it goes beyond 6 weeks, should we?? Or do we just wait it out? We have a bedtime routine every night which we try and stick to. Just feel so helpless and tired all the time 😢

Also just to echo pp....we got larger chunks when DD went into her own room at 6 months.

Sorry if I was unclear, I meant I'm worried he'll outgrow the next to me before he can sleep enough to be in his own room. I dont think we'll be able to fit the big cot into our room.
I do wonder if having his own space might be good when he's just that little bit older.
Did your baby sleep better in her own room then?

I am sure he's not hungry, I've tried feeding on every wakeup and few nights and he's just not bothered every time. Most times when he wakes up he just needs help falling back to sleep and can sleep for over an hour. Depending on the night of course. He loves his breastmilk, so would definitely have it if he fancied it! 😅 He only wants feeding every 2 hours or more overnight.

I don't see the connection between sleeping well and moving them to be in their own room?

Would it just be too much hard work to have to get up and resettle them in another room?

It did seem to start getting better when we moved her, and like I said, it was good for me and my husband to have some space back, even if her sleep wasn't massively improved immediately. It could've just been coincidental timing that it started to improve with the move though.

I have heard lots of people say it helped to move them though! There's nothing to lose by trying either. You can always move them back in with you, if it doesn't work for you.

@CommissarySushi We were thinking of moving him around 6 months at the earliest because of the guidelines. I think he'll probably outgrow the next to me before that though as he's quite long. I've just heard from others its a hassle going back and forth I suppose! But I guess that's others' experiences.

The 4 month sleep regression is a permanent change in sleep patterns and babies have to learn to consolidate sleep. This is where parents often decide for or against sleep training. Sometimes this regression can be short but other times it takes them a lot longer to figure it out. My baby hit the 4 minth regression and only just started sleeping longer stretches at 8 months, and through the night at 11. I continued to soothe him and feed him and didn’t want to sleep train. The GP won’t likely be able to do anything here unless you have concerns about something else being wrong but it sounds normal to me, all babies are different and some hit the regressions harder than others!

I had the same with my oldest. It lasted until we sleep trained at 10 months, which we had to do as I was losing my mind after six months of being woken every 40 minutes.

I know it feels totally all consuming. Do you have another place in the house where you can sleep while your DH settles the baby? Getting a solid chunk of 3-4 hours really helps, and then you can be on baby duty while DH sleeps.

I also found it helpful to keep snacks and a flask of tea next to the bed. Didn’t help the baby sleep, but made me feel much better when I was on breastfeed #6 of the night!

I really hope your baby sleeps better soon. But if they don’t - you’re doing nothing wrong!! You’re a wonderful parent, and they will sleep one day, promise!

@Lalarosex thank you, that's reassuring to hear. 8 months feels like a long way off, hopefully our LO can learn to sleep well without sleep training too.

Unrelated to sleep, but is your username a Champagne Problem reference? Put it down to sleep deprivation it took me 100+ posts to notice. We’re not planning on moving our baby out until his wakeups have settled, and I’m pretty sure that he’s not waking up because of me. We’ve sidecarred the IKEA cot to give us extra space for him.

It is indeed 😊
That's good, I dont think we quite enough space for our baby's cot in our room. How has your baby been sleeping the last few nights?

Hit or miss, this is our huckleberry screen shot. Still no super long sessions, but it’s not 40 mins - 1 hour any more. He’s been really unsettled in the day recently though and I feel like I’m not getting enough night sleep to deal with it 😭

@toastofthetown That's interesting to see, it's not too dissimilar to ours. I'll post it here. I dont track feeds or anything else, just sleep.
Sunday night was lovely for us 😅
We get a stretch at the start of the night between 2 and just under 4 hours usually. Then it gets a bit less as the night goes on, usually just under 2 hour stretches. We've had the odd night here and there which have been better, but overall there's not been much change. He did self soothe early this morning again and fell asleep on his own. He only tends to do this from around 5/6 am, but at least its something!