4 mo self settling at bedtime but waking every 2 hrs to be shushed back to sleep

[bozemum]

I have a 4.5 mo ds. He has recently learned to self settle at bedtime. Which I thought was going to be the answers to all our problems. Initially he was sleeping good 8 hr stretches before waking for a feed. But has just started waking every couple of hours again. I have to go to him, hold his arms down to stop them flailing around and shush him. And he normally goes back to sleep quite quickly. Unless I wasn't quick enough getting to him. And then he is too awake and I have to breastfeed him back to sleep.

Has anyone else experienced this? Its annoying cos we are so close to a good nights sleep but yet so far. Getting up every couple of hours is disruptive - even if it is just to shush him quickly.

Perhaps I need to experiment with leaving him to see if he settles himself. But he always sounds pretty awake and like he is starting to get agitated.

does he still need to be swaddled?

DD is 4 months and i still swaddle her and her arms jerking around disturbs her quite a lot

We stopped swaddling him cos it was annoying him. He generally wriggled out of the swaddle. So he is now in a sleeping bag. And also, I think the fact his arms are now free helps him self settle to sleep at bedtime, cos he lies in his cot sucking his hands for about 45 minutes before falling to sleep.

I think we are maybe at an inbetween stage where he still has some startle relex left. But won't let us swaddle him.

hmm - in that case it should settle soon

my DD is swaddled and she does get out of it during the night to suck on her hands but she isn't ready not to be swaddled

god, my ds is exactly like this (same age). if we swaddle him, he just screams (he used to like it, and would nod off quite quickly, but now just infuriates him).
however, we have never had longer nights sleep.
so cannot offer any insights but will watch to see if anyone else can.