4 month old waking every hour or more!!

[Savannah11]

He's been like this for the past week. He's waking up at least every hour and I'm having to nurse him to get him back to sleep. To say I'm exhausted would be an understatement! For the past couple of nights I have ended up putting him in our bed to go back to sleep which I really don't want to do as we coslept with my DS and didn't get him out of our bed until he was 4!!! Any tips on how to get him to sleep longer? And resist the temptation of putting him in our bed?
Xx

 

[noon_child]

Sounds like the developmental stage often referred to as 4month sleep regression. Nothing "works" really, you just have to do what you can to cope till it passes. For us me and DH took it in turns to hold her while she slept (one night each) from her bedtime till about 1:30am. She would stir in our arms about every 45mins or an hour and sometimes cry and wake up more (and need a feed to fall asleep) but often just knowing we were there helped transition her to more sleep. After her 1:30am feed she often seemed less agitated and I could get her in to her cot for 2.5-3hrs before she wanted another feed. Once she was less agitated during sleep and going longer between crying out we started trying her in the cot after less time holding her. Soon we were back to 'normal'.

If you are set up for safe co-sleeping that sounds more ideal that having to stay awake to hold a baby like we did!

 

[jessmke]

Yup 4 month sleep regression. The way baby sleeps is changing. Prior to this all sleep was a deep sleep, but baby is now cycling through periods of light and deep sleep like we as adults do. They wake slightly between these sleep cycles (which last about 45 min to an hour) and they need to figure out how to get back to sleep. They figure it out eventually and go back to sleeping well-ish again. I nursed a lot and co-slept a lot during month 4. Once the regression was over it only took one night of me making sure baby went back in her crib after each waking for her to realize she doesn't get to sleep in the bed with me anymore, so the co-sleeping didn't become a long term problem for us. You just have to do whatever you need to survive this.

We are now in the 8 month sleep regression (caused by developmental leaps disturbing sleep) so I am right there with you as far as exhaustion goes! Luckily I don't have another LO to look after.

 

[Savannah11]

Thanks girls! Definitely looks like he's in the 4 month sleep regression then. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing which is nursing him back to sleep and if needs be we will have to co sleep and then do as you said have a night where we get him back into his cot. Although I'll still keep putting him down in his cot I end up putting him in our bed in the early hours when I'm too tired to keep picking him up and putting him down xx