4 Month Sleep Regression - Tips?

[Amythyst]

So, I have a "complicated" baby to put it nicely. He has always had some sort of issue for one reason or another.

I used to be able to put him down for bed and walk away and he would put himself to sleep quietly. He did this from like 8 weeks till about 13 weeks. He was also sleeping through the night 10-11 hours. However he has always had crap naps and only sleeps for like 30 minutes. He is still swaddled arms down - any time I've tried to transition him it has gone horribly...he just isn't ready yet.

He is also 21.5 pounds and will be 17 weeks old tomorrow. So, right on queue, he started the 4 month sleep regression and now my nights are no longer peaceful. In fact, he HATES sleeping now. If you even walk near his bedroom he starts to cry cause he thinks you're gonna put him to sleep.

I now have to swaddle him and sit down in a rocking chair and rock him to sleep. He usually screams for 3-5 minutes and then settles down and goes to sleep. I then put him in his crib. Naps are usually pretty easy. Bedtime... is a struggle. He will squirm and fight sleep and scream more sometimes. Or I'll think he's asleep and when I put him down he'll wake up 10 minutes later screaming again. He is also waking up constantly at night and I have to give him a pacifier in his crib and pray he goes back to sleep. If he wakes up at like 3 or 4 AM I really can't get him back to sleep and I have to feed him.

It is this 1 feeding that he will go back to sleep on his own. I can feed him, reswaddle him and put him back in the crib and within a few minutes he will put himself out. Why can he do this at 3AM and not any other time???!?

I'm also having issues with bedtime "times". Since he naps for 30 minutes - I am having a difficult time with not putting him down for naps after 5 or 5:30. I have tried to get him to go to bed around 7-7:30 but it goes horribly. Last night I tried it and it was hours and hours of wake ups and tears. It seems he does best with a 8 - 8:30 bedtime but he usually pitches a fit if I try to put him down for a nap between 6-8.

I am totally lost in this baby thing and I feel like I'm creating all these bad habits by having him rock to sleep on me now and putting him back to sleep at night with the pacifier and now this middle of the night feeding that wasn't there before!

Do I just ride this out or is there something I can do to help or get him to go to sleep on his own again? And does anybody else suffer with 30 minute nappers? When is bedtime and how do you get over the hump so they aren't overtired by bedtime?

Thanks!

 

[shinona]

It's a tricky time and there's so much going on in their wee heads. I say if rocking to sleep, a pacifier and a night feed works then go for it. It's really hard when you've had a good sleeper and you feel like you're going backwards. But it will pass, I promise. For us, it lasted about 6 weeks, maybe a bit more. Then we hit teething, 6 month regression and crawling. Only in the last 3 weeks has his night sleep started to be massively better and his day naps are lengthening too.
Hang in there, I promise it won't last for ever xx

 

[Linnypops]

Its a difficult transition period. What I'd say is - within reason - try not to do something now which you don't want to keep on doing. Night feeds are fine even if he dropped them previously. He's growing rapidly. You can try cluster feeding before bed. Or giving a dream feed approx 3 hours after bedtime. Is he on a feeding schedule in the day? Does he finish all his bottles? With naps I think it is approx1.5 hours from waking up to going back to sleep again is about average sleep need for his age. Do you use white noise? You can get an app for your phone or iPad to play it. Helps them relax and sleep deeper. What I used to do was about 1:15 after mine woke I would swaddle, put on white noise nearby, and rock for a while till she was v sleepy then lay her down and rub her tummy and make shhing noises. I also went through a phase of giving her a top-up feed before naps to make sure she wasn't waking from huger.

Re:30 min naps. There's a few things you could try but seriously don't drive yourself crazy with trying stuff. Look up baby whisperer short naps - you ll find lots of info on trying to extend naps.

Does he like being in a sling r carrier? A lot of babies love it. Mine did. If we really were at a loss I knew I could put her in it and go for a walk and she'd fall asleep right away. A stroller would work the same but is more hassle. You can put him in the sling and carry on doing stuff round the house at that age

Good
Luck!

 

[Button#]

You'll find sleep patterns will change several times throughout the first year or two. The best way I found of dealing with it is to not worry about it and take each night as it comes. My first was a dreadful sleeper and I tried loads of things to try and help him sleep better and the only thing that truly helped was time. You can drive yourself mad trying to figure out the answer.

Do what you need to do to get him to sleep, don't worry about bad habits you can always sort them out later. Also don't worry about using a dummy/pacifier, they reduce the risk of SIDS and he won't need it forever.

During bad patches it will help if you go to bed early so you get as much sleep as possible and let a few things slide housework wise. It will pass and then it will be a new challenge.

 

[Amythyst]

Its impossible to get any rest cause he is waking up constantly now. Last night he was waking up almost every 30 minutes. I tried putting him back in his swing instead of his crib but it didn't seem to help. It was just a little easier to get him to fall back asleep. We have tried everything and have all the "tricks" in his room. He just seems tired ALL THE TIME no matter how much he sleeps cause he is so restless and never gets good blocks of sleep.

 

[Button#]

Have you looked into safe co sleeping? It might see you through the rough patch. I co slept with my DS at that age.