Sleep Regression... HELP PLEASE!!

sarafoley98

My 4-month-old son was doing great on sleep until about 2 weeks ago. We have him on a pretty good schedule. We put him down for the night between 7:30 and 8. Until recently, he slept from then until about 5 a.m., when he would wake up and fuss/cry. One of us would go in his room and give him a pacifier/pat his tummy and he'd go back to sleep until 6:30 0r 7, time for his first feeding of the day.

The recent problem is this: He wakes up SEVERAL times a night. On a good night, it's just once or twice. Even if it's at 2 a.m., no huge complaints there. On a bad night, it's 4-5 times, from about 3 a.m. on every 30-60 minutes. Usually, we go in the room and pat his stomach, give him a pacifier, and he's fast asleep until the next waking. My dr's nurse shamed us for doing this, saying that he was building a habit and we needed to let him cry it out. We lasted 15 minutes, but it just seemed to get worse until we finally went in there and patted his stomach. Last night, however, he was up crying HARD and nothing we did seemed to help stop him for a good hour. I eventually gave him baby tylenol because I thought it must be teething pain. He went to sleep for about 2 hours more after that.

I've read COUNTLESS websites and sleep books, but no one seems to address night waking when it's not for feeding. He has been able to go without a night feeding since he was about 10 weeks old. He's put in his crib awake and puts himself to sleep within a few minutes. We were still swaddling him, but have realized that leaving his arms out doesn't seem to bother him and his sleep patterns continue either way.

LisaLisa1980

Try nursing him first. That usually gets my son back to sleep

Jbunny100

I went through the exact same thing with my son when he hit 4 months.  He would sleep almost 12 hours straight before and once 4 months hit he was up a couple times in the MOTN.  In my case he was just hungry.  As others stated earlier it is normal as I checked with many other moms and heard the same thing.  Now that my DS is 5.5 months he is sleeping 8 hours before waking for a feeding. 

MrsWindyCity

There is a 4 month "wakeful"/sleep regression and a growth spurt at this time. He could be waking up because it's a developmental thing, or it could be because he's hungry. Just because he's STTN without feedings in  the past doesn't mean he's not hungry now. I would feed and/or comfort him if he's upset.

mrsdeanna

From what I learned with DS1, and am currently learning with DS2, when you think you have a sleeping schedule down, they change it up on you. It will be like this for months. They go thru growth spurts, they teeth, they get sick. Lots of stuff is going on in the first year. And yes it does suck! I want my sleep back so bad. But I know I will get back to that point in time.

poppyc8

everything you are describing sounds totally normal.   we have one week where he is going through a growth spurt and I nurse him every 3 hours at night,  then another week where he is teething and needing to be held every 2 hours.  then this week he is sleeping 8 hours straight. just try to follow his lead and see when you pick him up if he is making signs he is hungry or signs he just needs to be held and comforted.