I have a 4.5 month old. At a bit over 3 months, we went through a super unsettled sleep phase where he was up every 30-50 minutes, after a while he settled down and we noticed some definite changes in his sleep plus we helped him learn to settle himself. He’s great at falling asleep and often we just put him in to his cot, stay there to stroke his hair or talk to him for a bit, walk out, and he can fall asleep.
Over the last 10-14 days we’ve had SO many night wakings due to hunger. He would otherwise wake 2-3 times a night for a feed plus a big one in the morning. Now he’s up 5-6 times, often hourly between 2am-6am and then sleep for 2-3 hours from 6am to 8-9am easily and a 10pm-2am stretch at the start of the night. He has a full feed and doesn’t settle if he’s not fed (the longest we’ve tried is 20 mins of settling) even if he’s just eaten an hour before.
Everything I’ve read says that the 4 month sleep regression is over once the baby’s sleep changes to be more mature and independent. We have that and he always goes back to sleep well after feeding (often falls asleep feeding). Is this still the 4 month sleep regression or is it something else? We’ve tried so many different ways of feeding (he’s EBF on demand) including formula top up’s during the day and night and dream feeds but nothing really works.
EDIT: it’s been almost 2 weeks and we figured out he was too hot. I always hears to dress the baby in one extra layer but the MCHN said they adjust to our body temp, so since I sleep with a sheet and my husband with a doona, we swapped the baby into a long sleeved/footed onesie only and he started immediately doing 6-7.5 hours in the first stretch. With the exception of a couple of nights, he’s only woken 1-2 times.
Over the last 10-14 days we’ve had SO many night wakings due to hunger. He would otherwise wake 2-3 times a night for a feed plus a big one in the morning. Now he’s up 5-6 times, often hourly between 2am-6am and then sleep for 2-3 hours from 6am to 8-9am easily and a 10pm-2am stretch at the start of the night. He has a full feed and doesn’t settle if he’s not fed (the longest we’ve tried is 20 mins of settling) even if he’s just eaten an hour before.
Everything I’ve read says that the 4 month sleep regression is over once the baby’s sleep changes to be more mature and independent. We have that and he always goes back to sleep well after feeding (often falls asleep feeding). Is this still the 4 month sleep regression or is it something else? We’ve tried so many different ways of feeding (he’s EBF on demand) including formula top up’s during the day and night and dream feeds but nothing really works.
EDIT: it’s been almost 2 weeks and we figured out he was too hot. I always hears to dress the baby in one extra layer but the MCHN said they adjust to our body temp, so since I sleep with a sheet and my husband with a doona, we swapped the baby into a long sleeved/footed onesie only and he started immediately doing 6-7.5 hours in the first stretch. With the exception of a couple of nights, he’s only woken 1-2 times.
