Please HELP! before I lose my mind! (sleep related)

This will be long so please bear with me.

DS will be 4 months tomorrow. From about weeks 7-14 he was sleeping through the night. For the past 3 weeks however he has been waking every 3-4 hours. That alone would not be so bad except that when he wakes up for his bottle at around 4 then he does not want tp go back to sleep! I'm exhausted!!

His naps during the day are OK - he mostly naps in the swing. Sometmes they are 2 hours sometimes they are 20 minutes but overall they are fine. I put him down for the night at 8pm and he goes down easily. He will also go down easily after one of his night bottles. I have tried dream feeds and no dream feeds. To throw a wrench in it - I am also trying to take away the miracle blanket as he can now roll over in it and I fell that is dangerous.

I feel like I am starting to resent him because DD was such a wondeful sleeper.

I would really appreciate any advice. Also I am thinky of getting either "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" or "The No Cry sleep solution" - any recommendations?

Is it too early for CIO?

Thanks for listening

Re: Please HELP! before I lose my mind! (sleep related)

I think 4 months is too early for CIO.

I HIGHLY recommend Healthy Sleep Habits book. It was my bible. I coudlnt believe how much sleep Katie needed, I never could have guessed that on my own. It helped me come up with a good sleep schedule.

if your DC is getting the right amount of sleep during the day, then hopefully he will sleep longer at night.

I have the book right in front of me and from 1month to 4months, during the day, a child should not be awake for more than 2 hours at a time before needing another nap. With my DD she needed another nap after an hour to an hour and a half of being awake. She never made it to 2 hours. I followed this pattern and she was sleeping thruogh the night at 3 months. she also had a 6:30 bedtime.

Good luck!

Re: Please HELP! before I lose my mind! (sleep related)

Having similar issues here - this is the advice from my Ped, so take it with a grain of salt

She explained that, as newborns, many babies sleep soundly and much better becuase they don't experience "sleep cycles" of light and deep sleep yet, but right around the 3/4 month mark, they start having sleep cycles, and will start waking up during the light part of the cycle, which may explain sleep regression in many babies around that age.

I asked when I could safely let her CIO, knowing that she wasn't waking to eat. She said that at 4 months, to expect a good 6 hour stretch and any wakings before then, are safe to let her fuss/cry through. At 6 months, to expect a good 8-10 hour stretch and any wakings before then, are safe to let her fuss/cry through.

Hope that helps!

Re: Please HELP! before I lose my mind! (sleep related)

DS had night waking again around 4 months of age--I think he had a big growth spurt, and after a couple weeks, he was back to normal with his nightime sleep.

I know it's no comfort to you now, but sleep will probably continue to get disrupted off and on for years to come! DS had been sleeping through the night by himself very well for a long time. Now all of a sudden at 2 years, he is afraid to be alone at night and will not sleep until someone comes and sits in his room with him. When they get sick the sleep gets thrown off, and same when they go through growth/developmental spurts.

But IMO, it's never as hard as when they are newborns. It's a temporary glitch, and you deal with it, and generally normal sleep resumes. CIO isn't really recommended until around 6 months, and i would only do it if other sleep training methods have been tried and are not working.

Re: Please HELP! before I lose my mind! (sleep related)

I can totally relate- DS has been waking up every 2 hours. It is driving me crazy especially since he was sleeping through the night.