HELP! 4 months & Sleep questions?

Our girls are 4 months old and they have been sleeping well until recently. We are now putting them to bed swaddled at 7pm. They usually go to bed with not much problem. They might cry a little but within 10 to 15 minutes they are asleep. Now they have started wakening in the middle of the night. Seems like every hour on the hour until we go to their room and put there pacifier back in and it seems to calm them down for about another hour. Does anyone have any suggestions? Should we stop swaddeling them? Or let one hand out so they can get there hand to their mouth? We also have music playing softly so there is some noise when they wake up. We are at the end of our ropes and all suggestions would be appreciated. I have got a book to read but have not had the time to read the entire thing yet.

 

Are they hungry? You might want to try ditching the swaddle and see if it helps. Try the sleep sacks Otherwise take it as an opportunity to ditch the paci so you aren't running everytime it falls out...we did that with my daughter and finally took it away from her at 6months, it was exhausting!

 

I think I might have written this same post almost a year and a half ago! Pacifiers and swaddles too... We dropped everything all at the same time... My philosophy was that if I was going to CIO, then I was only gonna do the process once.. Not CIO without pacifiers (we were getting up about25 times per night to replace them!) then CIO again without swaddles, etc... So we dropped everything at the same time... My LO learned to suck her thumb and and flip to her belly.. Once she learned to do this she slept great... Her sis figured out how to comfort herself by putting her hands behind her head and sucking on her bottom lip..... Now.. My ds is a different story... He is really backwards with his sleep schedule at night.. But when we dropped the swaddling we gave him a bear lovey and he sucks on that.. Really gross but he sleeps well with it...

 

Well we took their arms out of the sleep sack and they been crying for 45min. We have went in there every 15min we calm then but as soon as we leave they start crying again. Will they cry thereself to sleep? I don't know what to do

 

No worries.. Stick to your guns sister! I know it's hard but the more consistent you are the better this will go for them and the shorter amount of time it will take overall.... Pay attention to sleepy cues tomorrow for naps and put them to bed early tomorrow... My dh and I have a motto... Short term pain for long term gain! I know it's incredibly hard but they will be fine! Have you read healthy sleep habits happy child? We followed that to the letter and our girls are almost two and they sleep 12-13 hours per night and consistently take 1.5 to 2 hour naps every afternoon.. You are doing great! Keep up the good work! It might take a few nights but if you are persistent and vigilant about them getting caught up on sleep you will have some good sleepers here very soon!

 

Any chance they are starting teething? That always messed up sleep big time for my boys.

 

At 4 months I wouldn't be comfortable doing a full CIO, I saved that for closer to 6 months. For my DD we cut swaddling first and then the pacifier with CIO at 6 months.
I would make sure it isn't a growth spurt, teething or sickness first. Good luck! I don't miss those sleepless nights at all!

 

At 4 months I wouldn't be comfortable doing a full CIO, I saved that for closer to 6 months. For my DD we cut swaddling first and then the pacifier with CIO at 6 months.
I would make sure it isn't a growth spurt, teething or sickness first. Good luck! I don't miss those sleepless nights at all!

 

Good point...I started noticing a big change in my twins sleeping pattern when they began teething.

 

I dont think they are teeting yet and they are not hungery. Last night they woke once for about an hour but after re wrapping in the sleep sack and standing there for 10 minutes they went back to sleep.I have a few questions for everyone. to give you a little bit of background the girls have acid reflex. Dr suggest we prop the back of the crip up at 30 degree angle which we did and it helped. she suggest we do this until they are 6 months old. Becuase of the bed being proped up they would roll to the bottom of the crib to stop this we got the wedges and now they sleep with sleep sacks in between the wedge to keep them from rolling to the bottom of the crib.here are my questions.

* What age would you let them Cry it out?
* When and how would you take them out of the sleep sack?
* When would you lower the bed and take the wedges out?
* When would you move them to there own crib?
* When would you take paci away so you are not putting it back in 50 times a night?

Thanks for all the input

 

Hi,

My kids didn't have acid reflux so I can't advise you on that or the wedges. My kids only slept together until 3 weeks, then we separated them and they started to sleep better when they were each in their own crib, they still share a room. My kids are almost 17 months and they still sleep in sleep sacks, they really don't keep a blanket on for too long and they move non stop during their sleep so at least we know they are not cold with the sleep sack, plus it also prevents them from trying to jump out of the crib . We still use the pacis, and they are great at times. We only need to replace them once a night at most.

Good luck, it does get better!

 

1. I was ok with it for my boys at 10 months, but even then it was only for falling asleep when I first out them down. I would not at all be comfortable with it at 4 months.

2. They make slee sacks for toddlers, so I guess I would not worry too much about it. We never used them though.

3. No refux here, so no advice with that.

4. You might try moving them to their own space and see if that helps. We moved our boys to their one PNP's at 3ish weeks, but I know others have had success at keeping them together longer.

5. At 4 months, I am not sure what I'd do. I'm sorry!

 

I started graduated CIO at 4 months and it worked for my LO's. (Leaving the intervals of going in to settle them, a little longer each time) - the most important this is to be consistent and realise that you will need to do the same thing every time for several days before it will fall into place. But I must say, that there are some good weeks and some bad weeks, teething has been an issue as has Sierra's "wind" problem which is related to her TOF surgery - some nights it takes me 2 hours to wind her from about 10pm to 12am!
We also put them in their own cribs and sharing a room at about 8 weeks with no issues.
We stopped swaddling them at about 10 weeks as it was very hot and we didn't have a choice, we have some lovely sleep sacks now which are made of muslin and I love them!.
For stopping swaddling, I know that it took a couple of days before they got used to, so please persevere and know that it's good for the long term.
We don't do pacis but if I was in your situation, I would definitely take them away, yes... I read somewhere that 4 months is a good time to do this... as one PP said, do all of it in one go, because it will take a few days of unsettledness, so may as well make it the one time, and not one for each thing you are taking away.
With lowering the bed, I asked the pedi if this would help Sierra and he said I could try it but it doesn't really make that much of a difference.. I say lower it down... you can always put it back if reflux becomes an issue again, but personally I wouldn't feel comfortable in that they are rolling towards the end of the bed, especially as mine move around their crib a lot.

Anyway that's just my opinion... HTH in some way... You will find something that works for you, I'm sure

 

At exactly 4 months (to the day) I unswaddled Sebi, cold turkey. I put him down WITH a pacifier but I do not rebink him. If it falls out, (which it does after 10 seconds), then he's out of luck. I don't re bink.

He started doing 12.5 hours straight on his EXACT 4 month due date so I am blessed there. He woke up two nights in a row, in the night and I fed him. He's teething so he's not eating well during the day.

CIO is fine at 4 months. *my opinion and what I've read*. They ARE able to self soothe. Sebastian kicks butt at it!

So, I would unswaddle and unbink at same time. GL! This too shall pass!!

 

While I agree you can drop the paci, change the bed and let them fuss a bit for me we started with 5 min intervals, I personally think 4 months is early for full blown CIO and expecting them to sleep 8 hours. ESP if they are nursing. I'd wait for that until they are a little older, personally, and if you suspect they are crying he to reflux or other pain I wouldn't let do much with the fussing, either. I don't like to leave babies in pain crying alone.


Why do you want to drop the sleep sack? They're a great way to keep little ones warm without blankets. We used ours well over 1 yo.

 

About the reflux, we actually got the twins fitted for the pediatric wedges where they are upright and strapped into these huge foam wedges. It was like a car seat but better b/c car seat sleeping is apparently the worst for reflux. Anyway, you might want to look into it b/c my girls slept so soundly in those things- it really helped!