Can you 'bypass' the 4 month sleep regression, or am I just deluding myself?

[JazzieJeff]

Well, can you? Or am I just hoping against something that's inevitable?

[AngelDog]

You can't bypass it, but some babies aren't affected by it. Or they're affected in a different way - eating / behaviour rather than sleep.

[pushmepullyou]

I don't remember it affecting my DD's sleep, but she was ebf and fed like a loon for a couple of weeks around the 17 week mark.

[JoyceBarnaby]

I know lots of people do experience this, but we didn't. DS was waking for a feed 2 or 3 times a night from the start until he was 11mo, so perhaps you can't have a regression if they're not sleeping that well anyway!!

[snowmummy]

DC3 is 3 weeks and I've never heard of it. What is it?

[JazzieJeff]

Well, apparently when babies reach 4 months (ish) they can have a sleep regression. Been reading loads of horror stories on here, but we are 5 months next week and so far... Nothing. So I was just hoping that there were some babies it didn't happen to I'll keep you updated

[Pagwatch]

I never heard of this until I came on mn when my last dc was already 3.

Amazingly, having never heard of it, my dcs never had it.
I am quite pleased I had never heard of it. One less thing to fret about. Pointlessly as it happened.

[mumatron]

i never heard of it until i joined mn too. If my dc went through it i didn't notice.

dd2 is 8 weeks and i'm hoping it bypasses her aswell.

[yama]

Dd was ebf and slept through from 9 weeks.

Ds is almost 7 months old, ebf and so far has woken up most nights. I can cope as long as he goes straight back to sleep after a feed. Well, I say that - some days I don't feel it.

[dietcokeandwine]

JazzieJeff - yes, you can bypass it, if you're lucky!

Both of mine have been fantastic sleepers - slept 7pm-7am with a 10pm dreamfeed from 9 weeks, and did the 12 hour stretch no problems from 6 months when we dropped the dreamfeed.

DS1 had obviously never been on mumsnet so never heard of the 4 month sleep regression and never woke in the night, didn't seem to need more feeds, never got grouchy.

DS2 was clearly a mumsnet fan, did the 4 month regression, was unsettled for a while, and went back to one or two night feeds for about a week before going back to sleeping through.

So I would agree that for some babies it isn't an issue. And for others, they can regress temporarily but settle down again quite quickly once the growth spurt passes.

[exexpat]

I never heard of it when mine were that age, and as far as I remember they were both pretty steady in their sleeping habits from birth to 12 months or so - one woke up every two or three hours most of the time, the other slept for five or six hours at a stretch from birth.

I don't think there is a single thing that all babies do at exactly the same age, is there?

[Abr1de]

I hadn't heard of it.

[RitaMorgan]

Agree with exexpat - nothing will affect all babies exactly the same way. My ds definitely had a sleep regression between 18-22 weeks, but he never had clusterfeeds which seem to be very common.

[AngelDog]

More info on the regression here, here, here and here.

Many people haven't heard of it, as the first main piece of research on developmental spurts (which are what cause sleep regressions) was only done in the 1990s, although there's been more since. And not many HCPs seem to know much about developmental psychology.

There are common regressions at 4 months, 8/9-11 months, 13 months, 18 months, 2.5-3 years, and some points in between. You can read all about it in a great book called The Wonder Weeks.