Do you just have to ride 4 month regression out?

[SleeplessinSW]

DD is 18 weeks. Never been an amazing sleeper but definitely showing signs of going through a regression - waking every 60-90 mins throughout the night for past few nights and only really settling with a feed which I'm not sure she needs (exclusively breastfeeding).

She can self-settle at least sometimes - often goes down in cot for naps in day awake and has various things she does - shaking head from side to side, scratching at cot, lifting legs up and down - which seem to be ways of getting herself to sleep. Room is dark and we have white noise playing constantly. She doesn't often nap beyond 45 mins.

In the night its like she is annoyed herself to be awake but she can't work out how to get back to sleep. Cue crying and getting worked up, and us intervening to try help settle which 9/10 results in a feed.

What else can we do? Do you just have to ride it out and then it stops?!

[SleeplessinSW]

Bump

[minipie]

If it’s just been a few days I would say yes ride it out.

If it keeps on for longer without improvement I would say see if you can get her to self settle at bedtime as well as nap times. It’s great she can do it at nap time already but bedtime is the crucial one I think. It’s not easy though!

It sucks but it won’t be like this forever x

[SleeplessinSW]

Thanks for your reply! She also self settles to a degree at bedtime. We have routine of bath, massage, feed, story and she will often be awake when put down in cot. She has dummy when falling asleep but doesnt always keep it in and can fall asleep without it if not overtiree. But now wakes every 45 minutes 2 or 3 times after, then hourly throughout the night. She seems so overtired and unhappy at the moment :(

[TeddyIsaHe]

Self-settling at 18 weeks is a fallacy, and you’ll turn yourself inside out trying to get her to do it. If bf to sleep works then do it. I promise you there are no adults that still bf to sleep.

I fed Dd to sleep for 18 months and weaned her off and it was fine. A couple of nights of an angry toddler and that’s about it.

What are her naps like in the day? How many/how long etc. I find if they’re overtired they wake so much more at night.

[SleeplessinSW]

She rarely naps for more than 45 mins in the day and I aim for 4 naps a day. Occasionally she will do longer in the pram or on me but it can be hit and miss. She definitely seems overtired as she wakes crying and unhappy more often than not. Even before this she was waking every 2-3 hours a night and I'm feeling totally broken and struggling a lot now after such a long period of poor sleep.

[Sprintfinish]

My DS is 22 weeks and one magical night at 4 months he slept 5 straight hours otherwise the best he manages is 2-2.5 hours. He is also ebf.

No real advice, best I can offer is solidarity and to compare notes. He self settles to sleep with help of Euan the sheep at night, and when waking during the night I feed for 5-10 mins and he's straight back over. Our night is generally made up of 1hr ,2hr, 1hr 45min sleep segments. Although a few weeks ago it was 80 min segments which was tough, but thankfully short lived.

His first nap of the day is usually on his own in his pram in the hall, and he'll self settle so I can do other things. However after that if we're home he'll generally only sleep on me. Not ideal as I also have a 2 year old. He usually naps 35 minutes, sometimes 1hr of I'm really lucky.

I've been waiting so long for his routine to change but no real progress. Will start weaning I'm January, so lots of hope he may sleep longer then 🤞🤞🤞