16 week old forgotten how to sleep overnight?!

[Cocoben]

DD has always been a good sleeper, she has been sleeping approx 8:30pm -7:30am with a feed at 11:30pm for the last 6+ weeks. Daytime naps are usually only contact naps but will occasionally do 30 minutes in her crib. She’s 16 weeks today.

The last week her naps have become a bit more of a struggle, then this morning she randomly woke up at 4:50am no and refused to go back to sleep until she had a bottle. Tonight she’s got herself absolutely hysterical about going in her cot and her be ended up holding her to sleep because she’s now cried to the point of getting over tired. Once she fell asleep I moved ever so slightly to put her in her crib and she’s hysterically cried again.

I know the 4 month sleep regression is a thing but does it really just happen over night and is there something I should be doing to help her/stop creating bad habits that may continue?

[Themostwonderfultimeoftheyear]

Yes it can come on that quickly and it can be brutal. We tried absolutely everything but nothing worked. You just have to ride it out and remember that everything is a phase and will pass.

[Themostwonderfultimeoftheyear]

Perhaps just check she isn't teething?

[FTEngineerM]

Erm, yeah, that’s the regression by the sounds of it.

[ElspethFlashman]

Yes it happens quickly.

No there's nothing you can do.

Trust me, there's really nothing at all you can do. There's really no such thing as bad habits at that age, they have the memory of a goldfish and there are several more sleep phases to come yet. Teething, the 2 year sleep regression, toddler tantrums etc.

You can't break your heart over every one, you'll wear yourself out. You just have to accept its a roller-coaster and you may have to put a mattress on the floor beside the cot at some point. It's happened to the best of us! It's not permanent!

So be nice to yourself. If you have to lash the cot to the side of your bed so you can slide her over seamlessly, then do so. Remember it's all a phase.

[Skyla01]

Sorry @Cocoben sounds like sleep regression. As others have said it's a phase. My LO is 19 weeks and sleep has been dodgy for a few weeks. No two nights are the same. The main changes have been difficulty getting her down at night, more frequent night waking, and waking up approx 4am- she'll go back to sleep but takes a lot of work!

I've just been trying to get her as much sleep as possible, including catching up in the daytime if required. Trial and error to see what works overnight but I'm making a bit of progress. Decided not to worry about bad habits / sleep training at this point. Plan to wait until nearer six months and see how things are by then- hopefully a lot better! Fingers crossed just a few weeks of this to ride out for us both.

[FATEdestiny]

Try feeding her more frequently throughout the day. There is a huge, significant acceleration in calorific need at this age.

If you don't keep up with this in the daytime you'll see a reimergence of night feeds.

[SoapboxFox]

Is the room dark enough? I've been waking up at about 5am a lot recently. I don't feel refreshed so I think it's because it gets light so early.