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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To dread sleep regression?

58 replies

Howlovely · 18/01/2019 14:06

Hi everyone, new member here. I have a 16 week old baby and she has always slept very well. She is now going 8-9 hours over night and I quickly got very used to having decent sleep again! I'm dreading the impending 4 month sleep regression and I just wondered if it is really awful? Do all babies experience it? Did anyone get away with not much disruption to their baby's usual sleep routine? I'd be very grateful for anybody's experiences, brilliant or horrendous! Thank you x

OP posts:
Original poster
Howlovely · 18/01/2019 21:32

Darkstar, congratulations!

OP posts:
YouBoggleMyMind · 18/01/2019 21:37

My DS didn't have it.

Tinyteatime · 18/01/2019 21:47

I don’t believe in sleep regressions, they’re a silly modern parenting fad. Does it come from that wonder weeks thing? The thing there’s no actual evidence for? All babies are different. Mine have always been ok sleepers. Of course babies change all the time. Don’t worry OP.

Nothisispatrick · 18/01/2019 22:55

AFAIK it is a real thing. It’s their sleep pattern changing to periods of light sleep and deep sleep. We don’t notice it as adults as we just roll over and go back to sleep, but babies who don’t know how to self settle will need settling each time, which is why it’s so hard for adults as it can be every two hours or so.

LaPufalina · 19/01/2019 06:52

It's the permanent move to them sleeping in cycles like a PP said. I'm knee deep in it and it's fucking brutal. I'm so sleep-deprived that I had a minor car accident yesterday and have stopped myself driving until things improve. I'm also having minor regular hallucinations.
I didn't notice it if my first DC had it because she was a dreadful sleeper anyway so just didn't get worse!

PerfectPeony · 19/01/2019 06:55

Not going to lie, it’s awful. DD slept 10pm-7am from 7 weeks but got to 3.5 months and started waking up every 1-2 hours. Unfortunately she’s still waking up a lot although it has got better. She’s nearly 7 months now and I can’t see her ever doing 9 hours again Sad

PerfectPeony · 19/01/2019 06:56

Tiny. Every single baby I know has gone through a sleep regression.

Flatwhite32 · 19/01/2019 07:13

@Howlovely my now very nearly 6 month old DD didn't go through it! She still does 6.45-10pm, feed, then back to bed and awake again at 7ish.

Rarotonga · 19/01/2019 07:16

They're all different :) And there are ebbs and flows, teething, injections, snuffles...etc etc etc... You get through it Smile

My almost two year old still hasn't managed a chunk of 7-8 hours all in one go with no intervention!

Desmondo2016 · 19/01/2019 07:19

Some parents need to give a name to everything. Some accept there'll be good times and relapses over the first couple of years. I find it much less stressful to be in the second camp and go with the flow.

FWIW my last baby slept 9 hours at 8 weeks 12 hours from 12 weeks and sailed through til 9 months when we had the most hideous month long period of upset nights for seemingly no bloody reason!

Butteredghost · 19/01/2019 07:19

Don't waste time worrying about it now. My LO hasn't had any sleep regressions and he is 9 months old.

LisaSimpsonsbff · 19/01/2019 07:22

Mine did have a massive sleep regression at four months - and he stopped self-settling to sleep at the same time, so I wouldn't get obsessed with making sure yours does it now, it's not a guarantee! I also remember googling sleep regressions, do all babies have them, etc when I had a three month old who was sleeping well (he's never gone all through the night but at around 14 weeks could do 7pm-4am, feed, then back to sleep until 7am). What a waste of my energy worrying about it when I was actually getting some sleep! What will be will be, I don't think there's any way to guard against it happening if it does - and it'll be a phase. It's awful at the time but it passes.

(she says, while ignoring her own advice and nervously googling eight month sleep regression while looking at her six month old who has only just started doing six hour stretches again...)

PivotPivotPivottt · 19/01/2019 07:25

My daughter is a few months off of 2 and has slept through from 12 weeks. Never had any sleep regressions. Well except from a couple of weeks ago when I had about a week of her waking up at 10pm and not going back to sleep until 4am! But I don't think there's such thing as a 19 month regression Grin

I had never heard of sleep regression with my first and she slept just as good as my youngest.

PivotPivotPivottt · 19/01/2019 07:27

As she's got older though I can no longer put her in bed and leave the room like I used to. I have to stay beside her until she falls asleep which most nights she does straight away but others it can take up to an hour.

donajimena · 19/01/2019 07:34

Its utter bollocks. I see posts on here saying 'just wait until the 4 month regression kicks in' as if its a biological certainty. I don't doubt for one second that sleep habits change but come on!
My first was the world's worst sleeper. The second slept through from 3 weeks and stayed to this day a fantastic sleeper.
Funnily enough I didn't read the wonder weeks.

Eminybob · 19/01/2019 07:41

I’m not dreading the 4 month regression because it would mean that my 8 week old would have improved to have something to regress to! He sleeps like shit (actually last night was not so bad but I’m not getting my hopes up that it was anything more than a one off as he has lulled me into a false sense of security before!)

Original poster
Howlovely · 19/01/2019 07:47

Wow, I'm so sorry for some of you who are really being tested at the moment! I don't envy you at all. It seems that you just get used to a somewhat normal sleeping pattern again only for it to be cruelly snatched away! I'm not familiar with 'Wonder Weeks' but assume it's a book or an app? I shaln't bother looking it up if it's as shit as everyone's saying!

OP posts:
WakeUpFromYourDreamAndScream · 19/01/2019 08:08

Even if she doesn't go through the 4 month sleep regression you won't be safe, she's only weeks old, you've got years of possible horrendous sleep! My DS was a perfect sleeping baby, I was very smug, then he got to aged 2 and bam, he became a screaming, sleeping hating monster! Luckily At aged 6 he sleeps like a teenager now but he really tested us for a year or so with horrendous sleep. I'm now going through it with my DD aged 2! Hoping it doesn't last a year like it did with DS.

Good luck OP! Thanks

Original poster
Howlovely · 19/01/2019 08:32

Oh man! Both her dad and I love sleep so we were thinking (hoping) there was a strong chance she would inherit that from us. Seeing some of my friends go through extreme sleeplessness was a real eye opener and just the thought of it makes me want to weep!

OP posts:
Desmondo2016 · 19/01/2019 08:53

Wonder weeks is an app and book based on studies into the development 'leaps' babies will make in their first year and how crotchety periods of unhappy baby and may upset sleep will coincide with these leaps. I didn't like it and didn't read up on it too much but I DID subscribe and it was annoyingly accurate lol so used to piss me off as I wanted it to be nonsense! If I'd had a bad few days with her I would check the app and guaranteed the calendar feature would show we were in a leap, which in a way helped me accept it and just take it in my stride. We didn't have crotchety periods every leap tho, so I'm glad I didn't read up too much in advance else id have been spending her whole first year fixated on cloudy and sunny periods.

I tell new mums time and time again, just go with the flow. Have minimal expectations and just take each day as it comes.

LisaSimpsonsbff · 19/01/2019 08:53

Both her dad and I love sleep so we were thinking (hoping) there was a strong chance she would inherit that from us

Grin If only the babies who don't sleep only went to the parents who just don't like sleep!

Doublechocolatetiffin · 19/01/2019 09:04

I think unless you are very lucky all babies and children will have a period (or many) of poor sleep. Be it teething, illness, developmental etc, it happens to pretty much all of them but not necessary at 4 or 8 months. No point in worrying about it, just enjoy the fact that currently you are having lots of sleep and deal with the difficulties as and when they arise.

Jakeyboy1 · 19/01/2019 09:32

Mine never got 4 month sleep regression. Don't worry about it. The only things that upset our sleeping patterns were when weaning started and teething.

CecilyP · 19/01/2019 10:46

DS started sleeping through at 8 weeks but this lasted all of 6 weeks but, no, this wasn't the dreaded 3+ months regression but rather that he caught a cold. But it wasn't really anything to dread as I was so much more rested than when he was new born so a quick feed in the night didn't really bother me.

CecilyP · 19/01/2019 10:50

However he did go through this thing at 8 months where he woke up and wanted to play and I dreaded that lasting. My friend's DS the same age went through the same thing - must have been a full moon or something! Thankfully, it didn't last!