Anyone else's LO go a bit 'wonky' around 14 weeks?

[matana]

I have the easiest baby in the world but recently (over the last week i suppose) he's become more irritable during the day, overtired by early evening, refuses to nap for longer than 45 mins at a time during the day and has now stopped accepting a bottle of expressed from his dad, having been happy to do so previously.

I am really hoping this is just a phase and not a complete personality transplant. Anyone with any words of reassurance, advice or experience?

With both my DDs 3.5 months was a really really tricky time. I have met lots of people who have had the same experience and I think it is a developmental thing. My DD1 also stopped taking a bottle at this point.

Same here. DD2 was sleeping through, and for the past two weeks has been waking twice in the night, having only done so once pretty much since birth.

It's to do with the 4 month regression I think... search the archives here, there's loads on it.

4month growth spurt and sleep regression and Wildwood say's search the archines and you'll find loads on it.

Definitely to do with the 4 month sleep regression - it's caused by the developmental spurt at around 19 weeks (from their due date) & should calm down after that.

You can read all about it in The Wonder Weeks (as well as the other developmental spurts up to a year and a bit).

There's sleep info on it here, here, here and here.

The 45 min thing is really annoying though - DS did this from around 14 weeks to sometime around 5 months IIRC. He was a pretty good napper after that till he got to 7 months, when he became a really good napper. :)

His night time sleep is still pretty good though, and he's not feeding more often which i would normally associate with a growth spurt. In fact last night he went from midnight till 6am

I guess i can just about cope with his rubbish napping (it could be worse, he self settles and at least he does nap - just in short bursts!) He won't sleep properly if we go out anywhere, which is pretty annoying, he just cat naps, whereas he always used to be relied upon to nap anywhere, any time, any how!

It's also his temperament that's changed and the fact that for some reason known only to him he won't take a bottle from his poor daddy any more! Is this also do to with regression?

Well, you're lucky. Developmental spurts can affect behaviour / mood / sleep / milk feeds / (once weaned) solid meals - any combination of them.

The spurts are to do with advances in brain development, and may or may not happen at the same time as growth spurts.

Dunno about the bottle thing as we never really bothered with a bottle for DS as only I could get him to sleep, but I'd guess the temperament thing is down to the developmental stuff. DS (now 14 months) has always been a pretty easy baby apart from the sleeping issue, but he's a lot less fun to be with when he's working on a developmental spurt.

You're lucky he napped out & about so well before - DS didn't reliably nap anywhere other than at home till he was about 11 months.

Sorry, I meant in the first instance that you're lucky about the good sleep at night. I'm sorry my post sounded a bit .

No problem AngelDog - i do know i'm lucky and i suppose if all i have to do is endure DS getting a bit mardy around these times then i've escaped really lightly! I've been well and truly spoilt with such an easy first baby - i was just worried his personality had somehow changed permanently!

I hate seeing him unhappy and worry i'm doing wrong by him when he's grumpy.

Ahhh, the four month regression, I remember it well! Good luck, it'll end soon

There'll be plenty more times it happens (probably) - there are spurts at 26 weeks (6 months), 27 weeks (8/9 months), 45 weeks (10/11 months), 55 weeks (13 months) and more after that I can't remember as we've not got to them yet.

I do find that some of the phases affect DS more than others though, and some just affect sleep, some feeding etc - it keeps me on my toes.