Angelic four month old suddenly a right grump! Feel like a failure

[GimmeeCaffeine]

Hi all. As the title says, my previously super content, good sleeper, hardly-ever cries four month old has transformed into a cranky little grump almost overnight! She’s almost 18 weeks.

For the past few days she’s whinged pretty much all day. She’ll be happy chatting away to you/playing on her playmat for maybe five/ten minutes before she starts griping again.

She is also not eating or sleeping as much. Previously she would sleep from 10pm - 5am, wake for a feed (she’s formula fed) and then sleep until 8am. Last night she fell asleep at 10:30pm and woke up at 12:30, 3, 4, 5, and 7! I’m exhausted She does still nap during the day but it takes a fair bit of rocking and shushing, and she’s very easily woken by noise/movement. She also doesn’t sleep for longer than 20/30 minutes at a time during the day.

I ALSO suspect she may be teething as her cheeks are quite red today and she’s drooling like a tap!

All of this has resulted in a baby that seems quite unhappy She does still have her sunny, smiley moments, but they’re becoming rarer! She doesn’t scream inconsolably, but she does whinge and grumble a lot.

I’m a FTM and starting to feel like I’m failing. I’m knackered and cranky and feel like my precious baby hates me. And they say babies are supposed to get easier at 3/4 months?! I’ve found the last few days the hardest so far! My partner does help out when he can, but he works full time so it’s just me home most of the week, and I feel bad getting him to help me at night as he has to be up for work at 6am.

Please tell me this is normal and will pass? I miss my super happy, content baby.

Thanks.

Hi,

I just wrote a similar post about our 11 week old, she seems to have got annoyed with everything at the moment lol. Obviously your little one is ahead of ours but just wanted to say we have the same thing here. We’ve discovered today she likes her play gym with less toys, maybe less stimulating? My mum said they have phases, usually before leaps they get grumpy. It will pass for both of us, growing up isn’t easy. Here’s to a good night sleep

This is a phase. You were lucky to have an easy newborn! I had the opposite - he was a nightmare as a newborn but got easier and easier with each month that passed, though still with the occasional rough patch when teething or going through a developmental leap.

An NCT acquaintance of mine was in the same boat as you- an absolute angel as a newborn, just slept all the time and was content all the time. I was sooo jealous! She was a bit judgy and made a few unhelpful comments about the fact that I'd decided to give my boy a dummy from a month old (wasn't going to, but it saved my sanity!). She also gave lots of parenting 'advice' and told me what I should be doing, which made me feel a bit of a failure. Lo and behold, when her son hit or 4 months, he became so grumpy all of a sudden. She even started to use a dummy even though she'd said 'well I prefer to settle B myself rather than use one of those things- I'll never resort to that'. She, like you, was a bit shocked at the change and kept saying 'it's so unlike him'. But the trouble is, the babies change so rapidly that they're only 'like' they are at that particular moment. I mean, I know they all have their own personalities but they go through so much development that you can't expect them to stay the same all the time. My worst fear was that that 'was' my son- that he was just a crying grump. But it passed. And I'm sure he'll be a grump again. And it will pass. Same for your girl:)

Good luck... I know how rubbish it is to have a miserable baby constantly whinging. But it really does blow over (until the next latch anyway!). I like to look at the Wonder Weeks app. Part of me does think it's just a ploy to make money out of desperate parents but it has beeb spookily accurwte for most part - my boy is being an absolute delight at the mo and is right under the sunshine icon on the app!

Oh yes and also, sounds very much like the 4 month sleep regression has hit. Ours passed in 3 days thank God (he was waking every hour) but a friend's daughter's went on for a month, there's just no telling how quickly they'll get through it.