Oh My.... So this is the 4 month Growth Spurt.

[APixieInMyMulledWine]

My poor boobs are so sore right now. Can I really keep on with the constant feeding?

My back is killing from rocking him to sleep for 2 hours as he is now refusing to sleep, unlike before, even though he is oh so very tired.

Can that extremely cute smile he gives me make me forgive it all? Of course it can, he's just too damn cute but.....

I need a rest, How long is this expected to last?

Sorry not really a proper thread but just getting my thoughts down.

Zzzzzzzzzz

With DS2 it lasted until weaning at 6 months.

He did sleep though, just wanted feeding much more often, day and night.

Well, he's not quite 15weeks but has been through all his other growth spurts ahead of time.

TheSecondComing Mine won't take a bottle either. I'm knackered. Co-Sleeping helps a little but not much. Dp helps the best he can by getting up with our toddler in the mornings and leaving me in bed.

It is Shit. I feel Shit.

I have a freezer full of EMB that is slowly going to waste.

My toddler is throwing mega tantrums because he can't understand why I won't (can't) get off the sofa to play with him.

We haven't been out in ages, not worth it. We only spend our time sat in cafés or mothercare changing room because he wants feeding all the time.

I need a shower but I'm just too fucking knackered and know he'll wake up the minute I jump in if I do get my ass off the sofa.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that it ends soon and you won't be feeding him like this still in 3 months.

In a couple of weeks I'm gonna get one of the tommee tippee first stage beakers and see if he'll drink EBM out of that. Fingers crossed for me too.

hmmm, ours lasted until 7 months. Just as I was ready to die, it's gone back to 3 wakings/night as opposed to 6/7/8/9

I hope you all have better luck. He is my #2 and I never realised how great a sleeper #1 was until this happened.

Eating more now - seems to be helping

Thesecondcoming have you been persisting with the bottle? We finally managed to get dd to take one. She's taken it twice now, an avent one with the hole made a bit bigger. Took half an hour of her rolling it around her mouth each time before she realised milk came out.

Anymore room in your boat for one more Apixie?

Of course thatwouldbe

4.00am he woke for a feed this morning after not going to sleep until midnight. He fed and woke up bright as a button and I couldn't be assed to stay in bed trying to get him back to sleep.

So we've been sat on the sofa since 5am, he's been constantly feeding since 4am and I just know he will fall asleep just before the toddler wakes up.

Bah.

I am in the same hell. DD is 17 weeks old now & for the past fortnight has been waking every hour / hour and a half at night. And DH gets frustrated with me for being grumpy. She is a total bottle refusnik also. Slowly going nuts with this

i am a bit crap at monitoring developmental stages etc, i can't even remember how many weeks my baby is, but even i have noticed it. i just worked it out, and she is 18 weeks or 4 months. She is wolfing her bottles down and her looks bigger

Sympathies, everyone - it's the 4 month sleep regression - their brains are really busy working on a huge developmental spurt which happens at around 19 weeks.

There is a great book explaining it called The Wonder Weeks by two scientists who researched all the developmental spurts up to 13 months.

They say "Your baby may not settle down well at night now. It may be more difficult to get her to bed in the evenings, or she may lie awake at night. She may want a night feeding again, or she may even demand to be fed several times a night. She may also wake up much earlier in the morning."

They also say: "The fussy period preceding the developmental spurt will often last 5 weeks, although it may be as short as 1 week or as long as 6."

The good news is that is passes on its own ? and isn?t a sign of babies needing to start solids either.

There?s useful information on the sleep regression here, here, here and here.

'i am co-fucking-being-sucked to death'

That sums it up so perfectly. He wants to sleep wih his nipple in his mouth. I have started asking random people if you can actually die from sleep deprivation.

And there's some evidence for an awake 'activity cycle' of 1.5 hours - so once a baby is properly awake, it will often be 90 mins before they get sleepy again. My DS fits this, and he always is wide awake in the middle of the night during sleep regressions/ developmental spurts.

Once I can tell he's not going to go back off straight away, I let him roam around the cot/bed if he's happy, or lie in bed & cuddle him if he's not. Then when the 1.5 hours is almost up I start trying to get him back off. It saves a lot of stress and he usually drops off really quickly.

If I miss the 1.5 hours, he'll often then be up for another 1.5.

Babies who were good sleepers before developmental spurts usually go back to being good sleepers without any help. My DS wasn't that great, but it just sorted itself out without any effort on my part. Not so good sleepers may need some help to sleep better (eg No-Cry Sleep Solution techniques) once the spurt is past. But I've always found the long periods awake in the middle of the night disappear on their own. (DS is 12 months now).

Sorry it's still not working TSC hopefully he'll crack it soon.

Dd2 is 14 weeks so I can feel this period looming like a storm cloud....she is in the 'not such a great sleeper' camp. One day I might have an evening to myself.

agree

i have resorted to ff at bed time, but still woke 12, 2, 5, 7....ugh

even tried baby rice but that backfired as blocked him up

its hard

tsc i think you are at the stage when you can maybe ask gp for baby sleeping pills

my SIL had it so tough with her second, barely any sleep and she got depressed

i wish she had got help from GP

its hard but i see you are really struggling on a few threads

i may take a nytol tonight....

I got told by my dp that maybe I wasn't making enough milk, but then again this is the first time i've asked for help with night wakings. After 5am, I leave him to it and sleep in the spare room. Formula away.....