Sleeping...or rather not!

[Hmr1717]

My 5mo used to sleep well but the last 4 weeks have been pretty bad. She's waking every 2 hours screaming. I'm lucky if I get 3 hours. I put it down to her cold at first, then she had another cold but now she just has habit. I'm trying to be positive about it but I actually think she's getting worse. Tonight, she won't even be put down without crying and I'm trying not to encourage the whole sleeping with me thing.

Dh has slept in spare room tonight as a open invitation to take her in with me if she's upset again.

I away from 'she's only 5mo, do what works best, just co sleep until this phase passes' to 'this isn't a phase, just encouraging bad habits of her waking and wanting me near, this is the start of the slippery slope to never getting a good nights sleep again'

Thoughts???!?

It sounds like the 4 month sleep regression. There are quite a few threads in the sleep section. But basically they tell you what you know - baby hit 4 months and sleep went tits up.

Sorry it's crap.

It will even itself out and improve. Some people report getting back to pre 4 month sleep habits, others that it does create more long term mess up.

For my baby the trouble was feeding to sleep. We had to go through a few nights of not giving her the 'reward' (as the Millpond book would put it) of feeding back to sleep. Eventually, within a week, she stopped waking so much.

That said, i'm sure you can tell from the time of this post that we haven't exactly nailed it yet!

The other thing is do gradual withdrawal. Very slow changes. It took me about 3 weeks to go from walking round holding until she was asleep to her falling asleep in the cot with just a hand on her. Think it kind of depends on how much crying you can stand.

So, stop bringing her into bed, i think it will start to be habit, it's nice and if you're BF then boob on tap is always nice for babies!

Stop walking round. Slow the pace gradually until you are standing rocking. Then slow the rocking until you are still. Then gradually put her in her cot. If your back is up to it the full in cot body hug can help transition with less crying. Then very gradually over a few nights make the hug just a bit less full on until it is a hand on her.

Then just as you think you've nailed it she'll start to turn over to her front and wake herself up all the time. But hopefully that was just my DD and yours will be less infuriating!

Take care. It's bloody tough but does get easier. I was on one a night wakings from about 5 months. Mostly......

4 month sleep regression. It's a killer.
Eat cake, doing nothing but rest when you can, and remember that this too shall pass.
I've so far found the 4 month and the 18 month sleep regressions to be the worst... just to give you something to look forward to.

Damn right it's a killer!!
So last night, after midnight she woke 01:30, 02:30, 05:00 (at which time I'm normally weak and bring her in bed with me , but I stayed strong ladies! She's still in her cotbed, and still asleep ).

.... Oh, nope, she's just woken...

Does she have a dummy? I know not everyone wants to use them but I find them a lifesaver at night. Dd doesn't need it to get to sleep or during the day, but when she wakes at 4 or 5am I give it to her, she has a few sucks and is out again. Admittedly I can be up and down replacing dummy in her mouth several times before morning, but it's better than her crying and not settling. She is 4 months too. Not long till your dd can start weaning and that may help, take heart!

Your night was better than ours, and I had to go to work today But on the whole dd is a bit better these days, so the odd bad night is more copeable.

For her 4 month sleep regression she would only sleep for 20 minutes at a time, with 40 minutes to get her back to sleep again each time. I have absolutely no idea how I remained cheerful. It got that bad that me and DH once cheered because we'd managed a whole hour!!!

If you aren't used to the waking though, any amount of wake-ups are hard going. It is awful. Much sympathy... you'll be through it soon