4 month regression omfg!

[Fivebyfive2]

Hi all! I was bracing myself for the regression but man was I not prepared for this!

From 12 weeks ds has gone to sleep around 8 (sometimes fed/rocked, other times self settled) woken about 1 or 2 for a feed then self settled back to sleep about 40 mins later, then awake any time from 5 to 7. Since his 4 month jabs last week his sleep has gotten gradually worse.

Tonight we took him up about 7, he fed to sleep by 8 and was awake at 9. After trying all the things like white noise, patting, feeding, rocking he eventually self settled with his sounds about 11.45.

He then woke up at 3.45...and is still awake! We've tried everything, he just will not settle. How is he still awake?!

Please tell me it gets better?? I'm hoping as he slept well before, if we just keep trying things then eventually it will improve again??

We've given up for now, broken our rule of keeping him upstairs with lights low etc and put him in his swing chair. He's still awake, just gurgling away 🤯

He's breastfed and usually sleeps in a snuzpod attached to our bed, if that makes any difference!

It's just a developmental thing unfortunately.

I found this helpful:

www.healthline.com/health/parenting/4-month-sleep-regression

My advice is to take it in turns- one does until midnight while the other sleeps (having gone to bed really early), then the sleeping one wakes and does the rest, until about 5/6 when the first one takes over. Or some variation on the above, try and work it around your respective sleep needs.

I'd have the one on mat leave with less overnight sleep because, as long as you've only got one kid, you can nap when the baby naps in the day.

Yes it's hell, but it will pass (not that people telling me that helped one bit for those weeks) for you x

Thanks @broohaha, I'll have a read! He eventually fell asleep while I cuddled him in my fluffy dressing gown, maybe it reminded him of when he was newborn in the dark winter mornings?! I'm just gonna hold him so at least he sleeps and I'll nap later. At least we've got nowhere to be I suppose!

We used to do shifts, dh did 8 till 1 and then I took over, but we stopped when he started sleeping through more. Dh is on reduced hours which we're actually quite thankful for right now! Will see how it goes over the weekend and may set a new plan in place depending. I was preparing for 'little and often' as that was how he used to be, but it seems to be - longer blocks of being awake and one block of sleep in between ☹️

Omg is it really true?! I am not prepared for this in two weeks time!!!

We suffered every sleep regression terribly - much worse than friends reported with their babies. For me there was nothing I could so just go with the flow! I tried to get a nap in the day and make sure we had some fresh air too.

Go with the flow. It will pass! Unfortunately it isn't the only regression.

Omg is it really true?! I am not prepared for this in two weeks time!!!

Read the link I posted further up. It may not hit exactly at four months (mine hit at about six weeks and I never really got that nice newborn phase where they actually sleep a little- man it was tough! Mine had settled down a bit by four months though, so I didn't struggle as much as the rest of my NCT group when four months rolled around.)

To give you a bit of hope - mine did three weeks or so of the kind of terrible sleep you're talking about, aged 15-18 weeks, having been better (albeit not great) before that.

Then one beautiful night at 18 weeks slept for 8 hours in a row, and has ever since (now 14 months) been a decent sleeper - still goes up and down a bit due to illness/teething/other mysterious reasons, but nothing like the bad old days.

My DS is nearly 5 months and I could write this post ! He used to wake once for a feed and go straight back to sleep now he's waking every hour I am exhausted ! Brought him into bed with me last night at 1 after waking 5 times between 9 and 1 and he slept a bit better in the bed but not sure if this is going to create a bad habit of him not settling in the cot and wanting to be in the bed .... should I keep bringing him into bed so we all get some sleep until this passes or should I just persevere and keep resetting him in the cot even if he wakes 5 mins later !!!???

I co slept through the regression. My daughter was back in the next to me crib after a few weeks once we got through it.

In the same boat! My son who once slept through the night is now up six times on average. Thankfully easy to put down but still exhausting. You have my sympathies.

How is his napping during the day?

Ours just got worse at 5 months :( all I can say is I think it's a phase and we'll get there?