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Original poster

When did the 4 month sleep regression end?

27 replies

Sleepevades · 21/05/2021 21:22

Baby is now 5.5 months old. We’ve had 4 weeks of terrible sleep now - started off waking every 3 hours but now he’s up 1-2 hourly. Takes an hour to settle at bedtime and is often up at 5:30 in the morning.

Absolutely dying from tiredness. When does it get better?! Did it get better for anyone on its own? DC1 was a terrible sleeper and I can’t do it again. This baby started out sleeping brilliantly but it’s all gone to pot and every night seems to get worse.

OP posts:
Tickly · 21/05/2021 21:25

For us with Ds3 it was ages. I reckon he started improving again about 6m, was passable for sleep for a few weeks then it dived again at 8m. It remained hit and miss for another couple of months but was definitely less bad than 4m (so 4/5 hours not 1-3 like at 4m). Just keep working with him and try to have a daytime nap if you can (I may have been found cuddled behind a toddler watching TV having a sneaky nap on more than one occasion).

Tickly · 21/05/2021 21:26

Oh and yes it got better on its own. I just boobed liberally if shush pat didn't work in about 1-2 mins.

StandardLampski · 21/05/2021 21:28

10 months old. Best of luck and every sympathy x

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KnobJockey · 21/05/2021 21:31

About 10 months, sorry. Can count on two hands the good night's we had between the 4 month and 9 month regressions. At 10 months we did a bit of sleep training, worked on getting her naps regular and generally since then she's slept through. I think the apps say 6 months though.

If you haven't already, work on self soothing methods and getting baby in a nap routine. If it doesn't help now, it will really help later.

Original poster
Sleepevades · 21/05/2021 21:31

@StandardLampski did you sleep train at that point?

@Tickly that’s what I’m doing now, so that’s reassuring. The last few nights I’ve tried harder with the shush pat, but not seeing any results yet and the boob is so much more reliable

OP posts:
Golfbuggy76 · 21/05/2021 21:33

Not what you want to hear but it lasted until he was 18 months when he suddenly started sleeping through the night!

Original poster
Sleepevades · 21/05/2021 21:37

I should have probably said that I have a 2.5 year old who still doesn’t sleep through the night (despite sleep training), so I don’t have high expectations. Even 4 hour blocks would count as the regression being over

OP posts:
IslandGirl5 · 21/05/2021 21:44

This was me a few months ago. DD slept fairly well with just a few wakes to breastfeed until 3.5 months then I could have written your post! She’s 9 months now and starting to sleep better more consistently but apart from the odd night here and there that have been good she took until 9 months to improve. I tried own room, shush patting etc and she’s just not a baby for sleep training. I ended up bedsharing at 7 months ish and it saved me. Each wake I would roll her onto the boob and we would both be back to sleep within 10 minutes so it didn’t feel as bad. Unless she was having a night where she thought 3am was play time for 2 hours. But mostly it worked so much better for us all to get more sleep. We still bedshare and most of the time now she only wakes 2 or 3 times and often just shuffles around to resettle herself apart from once for a feed. Good luck! And do what works for you. I felt like I had to sleep train but it wasn’t for us and I’m so glad I stopped pushing it, it felt so unnatural.

Hardbackwriter · 21/05/2021 21:50

When we sleep trained five months later, sorry! His little brother is now 3 months and I'm absolutely dreading the sleep regression starting.

MyPanda · 21/05/2021 21:54

Dd's sleep went to shit at 4 months.. she's 9.5 months now and I still live in hope that one day it will get better 🤞🤞🤞

Tickly · 21/05/2021 22:01

@Sleepevades it is brutal isn't it. Each baby is so different. This one of ours is just determined - there's been no making him do anything. Nudging in the right direction has helped though. My eldest was easily trained and my middle did it for themself. So I guess just keep doing what feels right for your baby. Fingers crossed for you. It's brutal.

Chickenlickeninthepot · 21/05/2021 22:11

Forever! Brief respite at about 6 months then the 8 month one came along and I didn't sleep properly for another 8 months. Still hit and miss at 3yo - I've had 3 X 5am starts this week.

May it pass soon and your coffee stay strong & hot.

Sls668 · 22/05/2021 02:11

My baby is 6 months (and 2 weeks on Tuesday) and the 4 month regression hit us hard (started slightly early at about 14 weeks!) One week my partner was away with work and she literally woke me up every 30-45 minutes through the night, I thought I might die! But, the good news, the past week we have had the best sleep ever, 2 nights she’s gone from around 9-4 which felt like heaven, the other nights she’s had maybe a 1am and 4am waking which, in comparison to hourly, is bliss!
I hope I’m not jinxing myself with this post! I’m dreading 8 months but, at the moment, 2 months of ok sleep sounds great!

Original poster
Sleepevades · 22/05/2021 07:41

Well we’ve had another shocker of a night and these replies aren’t filling me with hope! I was really hoping more people would say they calm down at 6 months. I’ve just seen a Facebook post with someone saying how proud they are of their 6 month old baby sleeping through the night in their own bedroom. Why do people share that on social media? No one cares and it just makes other mums feel so hopeless! That’s a little side rant Grin

OP posts:
miltonj · 22/05/2021 07:47

Yeah, weird when people brag about their kids sleep like it's some kind of achievement! It's mostly out of our control isn't it!?

My baby started sleep regression at about 3.5 months and improved at 6 months. Although last night at 8 months we've had a terrible night but at least she's not waking it every hour now! Good luck and hang in there x

Dozer · 22/05/2021 07:48

Sympathy! I well recall this! DC2 was like yours too.

Went to a bad place with exhaustion with DC1. DH did much more the second time, for both DC.

With DC2 I co slept and fed on demand til age 1, then we did Dr Jay Gordon and withdrew milk overnight, which was 3 hellish nights on a holiday I can barely remember, then really helped, but the early mornings remained for a good while, until DC2 could learn to potter about in room until 7!

DC1 is now a teen, has never been good with bedtime or sleep, night owl (like DH) and will almost ever admit to being tired, so we now try teen rewards and punishments! A difference is they don’t wail/paw at you, just stomp off and sulk in their room (quietly)! Grin

DC2 likes to go to bed when tired, thank god.

Dozer · 22/05/2021 07:50

7am, not bad mornings til DC was 7!

Oh, agree about smug gits on facebook. Luckily mums of my acquaintance with DC who slept well didn’t rub it in!

MaMaD1990 · 22/05/2021 07:51

You have my sympathy OP! My DD was the same and it would take around 6 weeks for it to settle down again. I remember every sleep regression she would have some sort of cold, teething, ear infection etc - so we seemed to have everything in one go which was killer for us all. We would start sleep training after about 6 weeks which worked for us (the super nanny timed controlled crying technique).

Undersnatch · 22/05/2021 07:51

Sorry, same. In DD1 it ended about 2 and DD2 about 10 months with sleep training. I like Lucy Wolfe sleep solution, quite gentle. Feel your pain.

redcandlelight · 22/05/2021 07:53

at 3 years old

kneesbentarmsstretchedrararaaa · 22/05/2021 07:58

7 months for us.

StandardLampski · 22/05/2021 08:26

@Sleepevades I Cant remember... sleep deprivation??

He's 4 now and has been happy in own bed for ages. He doesn't even get jn with me very often jn the morning. I even miss it Wink

We ended up co sleeping often.... I was so against it but realised one day I was going to drop him ( would only sleep when I was holding him sitting up... needed to stop that)

I'm pretty sure I dint do any sleep training but did keep things constant routine each night...I think fairly magically things just improved around 10 months...

Good luck. Its shit . But you will get through it. Albeit with a coffee addiction...

Original poster
Sleepevades · 22/05/2021 20:09

Some slightly more hopeful posts..! Thank you. Co-sleeping saved my life with DC1 but this little one isn’t too great with it. He seems to need patting to sleep rather than feeding to sleep, so the half awake lying down feeds unfortunately don’t happen.

OP posts:
Buttonsandbits · 24/05/2021 12:40

@Sleepevades ours is seven months and his sleep is currently worse than ever. Around five months it got bad with multiple wake ups and back to two feeds from one and we combatted it with cosleeping. Cosleeping stopped providing any benefits as he was still as unsettled and just pawed our faces inbetween so even worse sleep for us than before. I spent last night sleeping on his bedroom floor to try and encourage him to stay in his cot and see if he would actually be less disturbed there but it was equally as bad. My husband got a full night sleep however so for the time being, I’m going to do this mid week and he will give me a break at weekend. I’m hoping it improves soon as it’s bloody exhausting! Does your little one accept a bottle? I formula feed and was frantically making bottles in the night which he wouldn’t even drink or would have a few sips and then draw back which was so annoying so he technically doesn’t feed in the night but just needs constant comforting! I’ve started offering water now if it’s the comfort of the teat he’s after, would this benefit you at all or is still as easy to just offer boob?

Buttonsandbits · 24/05/2021 12:41

@Sleepevadessorry I meant to say cosleeping helped for about a month but sleep was still worse than before

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