4 month sleep regression.. how long???

[madmandy000]

hey everyone, my little one seems to be going through the 4 month sleep regression + teething, and it’s been rough.

whenever she has to go to sleep it’s a huge battle of hysterical crying. after bouncing her for ages and her falling asleep, I wait a bit then put her down gently but she just wakes up.

I’ve tried letting her skip naps, eventually she just gets cranky and we end up in the same situation. i feel like i spend most of my day and night trying to get her down for sleep.

I know it’s not her fault but i’m finding myself getting angry and annoyed so often now. It may sound silly but I’ve recently even found myself embarrassed around people when she does her hysterical cry when tired.

when does this end? Im so over this phase I don’t know how much longer I can take

Sorry to hear you’re going through it. It’s so so rough. I would say most phases good or bad, will shift within 6 weeks. Nothing for me lasted longer than 6 weeks. And then you’ll be into the next phase. Often it was shorter. If she’s waking up when you put her down then just hold her for her napsx just do whatever it takes to have an easy life. Just give in to it all, as hard as it is and as frustuating as it is to basically do nothing but baby care all day, you’ll be better off with resting too.

if you’ve got a carrier then strap her in and get out for a walk, it’s almost a guaranteed way to get my baby to sleep. Still is and he’s 15 months.

And rhe anger is totally normal. You’re in fight or flight mode everyday, and exhausted, and your self care is probably zero.Please don’t worry about those flashes of anger, but try to cut corners where you can. Sleep with her, get her to nap on the go. Later nap / bedtimes…. Whatever it takes. You’ll get through it I promise. Early years parenting is just shit sometimes x

Personally, we sleep trained at 5.5 months for this reason. Rocking, cuddling, nursing to sleep, cosleeping, nothing was working anymore. We got to a point where getting him to sleep took 1.5 hours of rocking and bouncing. Same for naps. My back properly gave in one day and I had to put him down. Kept patting him and checking in on him and he fell asleep in 25 minutes. Never looked back, he cried 10 minutes on night number 2. Never cried again. I still breastfed through the night but by learning to sleep himself, he only woke up twice a night to feed. He dropped the first night feed by 8 months. Still wakes up once a night now at 10 months. Except for teething, when obviously lots of cuddles are needed.

I know everyone says sleep training is cruel but personally, we were overestimulating him with all the rocking etc. He actually babbles and coos when I put him down sometimes.

I will say, friends who waited past 6 months to sleep train had a much harder time.