4 month sleep regression - some positivity & hope please?!?

[MaisieGreenYellow]

Hi all, my second baby girl is just about to turn 5 months. Sleep has been terrible since she turned 3.5 months. She’s exclusively breastfed, will not take a dummy or bottle.

Before 3.5 months, sleep hadn’t been that bad at all. My bar is very low though as our first daughter is 5 and still wakes up, was a terrible sleeper from day 1, would never be put down, just wanted to feed & sleep all day/night etc.

DD2 slept much better as a newborn, was happy to be put down for naps initially, we got to a point where she was often doing a 4-6 hour stretch the first part of the night (for us it felt like a miracle considering our first born!!) then the second half of the night was always broken with multiple feeds, resettling etc but we were fine with that and accepted she’s new, she still needs us etc.

Then we hit 3.5 months and the four month regression has well and truly hit us like a ton of bricks. We never noticed any regressions with our first because her sleep was just bad consistently 😂

I’m really desperate for some positive, hopeful stories please! We’re on week 6/7 of awful sleep. She wakes every 45-60mins overnight unless we’re chest to chest co sleeping. I feel like we’re doing all we can to maximise our sleep - my husband does the first part of the night etc and I get a nap if and when I can so we’re managing as best we can. I’m just in the phase where it feels like it’s never going to end and because of our experience with our first, I’m feeling like this might just be it now, she’s a bad sleeper like her sister and we’re just in for 5 more years of the same 😩

So if you did experience the four month regression (I know some don’t really notice much difference) how long did it last? Did sleep gradually get better? DID it get better?!

Desperate for some hope to cling on to. Thank you xx

I feel you girl!

My little boy(4.5 months) has been going through the 4 month regression for almost 4 weeks now.

Started with wake ups every 30-120 minutes for a good week or two( felt like a zombie) but this has slowly increased and we’re now on 3-4.5 hour stretches each time. He’s learnt to connect his sleep cycles I think you just have to give it time for baby to figure this out. I’ve worked hard to get him to settle himself to sleep independently(no cry it out)so I think it’s been slightly quicker for us than the average but hang in there as once they start connecting cycles it builds from there.

I can’t comment on the breastfeeding aspect for you as I had to stop at 6 week PP and luckily we’ve had no issues with bottles or dummy’s.

hang in there- hopefully tour little one figures it out soon and you get some rest!

Also just to add we were also getting 5-7 hour stretches prior to the regression and I’ve read that if they previously did long stretches- it’s a really good sign they have the skills to sleep well they just have to figure out the connecting sleep cycles bit. Baby girl should be able to get back to it!

I just wanted to add that I also had a terrible first born sleeper and a second born who slept well in the early days and made me feel like I had lucked out but she did turn out to be an awful sleeper from 4 months as well, she’s 13 months now and still a nightmare. I was not meant to have good sleepers 😩

Until 7 months, then he never slept on blocks again, sorry! I keep telling myself no one ever heard of a teenager that doesn't sleep...