what is sleep regression!! - this could be my salvation

[rainbowrosie]

morning - i am sleep deprived slightly mental with a toddler who sleeps great and who has always been great sleeper apart from colds etc etc

my baby 9mnth boy - is up 3 times - 10pm, 2.30am, 5.45am!

i work, i am exhausted as my husband works nights so i do night shifts with baby and work etc and i am convinced its too do with weaning he often has a poo in nappy in the early morning so convinced he is waking and not settling because of that / digestion - but have no idea as he is also teething, has had a cold and is now in the habit of feeding

we're about to take a holiday from work to dilute his night feeds and address the habit of waking

so what is sleep regression i would love to know what these phases are!!

many thanks

2 big sleep regressions at 4 and 9 months, but also google 'wonder weeks' which is a great site for showing you when your baby is due for a big mental development point which can disrupt sleep.
The term regression just means they get worse for a bit, but it always passes!

You have my sympathy re teething colds and weaning. Can you try making his last meal of the day nice and easy to digest? Nothing wind inducing?

morning jointhedots - thanks will google wonder weeks

its interesting to me as he is not crawling - just standing and not wanting to bend in the middle and even sitting i have to tickle him behind the knees to bend to sit! - i would love him to crawl but hes totally rigid wants to stand - and i think he is frustrated in his movement ..so it could be a developmental phase added into the whirlwind of all other baby stuff like wind, teeth, colds, cough,

he does not take a dummy so he really does need to learn to self soothe i remember toddler always waking approx 2-3.30am ish - but she took dummy and would wake up looking for it - sure its part of the sleep cycle they come into a lighter sleep and need to self soothe to get over this

yes thanks for wind advice i do give protein at lunch and carbs at night - also i am putting wee bit of flax seed oil in breakfast to make his stools softer

looking forward to the holiday of breaking the habit of milk at night - i would much rather be on a beach!! :)

its a great thing nature makes your own babies utterly adorable with a smile at 5.30am!

Not sure I agree with sleep regression as most describe it. Yes, babies go through periods of being unsettled, having growth spurts etc, being ill, but generally if they are in good sleeping/eating routines during the day, then the nighttimes should follow.

A LOT of LOs need to reduce their sleep during the day but some don't do it by themselves. If they are left to sleep a lot during the day, they make up for it by being wakeful at night. Mums then feed them back to sleep thinking they are waking through hunger (most common thing your HV will tell you) and hey presto, you have a baby who then becomes used to night feeds and will eventually have to be weaned off them.

The other thing is that too little daytime sleep can also cause nighttime waking through LO being overtired.

Poor nighttime sleep is generally down to one of a few things: hunger, illness/being in pain, too much/too little daytime sleep, negative sleep associations (and therefore not being able to self soothe if they do wake during the night). If you can figure out what is affecting your LO, you can then start to tackle it.

Sleep regressions are about developmental leaps - usually predictable changes in neural development which happen for all children at roughly the same time (give or take a week or two).

You can read about the 8/9 month one here, here and here.

The best book to explain it is The Wonder Weeks.

Some children aren't affected; for others it affects daytime behaviour / eating etc. Even children with the ideal daytime sleeping/eating routines in the day are affected at nights (some are affected for naps too).

Other factors affect sleep too, such as physical developmental leaps, separation anxiety, illness, teething etc.

I disagree that good sleeping / eating routines in the day = good nights - if that were the case, you wouldn't families where some children were 'good' sleepers and some 'bad' sleepers.