Help! Think 4 month sleep regression has kicked in!

[RedRose27]

DD will be 17 weeks n Wednesday. Last 3 nights have been awful. Usually she would wake between 12 and 3, have a feed, go straight back to sleep. If she woke again, DH would give her a cuddle, put her down, she would get herself back to sleep.

We always assumed she could self soothe as she sucks her hands, and we could hear her in the night. And she has slept from 6:30 to 3am before.

Last few nights, she's woken at 10/10:30pm, then 2am, then 4am, then 5am. Last night she woke every 40 mins from 2:30 until we finally got up at 6:20. In desperation I rocked her to sleep at 5:30 and sat with her in my arms until she was in a deep sleep.

Is this the regression?

Her daytime sleep has also been awful since Friday. On Sat she was awake for 5 hours straight!! Also, the clocks have just changed, and we moved her cot out of our bedroom on Saturday so I don't know if it's that!

We have always had to rock her to sleep for daytime naps (occasionally she falls asleep on boob or in pram) but she's always been great at settling herself at night.

Now I'm worried she doesn't know how to get herself to sleep at all and I don't know where to start! She's over 16 pounds and rocking her in the day is bad enough, I can't do it at nigt too.
I'm worried we're going to have to do some sort of CIO method to resolve this.

Does anyone have a similar experience?

Yes, it lasted until last month (when dd turned 1 and started walking)
You can't do CIO with a 16 week old, no way. It does sound like the regression and you just need to wait it out and help your baby to sleep, are you co sleeping? It does help.
Sorry you're having a tough time

Thanks Cake. How did you last until a year!?!? No, we've never co slept.

Are you feeding her when she wakes?

I can't really help as we had this to 1 with DD1 and then Dd2 woke every two hours to nearly 2. Sorry.

Having exactly same! :(

DD is 18 weeks on Thurs and has been unsettled for 2 weeks....it all started when she started sleeping 12hours straight (amazing right??) but she struggled to nap since, it feels like she is having so much lovely night time sleep she simply doesn't want to sleep in the day BUT I KNOW SHE'S TIRED!
She gets dark rings under eyes and rubs her face and yawns and as hard as i try she screams before finally sleeping for 45mins. And now, after 2 weeks of this, the night times are starting to go to pot too...wakes at 3, 4-5, and up at 6. I feel so bad for her as she obviously enjoys her sleep but its like she's forgotten how to fall asleep (she's always been good at self-settling from 2.5months). Im afraid we're just going right back to square one and observing natural sleep times (any way we can get her to go, rocking etc.) and once we've observed her new pattern we'll work on getting her to self-settle before she gets so tired. They all have a knock on affect so trying to get the night back to where it was and then revise naps accordingly. And bloody clock change has messed things right up too!!!

Check on Baby Sleep Site as they have a great article on the 4month sleep regression (exactly what is happening and why)...i'm afraid to say they suggest it can last indefinitely until they learn to fall asleep efficiently - like lady said above, think this can be until they are old enough to understand (like 1yo?!) Yikes.

Best of luck.

closer to two years old for Dd2 ktj. Now I have had no.3 and back to square one!

The idea behind the 4 mo sleep regression is that they don't know how to fall asleep so at every sleep cycle they need to go through the same process that they did the first time so either rocking or feeding.

She doesn't sound as though she's on the extreme end of things but you could try shush pat. See here: www.mybabysleepguide.com/2009/01/shhpat.html

Also try to avoid over tiredness by keeping track of her awake time and naps. See Here www.mybabysleepguide.com/2013/02/average-sleep-charts-by-age.html

I do think that they tend to wake up a bit more at 4 months old. They don't just eat/sleep/eat/sleep any more but want to see what's going on in the world. Teeth are also starting to make themselves known too.

It is all about survival really but trying not to get into any negative sleep props in the process, if at all possible.

DS was just a bit of a shocker, he didn't really regress but that was probably down to not being able to regress any further tad dramatic

I hope this passes quickly!

My dd was shaping up to sleep through at around 9 or 10 weeks...how smug (internally) was I ! And then we had the 12 week jabs and it all went pear shaped and never recovered. Until this week, age 14 MONTHS when I have night weaned. Infact fully weaned. So I feel your pain. But I am in awe of Penguins!!

Don't be. You adjust.

Sorry. That sounded really blunt. I just meant that plenty of parents cope with a lot worse. They are happy and healthy and, once they got sleeping, both big ones were good sleepers.

Bumping for any other advice...

Update: DD now 18 weeks, sleep still hellish. Last night we were up at: 8:30 (rocked back to sleep), 9:45 (fed back to sleep), 12:30 (cuddled back to sleep), 2:30 (fed back to sleep), 4 (cuddled and left with white noise), 5 and we gave up. Have just rocked her to sleep again and am sitting with her in my arms.

I've read up on the regression and articles say just ride it out and do whatever you can to get your baby to sleep. But as her sleep is changing, if we keep helping her to get back to sleep, how will she ever learn to do it herself?? I tried some shush pat, has worked at times but at others just seems to wind her up. Have let her cry a little (with me right there holding her hand) and she just gets worked up. Books say under 6 months is too little to sleep train.

Does this mean we can't expect to sleep again til after Christmas?! It's worse than when she was a newborn.

I think we are in the midst of the 4month sleep regression. DS is 18weeks and for the last couple of weeks his sleeping is getting worse.
He's slept through a few times bit no pattern. He seemed to get in to sleeping about 9pm, waking between 1 and 3am for a feed, went atraight down amd then slept until between 6 and 8. If he woke before 7 he would come in our bed and sleep another hour.
We have tried to make bed time a bit earlier as it waa creeping to 10pm, 10.30pm. So now he feeds at 8pm, sleep by 8.30 normally and cot by 9. Then he wakes at midnight for dummy, 1am for feed, wont go back to sleep until sometimes 2/2.30/3am. Then wakes at 5 and somwtimes settles with dummy sometimes I bring him to our bed and he sleeps.
I know some have it worse but im exhausted.
Anyone that says FF babies sleep better are liars. Not thats why I FF, its a PITA