Four month regression?

[PenguinTheGrey]

DC is 18 weeks & we've been so so lucky. Since about 8 weeks he's gone down for (mostly) all naps & bedtime & after night feed awake. He settles himself mainly by finger sucking, & we've only had to go up to him a handful of times after bedtime.

Until now. Four nights in a row now we've left the room & he's started screaming (literally - way beyond normal crying) & it's taken anywhere from 15-45 mins to calm him & get him to sleep. It's only been at bedtime though - all other times he's gone down fine.

At first I thought maybe teething - yesterday I gave him cal pol as he wouldn't stop screaming even in my arms. But I'm so worried that he's regressing and i hate the thought of bedtime being a scream fest from now on! Because he's never been rocked, cuddled, fed or dummied to sleep, I feel like I don't actually know how to get him back to sleep when he needs it...

Any advice? Could it just be teething? He's been very dribbly & has been chewing his & my fingers near constantly.

If it is the regression, will I just have to resort to any method to get him to sleep, and then try to break the habit later?

All this rod for your own back stuff is bullshit esp before 6 months so don't worry about that. Do whatever you need to. It does sound like it could be teething- check the bottom of his gums? Also baby ibruprofen is a bit more effective.

He did seem to have red bits on his gums near where his incisors will eventually be. But I don't get why he wasn't in that much pain before bedtime... How am I supposed to know when his pain is bad enough to stop him getting to sleep?!

I'm just so worried that if I start rocking him to sleep I'll end up having to rock him 6 times a night when he starts waking at the end of each sleep cycle :-(

Many of the sleep regressions are actually a result of the fact that baby needs extra calories, because of learning many new skills.

Have you tried to feed baby more frequently through the daytime?

Sleep isn't linear. It is not the case that babies sleep better as time goes on. You may feel you have sleep 'sorted' for several weeks/months and then the baby's needs change and this affects sleep. Sometimes these changes are short term, sometimes long term, sometimes sleep patterns are permanently changed.

Realising early that it is not true that just because sleep is good now that it will therefore always be good, will save you a lot of heartache.