4 month sleep regression- oh.my.god.

[hazel88]

So my DD has just hit the 4 month sleep regression hard. It sucks. It really sucks. for a short while she had been doing 6 hour chunks for the first part of the night followed by 1 or 2 wakings after. On the rare occasion she would just wake up once for a feed then that was it. BLISS. She's now waking up more times than I can count and I'm wondering if she'll ever sleep better again. I know about the 4 month sleep regression inside-out but would really appreciate experiences from others who have either gone through it or are going through it. I need some sanity restored...please?!

For teething, we found Ashton and Parsons teething granules great the other night. Double the price of other granules but it seemed to help!! Just sprinkled a sachet on to DD's tounge and that's it. Would definitely recommend.

I have no idea if it even is his teeth any more.

I've lost count of the wake ups now and he's doing it even with his dummy in his mouth

Think I might have to move a bed into his room and sleep in there with him.

Aw Zombie am right there with you. It WILL get better eventually. (I know, I know I'm screaming 'but WHEN??!!!' right along with you). and hugs (Yes mumsnet, HUGS ) for you.

Sorry to read about all the bad nights . I had multiple wake ups again too. She was trying to self settle but got annoyed so she cried for me ( I am right next to her so I hear everything ).
I was really hoping things were going to get better after such a good night but no such luck !

And the pesky dummy came back as I was so tired ....

Bloody crap isn't it!

He woke up so many times I lost count! He woke up at stupid I clock and was wide awake again. I don't know how he's able to function of such little sleep either

Zombie I think the same about my DD, I think 'you must be knackered how do you have so much energy?!'

Sorry to hear about the rubbish nights again

Long post alert!!!

I thought I'd write in some detail as a few people have been asking questions about PUPDCD.

So last night DD was up for 3 hours before she went to sleep...normally it's only 2 hours tops. But we bathed and fed her where she was falling asleep on the bottle. She drained 9oz then I quickly burped her and was able to put her straight down and walk out! She wasn't fast asleep when I put her down either. From bathing her to me walking out of the room it took 20 minutes!!

She then woke 2 hours later and I PUPD after probably about 4 attempts.

2 hours later she woke for a feed and took 7oz, she was fairly easy to put down I think.

Then 2 hours later PUPD after a few attempts.

20 minutes later again PUPD.

An hour and 10 later she woke for a feed and took 7oz, back down easily.

2 hours 10 later at 4.20 she woke just chatting to herself, she seems to think this is the new time to get up! I picked her up to settle her and she was wide awake chatting so I put her down and I laid on the bed. After about 10 mins or so she started fussing so I picked her up and rocked until she was drowsy. Put her down, she cried, picked up and put down then she stayed down, this was at 4.40.

Then 5.10 she woke and was ready to get up, this is her usual time.

So in total she was up 6 times. It's usually 7 times so a slight improvement. But what was great about last night was how quickly she settled. Phase 1 of the PUPDCD method is that they have 20 mins of PUPD to settle before you leave the room regardless of if they're awake, crying etc. The longest she took to settle last night was 15 minutes. For the first night in weeks she didn't come in to our bed, and her period of being wide awake was much shorter.

At 2 am I found myself eating MandM's and sipping coffee!

I've just done it again with her first nap. I don't want to rock her to sleep for naps then not allow it at bedtime as she'll get mixed messages, so I'm sticking with it. She was up 2 hours then I took her up and it took 20 mins to get her to eventually sleep. It was my last attempt before walking out and she did it, she must have known.

You're meant to have quite good success after 3 days, but I think this is probably once you've reached at least phase 2 where you leave them to cry for a few minutes. It never got to this stage last night. I don't know if it will improve the number of wake ups just by phase 1 of PUPD alone- hopefully. If not, after maybe 5 days I'll decrease the PUPD time to 17 minutes and keep reducing until she does wake less.

This is now the method I will always use to put her down as it has been a huge improvement on the time it takes to get her settled, plus she's learning that she can't fall asleep on me so hopefully will wake less over time as she'll think it's pointless.

Apologies about the long post. Fingers crossed for good nap days about round!

Hazel - sounds like you are doing really well. That method didn't work for ds , tried for hours and it just wound him up. I may try with dd though as each baby is different .

Really hope it works for your DD. I think it's about finding what works for your baby and sticking with it.

Come 4.30 this morning I was about to take her in to our bed as I know it was my last chance to get some sleep, then I thought NO I've been up most of the bloody night I'm not giving in now and going back to square one! I think the perseverance is the hardest bit

Hazel - also meant to add the sleep consultant always said to me consistency is the key , you must do it all through the night and naps as well. ( I never did it with ds for naps as I was always out in buggy , this I regret).
I will start sleep training once I know dd is not hungry , she is exclusively breastfed and I really don't know how much milk she takes so I always think she is hungry ( she had good feeds last night ).
Seeing the doctor this morning re reflux , she keeps arching her back and not that happy on play mat anymore. Her meds have been increased .

And she won't take a blinkin bottle !
Hazel don't give in at 4am as you she will realise you are not serious

No I'm so determined now, no giving in!

Sorry to hear about DD's reflux. it's a bugger isn't it? When will you start weaning? DD has now been off ranitidine for about a week. Sounds like a good idea to get the reflux and feeding under control before sleep training. I hope things naturally get better for you before this though!

The peadetrician told be to breastfeed until 6 months ( I really wanted to introduce a bottle of formula for dream feed ) start weaning at five months ( which is when we go to centreparcs so not sure how this will work ) I really hope she is ok with dairy now.
The breastfeeding is hard as she can't wait three hours so I can never get into a routine , just demand feeding . Just thinking of her at the moment an making sure she has enough milk . Hoping to switch to formula at six months .
Keep at it Hazel . It may get worse before it gets better but soon you will both get more sleep and you can really enjoy your beautiful dd

Thankyou, youre giving me hope!

I understand every day must feel like forever at the moment, but 6 months isn't too far away. I'm sure your DD will feel much more satisfied once starting solids and hopefully that will be a real turning point for you if things haven't already resolved themselves

Hopefully , thanks Hazel . I have heard reflux can get worse or better when weaning so I am hoping it will improve .

Not meaning to be negative but try not to expect solids to improve things straight away. We started solids one week before DD turned 6 months and she is 2 days off 7 months now with no improvement in sleep. We haven't introduced much protein yet although she now eats 3 'meals' a day. I think initially with mainly fruit and veg they are not taking in enough extra calories to really satisfy them more than just having their usual milk. Actually we had a period of a few days where sleep was worse as DD had awful wind and night and she woke up absolutely screaming in pain. Luckily her little system seems to have adjusted now. I'm not saying that solids won't improve things eventually, I'm sure they will, it's just that I got my hopes up despite what I'd been told about how quickly things would improve and was then disappointed.

Oh no I didn't mean that, I meant hopefully sycamores DD will feel more satisfied and then she can rule out hunger as a reason for the constant wake ups and little feeds.

Solids haven't improved my DD's sleep either, but they do seem to be helping her reflux. She's become a right little gannet since weaning! She actually cried for more prunes the other day haha

Oh I see. Sorry I must learn to read properly! It's probably at the forefront of my mind as I was REALLY hoping DD would be less hungry and wake less once we started weaning even though everyone told me it's not a magic bullet so I am a little overzealous about it

Haha! I don't know about yours but my LO seems to wake for no apparent reason!

Yep and mine! I have decided that ds will be moving into his own room Sunday I love him being in with me.

Have to go out and but a comfy chair as there's nowhere to sit to feed him in his room. It's going to be so strange not having him next to me. I don't think it will make the slightest bit of difference as he wakes up when he's alone in our room too

Waiting for a call back from dr now.

Hope the doc has something useful to say Zombie.

I don't know what I was expecting but it's left me feeling

She said it is difficult to tell at that age but the only thing they can do is check him over and see if there's something they can give him for night times to 'calm him down' I don't really want to drug my ds up just to sleep. Bleh

Ugh Zombie how frustrating. At least they didn't dismiss you out of hand but not exactly what you were hoping for. Are you going to make an appointment for the doc to check DS out?

I know it's a bit on the 'clutching at straws' side of things but am considering going to an osteopath with DD for cranial osteopathy. Have heard some people get amazing results and although £££ if it gets results I would pay double what most of them charge! I am trained in massage so perhaps slightly more open to this kind of thing although I was gutted that DD really didn't enjoy baby massage - she was the only one who cried at every single class!

Oh penguin if anything works id be willing to pay £££££££ for it!

I have an appointment on Monday. Until then I am going to try the self settling again. Just sat next to the cot. He was tired at 3, if he would of had his last nap then things would be better now I think. I tried everything but nothing would get him to sleep, he was just screaming. I felt like a total failure.

I gave him his dinner then half an hour later he had a full bottle and was falling asleep but then when I put him down he was wide awake. He's lying in his cot now talking loudly to himself and wriggling around have gave him some calpol and sending h to the shops to get teething anything! Just incase that helps

zombie, just regarding toys to in the cot - can your DS move around independently (commando crawl, roll both ways etc)? Because if so, I think it's fine for them to have comforters or stuffed toys in there, provided there aren't too many. Once they can move under their own steam, they won't suffocate, they'd just move away. My DS has several toys in there with him - a couple of Lamaze the to play with when he wakes up and maybe four or five stuffed toys which he chews and sucks when he's falling asleep. I always sneak in before I go to bed and he's invariably lying on his right side with his piggy under his arm! When I go in to him in the morning, usually a couple of his toys have soggy feet or ears so I know he swaps them around in the night. We ditched the dummies when we did his sleep training.