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?!

Sorry, don't know where 'message moment' came from... Ignore the word 'message' in that sentence!

Thanks needsweets! Will have a look

Well, we've done it!

DD went down at 7pm. Didnt start properly crying until 7.10, I went in at 2 minutes, patted and shushed and said night night and left. Then I went in at 4, then 6 and then 8 minutes. Her crying wasnt half as bad as I anticipated. It peaked a few times and I had a wobble, but then she went quiet for a bit, then whimpered, then quiet, so I knew she wasnt distressed, she makes this grunting noise when I know shes tired so I knew thats all it was. Each time I went in I did offer the dummy back for the comfort, but ofcourse as soon as she started crying it fell out anyway so in theory she hasnt used it. At 7.33pm she went quiet, we went up to check on her and she was asleep! 2 minutes later she did wake up and start crying again though, but it wasnt a proper cry, again just a whimper so I didnt go in and was ready to set my timer should the crying escalate, in that time I was debating at how many minutes I should go in? Would it be 8 again, or back to 2? Well, in the couple minutes I spent deciding it she had fallen asleep again!! So shes now sound asleep, granted I feel bloody awful but the crying didnt last for more than 25 minutes. If she wakes before 12 I will repeat the process, but after 12 I will feed her and then repeat. Anytime after her feed I will do it again. Im amazed honestly.. shes never fallen asleep on her own at the beginning of a night, only time will tell if this works, if I see any sort of change over the next few nights ill be so so happy

OH MY GOD MARILOULOU WELL DONE!!

So pleased for you, I'm glad it wasn't as bad as you anticipated. Big 'well done' hugs for you Does she have a comforter? DD definitely needs hers now as I'm encouraging her to self-settle more often. She sucks it and brings it to her face it's so cute. I had to give her my pyjama top earlier as I couldn't find the comforter She's back with it now though. She's self-settled for a nap today and again at bedtime. I put her down awake and shushed her with my hand on her through the cot bars while I sat on the floor out of site. She whinged a bit then off she went! Bloody amazing! I'm so so chuffed and so proud of our little sausage

I really am pleased for you, keep it up you're doing great!! Just keep going and going and going! Hope you enjoy that bottle of wine and that DH is there for you

Thank you!! Sounds like your doing amazing too!! I hope the self settling means less wakings for us both!! Lets hope this is the start of the next chapter for us finally hey? :)

Absolutely! These past 4 nights have felt pretty long. I know cc can take up to 10 nights before you crack it. But as long as we can keep it up we'll get there well done our little girlies!

Well done marilou!!!! This was your first night trying wasn't it?

And hazel, sounds like you have had a good day today too!

Well I held ds to sleep again but he was in his cot fast asleep by 6.30 (because he had pretty much no naps ) no wake ups yet but I know that means nothing as he tricked me with that last night!

Have started my book, sounds the type of thing I was looking for, although I may try the one needsweets suggested too. It takes longer, up to 60 days apparently but I'm hoping it will be worth it

Zombie it's a great start! Hope it continues for you.

wow 60 days is quite some time, whatever works though and suits you all best means a happy family

Well done to you Mariloulou it can't have been easy but you did really well.

Zombie I may join you in the gradual camp if you fancy some company. Have already read NCSS and I think it fits the most with my ideals/philosophy. Granted the dummy removal plan in the book hasn't worked for us so far but am keen to re-read as I don't remember what advice she had on night weaning.

We shall do this penguin! I haven't got to the part where it tells you what to do yet! Am still reading all the intro bits!

Hi Penguin, we're doing NCSS night weaning too!! Well, when we get back to home.

Today brilliant naps, gave 5oz hungry baby formula and she was out like a log......only to wake 20min later giggling

Does anyone else have this? That your baby doesn't cry but just decides it's wakey time? If so how do you handle this?

I have that rp, usually throughout the day naps and most times between 2-4am haven't figures out how to handle it yet apart from siting there rocking him and crying about how I'm so tired

RP my DD wakes at 4 ish chatting for a while wide awake. following the PUPDCD method I leave her until she cries (I'm not going to stand there and rock her until she is tired....She's too heavy!) and then I do PUPD for 20 minutes then if she's still awake or crying after 20 minutes she goes back down regardless and I leave the room for 10 minutes. I did this yesterday and she cried but then I went back after 10 minutes and shushed and patted her bum for about a minute if that (I didn't want to get her out of the cot) then I got back in to bed even though she was awake and she self settled to sleep. It's frustrating though isn't it?!

Well ds is up for the 6th time tonight. Has been up for 30 mins. Just trying to wait for him to sleep. He doesn't look tired.

Amazing improvement! DD slept 7.30-12.15am. Fed her 7oz, back in cot awake, cried 6 minutes and fell asleep til 4.05am. Left her a few minutes, went to settle, put her comforter near her and she fell asleep no crying til 5.15am. Now at this point I got confused as she seemed really awake and I thought she had pood so I was happy for her to get up as she slept great. She hadn't but I changed her anyway, sat had a cuddle and a bit of milk and shes fallen asleep on me!! Ahhh. I need to be persistent with nap time to don't I? Will sheget mmixed messages if I only focus on bed time?

Oh zombie I hope he went back to sleep quickly.

Mariloulou that's great, you must feel so relieved. it should only get better too as the nights go on. Well done for persisting!

5 wake ups here didn't have to leave her crying for 10 mins like the night before but she was up and ready to go at 5.30. The only good thing was that when she did wake crying I just rolled her on to her side ane patted and shushed for 10 seconds then back off she went. Hoping to see fewer wakings if we get to cc

Yes mariloulou you need to stick to nap times too otherwise she'll be confused. Well done for last night

Mariloulou , sounds like the sleep training is going well , well done. When I did the sleep training with my ds Wendy said for nap time during sleep training try for half an hour and if no joy do whatever to get them to sleep. I think it's because sleep training is harder if baby is overtired.
Zombie - sounds like you have had a rough night , hope tonight is better.
My night was pretty much the same as the night before. DD was up frequently but settled back quickly. She woke up at 5 with a fever ( jabs yesterday ) so she is on calpol.
Hope everyone has a good day x

That's great marilou!

And it's good you were able to get dd back to sleep like that hazel.

We had 8 wake ups here, longest one was 40 mins. Having a bad day again today though. Ds is exhausted, I tried to just put him in his beanbag for a nap and he screams so I tried holding him and he was just screaming and squirming have had to put him on his playmay and step in the garden for a few minutes which will only make it worse but I just don't know what to do.

Need to hurry up and read this book.

Zombie - sorry to hear you are having a rough day. Can you rock him in buggy ? Or a drive maybe . I don't drive so I usually rock dd in buggy . Hope you are ok

Zombie - I feel bad for saying this but today I was jealous of hubby going to work ! He gets an entire train journey to himself plus a lunch break ! Ds is hard work today and dd grumpy

I feel like that sycamore ds took 28 mins to calm down and fall asleep. It was about 45 mins before he was asleep enough for me to put him down. He won't sleep in his pushchair but he will sleep if I drive, but I have to drive for quite a while. I have wasted so much petrol doing that

Posting from the laptop as my sodding phone has chosen to go haywire which is really annoying!

Well done on your fab start to sleep training Maryloulou. I hope it continues in that positive vein.

Frustrating about the wakeups Hazel but it sounds like your method is really working in terms of being able to settle DD quickly which is really positive.

Zombie I'm sorry it's so tough for you at the moment. It's hard enough when they wont nap but when you're tired it just feels so much worse. It's so hard when they get in that overtired cycle. Hope you manage to get some better naps in today.

We had a mixed night but I'm feeling a bit more positive about the NCSS having re-read some bits last night. Our best stretch was 19.10 till 23.00 which is the longest we've had for over a month and although I did feed to settle DD at that point I only fed for 4 minutes to calm her and when I took her off there was only a moments protest and then she dropped straight off when I placed her back in her cot. I need to sort out in my head at what point I attempt not feeding at all and then stick to it. 3 more wake-ups and maybe 2 dummy runs but not a bad night at all and we are inching forward. I did feed DD her first fish for tea last night (salmon, tomato, carrot and cheese puree boak) and she had formula before bed too so I wonder whether that helped with the settled first part of the night.

Welcome to the NCSS club RP. Despite my mini meltdown the other night I have realised that actually we are making progress and it hasn't taken 60 days to get there (yet!).

Cross post Zombie. Glad you managed to get DS down. Well done. I am sure that the NCSS will have some wise words to help with naps as well as nighttime sleep. I must confess I naughtily skipped the sleep logs although I do record all sleep anyway I have a good idea of DD's patterns.

Hi all!

Mari good for you! Remind my sleep deprived brain what method you are following?

So DD went down finally before 9pm but then did midnight, 2.30, 4, 5 anf we took her into bed. But!! The first three wake ups we settled her either with only v brief feeds or just rocking so I think those feeds were more habitual than anything. Going to persist with the formula and then try to knock feeds on the head gradually.