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?!

Hello im going to reply to you all later when I go a minute but I just wanted to share how well its gone since last night. RP last night was our first night of cc.
then today she was due a nap, so I thought id give it a go putting her in the cot, well blow me down, she didn't cry, she mumbled abit but went quiet and 4 minutes later she was asleep! She woke 5 mins later, but I left her, she let out 2 cries and again settled herself. Then slept 45 mins completely on her own. Im amazed, this girl never sleeps in the cot let own self settles there too!! I don't know whether its all just a fluke but I really feel like we have turnes a corner. CC isnt distressing her, its actually helping her! Shes very happy today!

Hope you have some success wit NCSS penguin.

Sounds like your doing great marilou! That's been quick progress.

I'm on my knees. I don't know what to do anymore at all. Ds woke around 10 mins after I put him down. Now he's screaming if I hold him and screaming if I don't again.

Mariloulou - that's great , sounds like she is responding well to cc. Sometimes they need the chance to self settle , I rush to my dd in the night as I don't want her to wake ds up but she may possibly settle if I give her the chance.
Zombie - any chance he is teething ? My dd is miserable with teething today and is extra clingy.

I think he's poorly he has been doing poos like play doh, does that mean constipation? He did one then went mad screaming. I gave him some calpol and he settled. I just picked him up after putting him in his pjs and he fell straight to sleep the dog soon changed that though, he barked at something in the garden and woke him up (we have a big dog & a weeny one) but he's just lying there peacefully playing with his muslin.... For now!

Mariloulou wow you have had some amazingly quick and good results. Hope it continues!

Sycamore sorry your DD is suffering with teething, mine is in pain too so was mummy when DD bit her nipple! I hope she, and you, manage to get some rest tonight. Hopefully the calpol should help. I am anticipating a restless night as I can see one of DD's top teeth is ready to break through.

Zombie it could well be slight constipation. My DD had that when she started on solids and she howled every time she did a poo. Giving her a bit of water alongside her food helped to soften everything up. I also gave her prunes, pears and peas which are all good to get the digestive system moving along.

I have been giving him extra water this afternoon to try and help soften it up.

Well he fell asleep as soon as he was in his pjs he's never done that before! I moved him up to his bed. Then my mom came over, she went to look at him and as soon as she peered over the cot, he flipped round onto his back with a huge grin on his face! Luckily he settled back down quite quickly

Have skipped loads of the NCSS book to try and get to the nitty gritty bits. Those who are doing it, can a muslin be a 'lovely' ds usually likes falling asleep holding one. And I just read a bit that says start with the naps? I thought you always start with the night? It's confusing! Think it's just because I'm rushing to get it all in.

Hope everyone has good nights.

Zombie , your poor ds. Maybe try a teaspoon of orange juice ? Hope he is settled now.
Penguin , sorry to hear your dd is also suffering . I can see a bottom tooth ready to pop so I think tonight will be hard ( no change there ha ) She just woke up , took me ages to get her down. I gave her calpol as she was due a dose. Does your dd cry after a bf ? My dd screams . Poor thing . It's been such a hard day , she has been crying most of the day , which is hard on ds. Even my bloody risotto went wrong ! I am having a glass !!

Oh does she say start with naps? I must have ignored missed that bit! The only thing I could maybe guess she means is to try to make sure your baby is actually getting naps as if they are overtired it will be hard to sleep train at night but that is a pure guess!

A muslin can absolutely be a lovey. I think it can be pretty much any object your DC has decided to become attached to as long as it's safe to be in the cot which a muslin would be. Muslins are actually great as loveys as they are so easily replaceable. You can rub it on you as well just before bed for extra comforting mummy scent on it.

Oh sycamore hope it's not too bad tonight. Do they take long to come through once you see them? Or is that a 'how long is a piece of string' question?

Penguin I think it said that, I'm not a reliable source as I'm skim reading it to start with I'm feeling a little bit more positive about it all at the moment now though

DH is taking the first wake-up tonight and sending me to bed without my phone so will see you ladies in the morning! Good luck with your respective strategies everyone.

Zombie , I think they can take a while but with ds I had two very bad nights and they cut through. .. Two wake ups already ! I was going to have a bath but don't want to risk it!

Oh my god. Oh my god.

Ds has woken up.... Once !!!!!! At 4.30 for a feed and gone back to sleep!!! After I spent all night reading that book! Fingers crossed it's not a one off!

Zombie - that's great ! Did you do anything different yesterday ?

dd up about five times

I don't think so sycamore, apart from him only napping apart from a few minutes

Amazing Zombie!!!!!!!! So pleased for you you bloody deserved that night after the week you've been having! Seriously crossing my fingers for you for it to continue.

I had 4 wake-ups and a 6.10 start to the day. Wish the teeth would hurry up and break through already! Hard to do any kind of sleep intervention when teething is involved. Actually it was DD's teeth that started this whole thing she started properly teething just after the 4 month regression hit and I think the 2 combined is what properly derailed her sleep.

Bloody teeth!

Actually yesterday he did eat a bit of breakfast, he's been off his food recently. I wonder if that helped. He won't have any this morning again though am going to as the hv as he gets weighed today. If all else fails I will have to ring his dietitian I think. He won't eat anything.

Penguin does your dd wake in pain during the night ? My dd doesn't seem to be in pain , just grizzly ?

She seems to be in discomfort yes. I can tell because she bit my nipple twice which only happens when she is in pain with her teeth!

Zombie DD went through a few days of refusing most food including things I know she likes, though in her case I put it down to teeth. The advice I received was to keep offering solids but not to worry too much as at 7 months milk is still her primary source of nutrition. Might be worth a chat with the HV though. Am I mis - remembering or is your DS around 7 months too?

Yes penguin 7.5. I would think it was his teeth but gp made it sound like they're ages away! She did say his gums were red and lumpy but at the sides. I thought bottom come through first?

Yes usually bottom middle come through first although sometimes they do come through in a different order. I wasn't really meaning that it could be his teeth just that it happened to be in DD's case but going off solids for a few days at their age can be normal.

How is everyone doing today? Hopefully the lack of posting means that everyone is doing brilliantly and has graduated from the thread

I don't think I will graduate for a while !

Interesting side effect of teething - DD is so much more tired in the day. She usually has a wake time of around 3 hours after first nap but she was rubbing her eyes after less than 2 hours today. Yesterday I don't think I was responsive enough to her tired signs and we struggled with the first two naps but since I realised this she has been so much easier to put down.

Have been working on the NCSS techniques today, repeating key words as she is dropping off and playing the music she has had for naps and bedtime since 2 months old. I started the key words a while ago but stopped for some reason. Hopefully this will help with re-settling without feeding eventually.

Penguin I'm going to give it a go tonight ds has a nap for 2 hours after a very long screaming session this morning. Now he's over tired and won't sleep he's just lying there awake and if I pick him up he screams